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Thread: Every Day Life in North Korea

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    IMPress Polly's Avatar Senior Member
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    Every Day Life in North Korea

    Being that the subject of North Korea continues to come up in the news, I figured it worthwhile to provide some info on what daily life is like there. Seriously, when we hear about North Korea, we invariably hear about their nuclear weapons program and network of concentration camps, but we never really seem to hear about how regular people there live! The following BBC documentary is the best one on THAT subject I can find. Woefully, it's a full decade old now, but still the single most fair portrayal I've seen yet. They actually shut up every once in a while and just let you observe and make your own judgments rather than making them for you. In this documentary (which is about 21 minutes between the two parts), you'll get a glimpse of the every day lives of a working class family, some peasants, and intellectuals: the three classes into which the society is divided (all of which are officially considered equal).





    Once again, the BBC documentary above is really the best primer overall on the topic of what every day life is like for regular North Koreans. Nevertheless I wanted to go and post an additional documentary below as well because while the BBC's 2003 documentary covers several different groups of people, this one follows a full day in the life of one family that lives in Pyongyang (the capitol of North Korea). Thus it makes great supplementary material. Context clues make it clear that this material was recorded in late 2006, but like the BBC's 2003 documentary, this one is also a good representation of life in North Korea. There is no filmmaker commentary at all to this one. It's just life: black-outs, monarch worship, propaganda, lies, and all. You're the judge, not the filmmaker. Personally, my favorite part is the English class. It's the funniest and most human part, IMO. The close runner-up is the whatever-it-is combat-with-the-United-States board game. I totally wanna play that game!




    In all seriousness though, while (obviously) I enjoy poking fun at the ridiculously propagandish and state-controlled nature of North Korean existence as much as the next person, if I may be so honest, I actually find North Korea to be something of a more human society than my own. Obviously they go way, way, WAY too far with this social engineering stuff, but buried somewhere beneath all that militarism, repression, and dynasty cult politics, I think North Korea is onto something we're missing here in the 'more advanced' First World: the importance of human community. North Korea feels warmer than America to me when I watch these documentaries, perhaps because of the people's shared hardships that they work through together as a society rather than as individuals. I'm not a big fan of this Soviet-styled top-down socialism and cultural repression, but I think there's something to be said for socialism in the generic and maybe even for a certain degree of mono-culturalism in terms of providing people with a sense of being part of something larger than themselves; in terms of providing people with a sense of purpose for living. I think that's something we're missing here in the richer, individualistic 'civilized West'.

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    From what I have read and seen that sheep has a better life than the people do, grand ruler is an exception, I think that he does pretty well.

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    Some thoughts.

    1:24

    "Housing is allocated by the State. Pyongyang is not representative of North Korea. It is the showcase capital. For it's 2 million residents it's considered a privledge to live here."

    "State radio is piped into every kitchen in the neighborhood. Listeners can turn the volume down but not off."

    At 2:10 talking about the TV that was a gift from the State. It has one channel...State run of course...

    6:30

    The little girl talking about her future and how most of them join the Korean People's Army.

    6:52

    Rampant and outright political indoctrination in the State school system.

    To me they seem like people...just people... They also seem overwhelmingly sad and afraid...a product of the State integration and invasion into their lives combined with the obvious oppression of any type of life beyond the confines of the needs of the State.
    I find your lack of faith...disturbing...

    -Darth Vader

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    simpsonofpg wrote:
    From what I have read and seen that sheep has a better life than the people do, grand ruler is an exception, I think that he does pretty well.
    Living conditions in North Korea are poor by our standards, but about average by world standards. For example, while about one-third of the population (basically all rural-dwellers) are malnourished and blackouts are a routine occurrence, basic education is universally accessed and average life expectancy in North Korea is slightly above the world average according to the United Nations. I don't think we here in countries like mine realize just how poor most of the world is.

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    Yes, a real socialist paradise.

    “Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him had better take a closer look at the American Indian.”. Henry Ford

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    The best comparison is with South Korea:



    Enough said.

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    South Korea is the world's 7th largest exporter. The little tiny peninsula of SK....a world economic power. The Koreans being such industrious peoples, one cannot make a comparison to the "rest of the world." And who is giving stats concerning life expectancy and universally accessed education? North Korea doesn't allow anyone to accurately profess life expectancies, or how many people survive on food stuffs flown into North Korea?

    This is a secret society, viewd by few outsiders or anyone else verifying stats like life expectancy, employment, or universal access to education.

    Beleive everything you read, Polly?

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    More life in Polly's socialist paradise:

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/...starving-state

    Why, life is so good there they eat it and each other up.

    Life is so good there they have to "persuade" people to participate with the worst police state on the planet, now that Saddam Hussein is gone.
    “Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him had better take a closer look at the American Indian.”. Henry Ford

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    Like any other Socialist that has never experienced true socialism, Polly will, of course, deny that an escapee from her socialist paradise would have no idea what he is talking about. I have seen videos of "socialists" in the US arguing with former Soviet citizens about how good life was in the USSR. The former Soviet would repeatedly shoot them down but the "socialist" kept insisting the former citizen knew nothing.
    Democrats believe that "politics is war by other means." And they are at war with America, with common sense and even common decency. Those who would mount an effective opposition had better have a high tolerance for slime, slander and abuse.

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    I did two tours on the DMZ (back when the US still had a sector) and saw North Korean soldiers kill lots of North Korean civilians trying to flee. In the winter the North Korean soldiers had to kill their dogs in order to eat.

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