DPRK
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The Kim dynasty's satellite of love - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
Bangkok, Thailand - A sensational cliffhanger has been set up ever since that fateful March 16 when the Korean Committee for Space Technology announced that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) would send Kwangmyongsong-3 ("Guiding light", or "Polar Star") - a polar-orbiting satellite - into space, atop the Unha-3 launch vehicle. Unha means "Milky Way". But according to North Korean mythmaking, it also designates the current Supreme Leader, 20-something Kim Jong-eun, "a heaven-sent statesman set to lead the ancestral Land of Morning Calm to millennium prosperity". Literally, the whole planet was waiting for this rocket launch out of Sohae ("West Sea") in Cholsan County - during a window between April 12 and 16.
So it comes as no surprise that the rulers of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) have been routinely described as mentally unbalanced by our policymakers and pundits. Senior Defense Department officials refer to the DPRK as a country “not of this planet,” led by “dysfunctional” autocrats. One government official, quoted in the New York Times, wondered aloud “if they are really totally crazy.” The New Yorker magazine called them “balmy,” and late-night TV host David Letterman got into the act by labeling Kim Jong-il a “madman maniac.”
North Korea: "Sanity" at the Brink
Tariq Ali · Diary: In Pyongyang · LRB 26 January 2012
In this podcast, Tariq Ali reads extracts from his Diary about North Korea. The full article is below. Forty-two years ago, I was mysteriously invited to visit North Korea.
Technology has revolutionised reporting on North Korea. David McNeill reveals how a clandestine network is getting the word out despite restrictions North Korea remains one of the world’s black holes: a vast sealed experiment in information control. According to Reporters Without Borders, just four per cent of the population has access to the country”s heavily censored internet, which is entirely under state control, along with all newspapers, radio and television.
Pyongyang unwrapped | Index on Censorship
UPDATE 12 (2012-4-1): April will be a big month in the DPRK. The KWP conference will be held on April 11–this will be the fourth Party Conference (Previous: 1958, 1966, 2010). Rodong Sinmun reports that the 5th session of the 12th Supreme Peoples’ Assembly will be held on April 13th.
North Korean Economy Watch
North Korea - curators..
