One for the Road (04/11/07)

by Kelly Amabile on

Since it looks like U.N. inspectors are one step closer to getting inside North Korea, how about a book that will help you get a better look at what goes on within the borders of this mysterious and powerful nation. Photographer Mark Edward Harris had rare access to the country, capturing images from the interior and border that portray the culture of control which exists Inside North Korea. Along with stunning photography, the book includes short essays, extended captions, and a foreword by North Korea expert Bruce Cumings.

Scroll from left to right on this page to see some photos from the book, which was released by Chronicle in February. Aisit Harris’ website to see more photos from North Korea and his other projects, including one called Wanderlust, an impressive collection of black & white photos places like China, Lebanon and the South Pacific.

May Day in North Korea

by Iva Skoch on

Czech travel agencies seem to have a new hit on their hands: celebration of May Day in Pyongyang, North Korea. Perhaps the last country on the planet where pompous celebrations of the communist regime are still going strong, North Korea is the hip place to go.

Apparently there are enough people either A) nostalgic enough for the spectacle of communist kitsch which seized in the Czech Republic only 17 years ago, B) bored with the usual vacation in the Greek isles.

For only about $1800, you get 7 nights, flights from Prague to Peking, ground transportation, a guide, and all the saluting you can handle. This agency provides special tours for US citizens who are more likely to have problems traveling to North Korea.

And, please, leave that Che shirt at home. North Korea ain’t Disneyworld.

Blind Date to North Korea

by Neil Woodburn on

Want to go on a blind date to North Korea?

Well, you’re in luck if you happen to be a single woman working for Hana Bank in South Korea. The bank offers its employees a rather attractive benefits package that includes subsidized matchmaking services.

As part of their campaign to promote a happier work place, the bank is sending 20 of its employees on a weekend getaway to romantic North Korea where they will be paired with dates from a South Korean matchmaking service.

Ahh… springtime in North Korea, when love is in the air and romance kindles the spirit. It almost brings tears to your eyes, doesn’t it?

Friday Funny: Lifestyles of the Rich and Fascist

by Erik Olsen on

For today’s Friday Funny, we bring you an entertaining, tongue in cheek piece from Radar Magazine on how the rich and autocratic live.

From Libyan dictator Muammar al-Quaddafi, whose personal bodyguards are made up of an all-girl Amazonian unit alleged to be virgins to Myanmar’s repressive Senior General Than Shwe, who has been taking cooking classes with a leading French chef in Rangoon, to North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, whose escapades and eccentric tastes have been well documented, the list is a wonderful slice of egotistical life. There are ten dictators in all. Be sure to collect all ten! I have no idea how accurate this stuff is, but it IS funny in a sick kind of way.

North Korea and the Doomsday Clock

by Neil Woodburn on

There was a time, back during the Cold War, when many people were very concerned that the planet on which we lived was about to be incinerated by a nuclear war. In fact, concerns were so strong, that a Doomsday Clock at the University of Chicago regularly displayed just how close we were to nuclear Armageddon.

The idea of the Doomsday Clock was simple; midnight symbolized the end. As Soviet/American relations ebbed and flowed, the big hand inched closer or further away from midnight. Since 1947 when the clock was inaugurated at 11:53, that big hand has moved 17 times (once sitting at 11:58 when both the Soviet Union and the USA tested hydrogen bombs in 1958).

With the fall of the Soviet Union, the Doomsday Clock lost some of its allure and hasn’t moved since 2002 when it was pushed forward to 11:53 after the “United States rejects a series of arms control treaties and announces it will withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty…. And Terrorists seek to acquire and use nuclear and biological weapons.”

But now there is North Korea.

Suddenly everyone is talking about the Doomsday Clock and whether the members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists who oversee the clock will move that big hand closer to midnight as a result of North Korea’s recent nuclear testing. The Clock guardians meet next month at a regularly scheduled meeting and will assess the situation and determine if the clock needs adjusting.

In the meantime, make sure to see as much of the world as you can; who knows what it will look like during a nuclear winter.