North Korea poster: a conversation piece, at least?

For travel junkies, there’s a new poster that could be equivalent to putting commemorative plates on display in your home. Show your zest for hitting the road – and how it pervades your entire life – by turning your walls into a shrine to exploring new places. Start with the latest offering from North Korea, and you’ll guarantee the conversation will turn to travel the next time you have guests in your home.

North Korea has just released a new propaganda poster, celebrating the sinking of a South Korean navy ship … despite having denied being responsible for it. Forty-six people died in the event.

Of course, this poster probably wasn’t intended for mass distribution, which means you could struggle to get your hands on it. The only reason word of its existence has leaked outside the country, it seems, is because a Chinese businessman visiting North Korea photographed it. Featured in the photo, according to Radio Free Asia, is “a helmeted North Korean sailor smashing a ship in two” with the words “We will smash you with a single blow if you attack!”
Radio Free Asia adds:

The businessman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that high-ranking North Korean traders he dealt with “expressed self-esteem in relation to North Korea’s military strength” and told him, “regardless of U.N. sanctions, we [North Koreans have] never stopped reacting.”

“It’s hard to understand how high-ranking officials can adamantly deny North Korea’s responsibility for the sinking of the Cheonan while propaganda posters showing a ship being broken in half by a fist are in circulation,” he said.

Of course, there is a chance that this is an old propaganda poster, created originally in 2002 following a naval clash between the two Koreas. Either way, it’s a must-have or the committed traveler – far better than the sketch of your family by a near-homeless “artist” in Montmartre.

[Photo via RFA, Via Gawker, Business Insider]

Win an autographed Anthony Bourdain poster! (Part II)

Two questions. You like to win free stuff, right? And have you heard of this guy Anthony Bourdain (he’s some sort of food show host apparently)? Alright, if the answer to either of the previous two questions is yes, Gadling has got your back. In what can only be described as deja vu, we’re giving away yet another Anthony Bourdain No Reservations poster, autographed by the man himself.

As you might have also heard, 2009 marked the kickoff of an all-new season of No Reservations. It’s been another solid string of episodes, with interesting installments on Mexico and a great look at some off-the-beaten path spots in Venice. Last week saw Tony enjoying our nation’s capital, Washington D.C., stopping for a half smoke at Ben Chili’s Bowl and getting some great Chesapeake Bay Crab at the local market. Tonight’s episode brings Tony to the isolated islands of the Azores.

Would you like your very own Anthony Bourdain poster to clutch to your chest while you watch the rest of the new season? Just leave an entry telling us about your favorite No Reservations episode in the comments below and we’ll draw a lucky winner by this Friday, January 30th.

Good luck!

  • To enter, simply leave a comment below telling us about your favorite No Reservations episode.
  • The comment must be left before Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 5PM Eastern Time.
  • You may enter only once.
  • One winner will be selected in a random drawing.
  • One Grand Prize Winner will receive a free, original autographed poster of Anthony Bourdain
  • Open to legal residents of the 50 United States, and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
  • Poster is valued at $20.
  • Click Here for complete Official Rules.