Inside North Korea's Environmental Collapse — NOVA Next. North Korea has been hiding something. Something beyond its prison camps, its nuclear facilities, its pervasive poverty, its aching famine, its lack of energy—electrical, fossil, or otherwise. What the hermit kingdom has been covering up is perhaps more fundamental than all of those: an environmental collapse so severe it could destabilize the entire country. Or at least, it was hiding it. Before ecologist Margaret Palmer visited North Korea, she didn’t know what to expect, but what she saw was beyond belief. From river’s edge to the tops of hills, the entire landscape was lifeless and barren.
Villages were little more than hastily constructed shantytowns where residents wore camouflage netting, presumably in preparation for a foreign invasion they feared to be imminent. “The landscape is just basically dead,” adds Dutch soil scientist Joris van der Kamp. Farmers preparing a field for the planting season outside Wonsan, North Korea, in the shadow of a denuded hillside. A Broken Landscape. Inside North Korea's Environmental Collapse — NOVA Next.
Typhoon tourism: One week in North Korea. North Korean citizens bow before the portraits of the founding father Kim Il-Sung, left, and his son Kim Jong-Il, in Pyongyang, North Korea on Monday, April 9, 2012. April 15 marked the 100-year anniversary of the founder's birth and journalists were allowed inside the country. North Korean technicians check the Unha-3 rocket at Tangachai-ri space center on Sunday, April 8. A controller is seen from the window of a train along the railway on the west coast Sunday. A controversial missile launch is expected to take place in the coming days. Pyongyang insists it has no bad intentions and invited foreign journalists to view its launch site. Citizens dance on Monday during a rehearsal for the commemoration of Kim Il-Sung's 100th birthday anniversary. Japan, the United States and South Korea see the launch -- which would violate U.N. North Korean soldiers are seen from the window of a train along the railway heading from Pyongyang to the North Pyongan Province on the west coast.
Parag Khanna. A peep through North Korea’s iron curtain. As North Korea does not allow outsiders to survey its human rights situation, we have no way to get an account of the ground realities except from defectors who have now settled in South Korea. We had the opportunity to conduct in-depth interviews of some of these defectors and get a picture of the dismal conditions in their country. Our survey brought to light cases of public execution that continue in North Korea for such social deviations as murder, rape and human-trafficking, for illicitly circulating information from the outside world and for drug-trafficking and contraband trade.
Through this survey, we realised that there have been some noticeable changes in the types of crimes which are subject to public execution. A testimony was obtained from North Korean defectors about a person being executed in public on charges of killing a public security officer and a guidance supervisor of the state security department. Rights of corporal freedom. Kim Jong-Un is a dictator says his teenage nephew. North Koreans Say Life Has Not Improved. David Guttenfelder/Associated Press Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, deals with fewer electricity shortages than other parts of the country. “Why would I care about the new clothing of government officials and their children when I can’t feed my family?” She asked tartly, wringing her hands as she recounted the chronic malnutrition that has sickened her two sons and taken the lives of less-well-off neighbors. In the 10 months since took the reins of his desperately poor nation following the death of his autocratic father, North Korea — or at least its capital — has acquired more of the trappings of a functioning society, say diplomats, aid groups and academics who have visited in recent months. have spiked, the result of drought and North Korea’s defiant launching of a rocket in April that shut down new offers of from the United States.
Development organizations also blame speculators who have hoarded staples in anticipation of reforms that have yet to materialize. Revealing more of North Korea. Kim Jong-un Appears With Disney Characters on North Korean TV. Korea Central News Agency, via Reuters Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse appeared on a television broadcast with North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong-un. The reason was not clear. North Korean state-run television on Monday showed footage of costumed versions of Tigger, Minnie Mouse and other Disney characters prancing in front of the leader, , and an entourage of clapping generals.
The footage also showed Mr. Kim in a black Mao suit watching as Mickey Mouse conducted a group of young women playing violins in skimpy black dresses. At times, scenes from the animated Disney movies “Dumbo” and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” were projected on a multipanel screen behind the entertainers; an article in the state-run press said unnamed foreign songs were on the bill. The appearance of the characters from the United States, North Korea’s mortal enemy, was remarkable fare on tightly controlled North Korean television, which usually shows more somber and overtly political programs.
China hires tens of thousands of North Korea guest workers. SEOUL — China is quietly inviting tens of thousands of North Korean guest workers into the country in a deal that will provide a cash infusion to help prop up a teetering regime with little more to export than the drudgery of a desperately poor population. The deal, which has not been publicly announced by either Beijing or Pyongyang, would allow about 40,000 seamstresses, technicians, mechanics, construction workers and miners to work in China on industrial training visas, businesspeople and Korea analysts say. Most of the workers' earnings will go directly to the communist North Korean regime.
"The North Koreans can't export weapons anymore because of [international] sanctions, so they are using their people to raise cash," said Sohn Kyang-ju, a former South Korean intelligence official who now heads the Seoul-based NK Daily Unification Strategy Institute. Longtime leader Kim Jong Il died last year and was replaced by his son Kim Jong Un, who is in his late 20s. North Korea struggling to hide information from people, envoy says.
SEOUL — North Korea’s acknowledgment that its April attempt to launch a satellite has failed was a milestone of sorts in the fight for human rights there, according to the U.S. special envoy. Despite a variety of obstacles in place, it appears even the government of the hermit kingdom is aware news and information from the outside world is finding its way to the people of North Korea, Ambassador Robert King said in delivering the keynote address Thursday at an international gathering of human rights experts. That, he said, is why the North took the unusual step of announcing to its citizens a couple of months ago, “that the satellite was at the bottom of the Yellow Sea … because of the concern that the people would (already) know.” “I still believe that the power of broadcasting can make a difference in breaking down the information blockade that is the key to positive change in North Korea,” King said.
When missile tests failed in years past, the North lied and called them successful. North Korea: Economic System Built on Forced Labor. Source: Content partner // Human Rights Watch The North Korean government continues to require forced, uncompensated labor from workers, including even schoolchildren and university students. (New York) - The North Korean government continues to require forced, uncompensated labor from workers, including even schoolchildren and university students, Human Rights Watch said today.
In recent interviews with Human Rights Watch, North Korean defectors say they have faced years of work for either no wages or symbolic compensation and either had to pay bribes or face severe punishments if they did not report for work at assigned workplaces. Defectors reported to Human Rights Watch that they were required to work at an assigned workplace after completing school. "The harsh reality faced by North Korean workers and students is unpaid forced labor and exploitation," said , deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. North Korea leader Kim Jong Un tries to win over new generation with youth rally speech.
North Korean students who were selected as delegates to the Korean Children's Union, pay respects in front of bronze statues of late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, North Korea, June 3, 2012. AP (AP) PYONGYANG, North Korea - North Korea's young leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday made his second speech at a major public event since taking power in December, addressing a children's rally aimed at winning a new generation's support. About 20,000 young people gathered at Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Stadium for a speech that capped an unprecedented six-day children's festival. The celebrations took place two days after North Korea's military threatened to fire at South Korean media companies unless they apologized for criticisms of the festivities, including a Channel A report comparing the event to Hitler Youth rallies during Germany's Nazi era.
U.S. commander leaves N. South Korean media have called the festivities "a political show. " Kim Jong-un: North Korea leader's media makeover. 16 June 2012Last updated at 21:06 ET Kim Jong-un is often presented as being close to the people North Korea's tightly controlled media are building up a personality cult around the new leader, Kim Jong-un.
In the six months since the death of his father Kim Jong-il on 17 December, BBC Monitoring has observed that media coverage of Kim Jong-un has moved in stages from respectful mentions to presenting him now as a confident, modern leader in tune with the daily concerns of citizens. The steady transformation of his media profile corresponds with the power transition in the country following the death of his father. Weeds at the funfair A report on North Korean TV on 9 May is a good example of this latest, fourth stage. Kim stopped at a swing boat and "pointing at the seriously broken pavement... asked officials when the road was last re-paved. Kim Jong-un rips up weeds at the Manyo'ngdae Funfair (Source: North Korean TV) Initial sorrow Consolidation Cementing grip on power. Report finds rampant filesharing in North Korea, despite the risks.
North Koreans are subverting their government's censorship by sharing files on USB sticks and MP3 players, claims a report. A Quiet Opening, by Nat Kretchin and Jane Kim, uses testimony from defectors and refugees to build a picture of how popular media originating from other countries is within the isolated dictatorship. The answer, you may be surprised to hear, appears to be "very". North Korea—or to use its official name, the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea—is also known as the "Hermit Kingdom", a reflection of its isolation from the outside world. North Koreans are fed a strictly controlled and limited diet of media, and officially have no access to unvetted material.
However, the collected testimony paints a picture of a people who are slowly gaining an understanding of the outside world—a process which began when the severe famine of the late 1990s shook many North Koreans' faith in their government.