

On the Spot with Kim Jong-il - bloch
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/03/on_the_spot_with_kim_jong-il.html

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mapleoin
I posted this a few days ago but didn't get any attention:

 _A Year in Pyongyang: The fascinating account of a British guy who spent a
year in North Korea working as a literary reviser for their totalitarian
government_ <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1178719>

I've started reading the book since then and it really paints a full and
seemingly realistic picture of N Korea.

~~~
jbm
I read that book a long time ago.

I always found it interesting how he was constantly in fear of getting ripped
off by the government, and moreover, how the North Korean people he worked
with never really talked to him about how they felt.

I found the story about the girl who was impregnated by an African student and
forced to have an abortion to be incredibly fascinating.

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jsm386
I've always been fascinated by the pictures people manage to get out of North
Korea. This Flickr account is home to an incredible collection of photos
inside of Pyongyang
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/kernbeisser/collections/7215760...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/kernbeisser/collections/72157603652517132/)
and out in the country
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/kernbeisser/collections/7215760...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/kernbeisser/collections/72157603652581080/)

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adriand
"I see you have some cows here."

"Ah yes. Flour. Very good."

"Excellent work on this bucket. But why orange? Ha ha ha!"

"What is this, a fishery for ants?"

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huhtenberg
Gotta love how the only photo where he is smiling is where he is holding a
bottle of vodka :)

[http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bi...](http://inapcache.boston.com/universal/site_graphics/blogs/bigpicture/kcna_03_12/k23_00000010.jpg)

~~~
jackfoxy
Explains why he wears shades even indoors?

Christopher Hitchens wrote an interesting piece on NK recently
<http://www.slate.com/id/2243112/pagenum/all/>

~~~
nfnaaron
I was wondering if he wears shades so you can never know for sure if it's him
or a stand-in.

~~~
philwelch
Given how consistently they have famine over there, they must have trouble
fattening up his body doubles enough.

~~~
ugh
He looks quite skinny, actually.

~~~
philwelch
I just remember a lot of pictures of him looking rather pot-bellied. It
probably wasn't the most tasteful remark but you have to wonder about chubby
dictators who rule starving countries.

~~~
ugh
I have no problem whatsoever with untasteful remarks about, among all people,
Kim Jong Il. I was only quite surprised how skinny he looked. I also had
different memories. Maybe it’s that ugly coat?

~~~
elblanco
He's been very ill recently. Nobody knows exactly with what, but the first
videos of him after the illness showed him looking absolutely just-off-of-
life-support.

The belief is that he had a stroke, if you look at one of his ungloved hands
in the photos, it looks swollen and not entirely functional, which jives with
what the analysts are guessing.

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steveplace
If you're looking for some more insight into this country, watch this video
set over the weekend:

[http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-
guide-...](http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-
north-korea-1-of-3)

A real eye opener.

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jcromartie
I'm fascinated by North Korea. I think these pictures say a lot. The details
are interesting... close-up shots, framed without showing much context.
Practically everybody has a pad of paper. Intriguing stuff.

~~~
og1
Yeah, it is very interesting. There is definitely a formula to these pictures.
Very tidy environment, inspecting a line of product, a dozen people watching
in the background, and the same damn coat in every shot.

What I really wonder is Kim Jong-il "in" on the staged-ness of these shots? Or
does he just operate with a different perception of the world because things
are always presented to him in such a tidy manner?

~~~
jcromartie
I'm sure if you zoomed out you would see a whole lot of nothing. No more than
a handful more cows or pigs or shoes or cookies that are in the shots we see
here. NK is just a big vacant husk of a nation.

He has to be aware of that, at least.

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a-priori
When I saw the pictures of Kim Jong-il surrounded by a store filled with fresh
fruit while his citizens starve, I was reminded of the final years of the rule
of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu. In Ceauşescu's case, to some extent it
appears his lieutenants went to great lengths to present him with a sanitized
view of the state of his country.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Ceauşescu#Tensions>

I'm curious if this is also the case in North Korea.

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jasonlbaptiste
Team America ruined any chance of me taking this guy seriously.

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sili
Some of those photos look photoshopped. In #10, his glasses are broken,
whereas in others (14, 19) he looks very out of place. In many, his hat stand
out particularly.

~~~
joshu
I recall there were several techniques for photoshop detection. Let's bust
them out?

~~~
bradbeattie
Nothing too odd: <http://i.imgur.com/INgMn.jpg>

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gojomo
Lest we be too proud of our ability to detect the forced, artificial nature of
these photographs, this link from the 'Big Picture' comment thread should be
considered:

[http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/02/obama_being_forced_to_l...](http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/02/obama_being_forced_to_look_at.html#photo=1)

(Our photo op rituals aren't _that_ much better. US photographers show a lot
more creativity in composition, though.)

~~~
dpapathanasiou
That's an extremely superficial comparison.

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jrockway
If I was a stand-in for some politician that was about my height and weight, I
would definitely wear sunglasses. Even at night.

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anigbrowl
[http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_i...](http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15579841)

An excellent (and short) analysis of North Korea from Banyan, the Economist's
excellent new Asia columnist.

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harshpotatoes
In some ways North Korea is one of the few countries that feels really foreign
to me nowadays, but I think that might be because there is so little
verifiable information about it.

Regardless, looking at these photos I only think: Kim is looking really old.

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rgrieselhuber
I'm struck by how old they all are. I bet the younger generation is just
waiting for them to all die off.

