Video of North Korea

[lpetrich]

Watch this incredible, rare video of the streets of North Korea's capital city - Vox

he video is roughly 12 minutes of raw footage he captured on April 18 as he was traveling in a minibus from downtown Pyongyang, the country’s capital, toward the airport. “I shot it openly through the windshield, and nobody told me not to film,” Mäkeläinen told me.

It is, as he puts it in his Finnish-language Facebook post, a “rare delicacy”:

(the inlined video itself)

There is a ton of weird and interesting stuff in the video: the hulking Soviet-style concrete apartment blocks painted in pastel pink and green; the brightly colored propaganda billboards randomly posted on the side of the road; the Three Revolution Exhibition that looks like a cross between Epcot Center and the planet Saturn; and the imposing Tower of Immortality — one of the 3,200 memorial obelisks built around the country after the 1994 death of Kim Il Sung, who was named the country’s “Eternal President.”

But what’s most striking about the video is how, well, normal everything looks.

[Politesse]

But what’s most striking about the video is how, well, normal everything looks.

It generally is so.

[Tubby]

The other day a coworker and I wondered if there are international boundaries on dry land where the side of the street to drive on changes.

[Politesse]

[quote=""Tubby""]The other day a coworker and I wondered if there are international boundaries on dry land where the side of the street to drive on changes.[/quote]

The Tibet-Nepal Friendship Bridge comes to mind; a friend of mine posed for a selfie on the red line marking the point of transition.

[Tubby]

[quote=""Politesse""]
The Tibet-Nepal Friendship Bridge comes to mind; a friend of mine posed for a selfie on the red line marking the point of transition.[/quote]

I'm looking for that on Google Earth.

[Politesse]

I'm looking for that on Google Earth.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Sino- ... 85.9640438

[DMB]

The roads look pretty empty for a capital city.

See this for example:

https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip ... DQ:1:63/gg

[Tubby]

[quote=""Politesse""]https://www.google.com/maps/place/Sino- ... 85.9640438[/quote]

Big gorge, small stream. Very scenic place.

27d 58' 25" N
85d 57' 51" E

[Tubby]

Someone's comment at a yahoo dot com article is along the lines of what I've been thinking---

I would prefer China handle the petty dictator and just annex North Korea into another Chinese land grab. Maybe if they get some more land they will quiet down for a bit about Taiwan. Think of all those grateful North Koreans that would gladly take Chinese Communism over a idiot spoiled tyrant.

[Hermit]

[quote=""Tubby""]Someone's comment at a yahoo dot com article is along the lines of what I've been thinking---

I would prefer China handle the petty dictator and just annex North Korea into another Chinese land grab. Maybe if they get some more land they will quiet down for a bit about Taiwan. Think of all those grateful North Koreans that would gladly take Chinese Communism over a idiot spoiled tyrant.

[/quote]It would decrease the chances of the USA coming to blows with China in the short term, but the latter's desire for expanding will not stop there. Look at what the Chinese government is doing in the South China Sea right now. And it is in the process of building its third aircraft carrier - a tool for expansionism if ever I saw one.

[Tubby]

Mention is made of a gray market economy. The shops look immaculate, but there is a staged feel to them in these pictures.

[Tubby]

Other countries might not be able to knock out NK missiles, but at least they would know from tracking equpment the departure country of the missiles. How long until NK has submarines which can launch missiles with a degree of anonymity?

[Tubby]

[quote=""Tubby""]How long until NK has submarines which can launch missiles with a degree of anonymity?[/quote]

I just saw this, which says NK already has those kind of submarines.

[Tubby]

Some comments here hypothesize (as I did while reading the article) that NK's leader may use a body double.