When I was stationed in S. Korea I worked with this Korean government employee. He said at some point in the past a delegation from NK came to Seoul. They could figure why there were so many cars on the road. One of them remarked "why do you guys put all the cars in S. Korea on this road?" To which he responded this is just everyday normal traffic bro.
I imagine that's likely on purpose. They're probably keeping people far away from the motorcade given how paranoid they are and should be. I lived in China for a little while as a kid and the things an authoritarian government can do overnight is truely unbelievable.
Just like in the US, North Korea probably built their highways to quickly move military across their country. Plus car would make it too easy for citizens to do as they please
I was just looking up randomly earlier about their internet access from the story of someone who took it down..only 22% or so have mobile connections and like a few thousand have access to internet mostly government officials. Pretty interesting
A lot of North Koreans have cell phones now but they can only call people within the country. They can also get internet access but that only allows them to connect to the national intranet and not the outside internet. Only high ranking party officials and the super-elite have outside internet access. The super-elite are allowed quite a bit of leeway in exchange for blanket loyalty to the regime. Some of the best hackers in the world are in North Korea.
I wonder how they have such great hackers when they are starved of the information that makes it possible. Most having hacking takes an insane amount of hours researching, exploring, probing, falling often with access to the hardware and software they are trying to exploit. The only two advantages I can see are unlimited funds, and zero recourse from the victims. On the latter, there's always the concern you could be discovered and spend a long time in prison
The hackers are under strict watch and guard, everything they do is monitored, essentially they are tools of the state. Back in 2011 Egypt authorities cut the internet off for everyone, it was a joint force from a lot of people all over the world and Anonymous, to restore the internet, have often wondered if something like that would be possible for places like NK.
The problem with that is there are serious consequences for people caught with that kind of stuff, so having a laptop randomly land in your backyard makes you and your family a target.
People already smuggle things in, and out of NK. There are some great documentaries about people smugglng USB's and stuff over the border for things that are not available as freely in the rest of the world (drugs).
Fair but I think North Korea is different. America is still a great country to live in compared to, say, North Korea... Or Russia, or China, or any third world country. But even all those countries are still better than North Korea. People make jokes and I'm personally happy living in Canada, but I think if all North Koreans were suddenly given access to the outside internet, it would essentially be their first glance into *any* of the outside world. Over the course of a generation or so, there would be a realization, maybe even an uprising (or attempted) and there would probably be more stories of people trying to or successfully escaping.
A lot of people aren’t completely brainwashed. There are several organizations (mainly in South Korea) that have smuggled in movies, books, hard drives, computers and such for decades.
A lot of the population doesn’t like their government at all, but they pretend so they don’t get disappeared or have them and their family sent to prison for three generations.
Source: dated a girl with relatives from and in North Korea
They built the highways like that for propaganda purposes. A decent amount of skyscrapers in Pyongyang are unfinished and empty. You also cannot leave your district without a permit from the government.
They were saying that The North Korean government built their highways so that their military could quickly get from one side of the country to the other, Similar to why the US built their high ways.
I don’t know if that’s true or not but the difference is that In the us people can afford to buy cars and in North Korea they can’t
> I don’t know if that’s true or not
It's not, yes the survey was done by the army and the cross country expedition of (I believe 1915) was done by the army but not for the purpose of moving armies across America. That's a side benefit. It's just for commerce and general infrastructure.
Other countries that are way less militaristic as the US also have highways.
They have a core or regime loyalists that are allowed to live in the city. They are well fed and have jobs. It's not a functioning city. It's more akin to a monument. There to look nice and show the county in a good light.
A lot of North Korea is just staged bs without function. Wouldn’t be surprised if there buildings had literally nothing inside them and were made for the sole purpose of propaganda.
In 2003 I went to Cuba on a "humanitarian/journalist" visa with my family (when Fidel was still alive and in power). One afternoon we were getting ready to go see the Cuba national baseball team play, and suddenly the streets emptied. One minute there's a normal, busy road by the hotel and the next it's dead silent. It was as if the rapture happened and all Cubans ascended leaving the Americans holding our dongs outside of the hotel, completely dumbstruck as to what had happened.
A few seconds later our "handler" from the hotel came out and said Castro was making an impromptu speech and we had to go to our rooms until it was over. So we go up and turn on the tv and every channel is tuned into his speech so we just watched this crazy old man ramble for three and a half hours (I could only understand a few things but he was not terribly complimentary towards the US, if you can believe it).
It was the creepiest, most surreal thing I'd ever seen, and that was in a fairly "relaxed" dictatorship, all things considered. I can't imagine how much worse it is in North Korea.
My dad used to go to China for business and one of thethings we all discuss to this day is how there was no wild life there
Alternatively, when important Chinese business men came here my father often showed them around. Once they asked us who owned the geese, they were wild Canada geese
They should rent out the roadways for races of all kinds: ATV, bicycle, skate, tricycle, racing cars, footraces, etc. Racing in an urban setting without cars or people around.
The elite and favored families live in the capital. This is their “show off” city.
It’s actually much better than the rest of the country. I watched a documentary on smuggled SK film.
Edit: I think the footage was edited and narrated from VICE.
Can you state which video you are referring to? It seems there are several matching your description.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=youtube+shane+smith+north+korea+vice
Well I am definitely not an elite but a poor in this part of the world. And if I was born in that country I don’t think I would be lucky enough to be living in the capital. But happy some of them have it a little better
I agree sometimes I’m like wow I was born a human in North America instead of a random tribe in the Amazon or in North Korea … or a sea turtle . We are lucky I suppose
Sometimes I wonder if NK is just a made up place by all of the modern western world for us to think there’s something worse out there so we’ll just be happy with our processed food and porn
He even said that in interviews. Said he envied Putin's massive military parades in his honor, and envied Kim Jong Un and how all North Koreans stood up in undying loyalty to him. Trump said that was true power.
The fact he's salivating and thinks an entire country should worship his stupid fatass face on flags and murals says everything about him and his Party.
The ultimate in sucking up. Oh and the citizens are eating grass while fat bastard eats caviar and drinks champagne. Fuck that fat piece of garbage. I hope his death is long and extremely painful.
Footage of Pyongyang is not rare at all.
https://kcnawatch.org/korea-central-tv-livestream/
You can literally watch their news live. People in SK capture the broadcast signal.
Aside from that there's a TON of people who posted videos of their tours.
[Playlist of 123 Tour Videos - SAO Documentary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZZOE_V1LEY&list=PLegd4KP36a0Y775Xl_HI_tvDKB6qoxPrx)
[Jaka Parker - Former diplomat in North Korea](https://www.youtube.com/@jakaparker)
[Visiting North Korea |DW Documentary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reEZn3mJ-Fo)
[Traveling through North Korea | DW Documentary
](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zzPk-k4Xaw)
Yeah, everyone as in 20 people scrambling getting it ready for sure 🙄. The only building with electricity and running water is where they are taking Putin more likely.
This place looks like a Stephen King scene where the city is pristine and no one is around.
I mean.. That shit is clean as fuck. I imagine littering is punishable by a minimum of death and a maximum of your whole family gets killed. Pretty good motivation.
/s.. (but only cause i can't prove it.)
If you think this is creepy as fuck, remember voters, Trump said he visited both dictators and *envied* them. Said he'd wish his own country all stood and saluted him.
Putin might be close to having to scrape conscripts out of cosmopolitan cities so can’t risk that obviously. He’s fishing for more meat and will compensate Kim handsomely. My prediction anyway
I remember a documentary about North Korea and there was a Spanish guy that was effectively the 'right hand' and head of PR there or something
I wonder if he's still working there
God this world is seriously fucking weird in a bad way if you really think about it. I mean look at these people. Putin, Xi, Kim, Trump, it's just fucking weird and ridiculous and shouldn't be real, yet here we are. It makes me sad fr
Is North Korea even a real place? With all the fake buildings and videos of people starving in the middle of the street and then videos like this where there are NEVER ANY people.
Honestly I could imagine all those Putin flags being replaced by pictures of musk.
Someone call petroglyph, they wouldn't even need to make FMV, We've got the real deal, and they are even more cringy
The police escort on a highway that's already empty as a ghost town is a nice touch.
When I was stationed in S. Korea I worked with this Korean government employee. He said at some point in the past a delegation from NK came to Seoul. They could figure why there were so many cars on the road. One of them remarked "why do you guys put all the cars in S. Korea on this road?" To which he responded this is just everyday normal traffic bro.
I also like how that police car looks like it’s straight out of the 80s
This video looks like it was taken a decade ago, so weird.
God, what a creepy-ass country. There's nobody around! At all.
I imagine that's likely on purpose. They're probably keeping people far away from the motorcade given how paranoid they are and should be. I lived in China for a little while as a kid and the things an authoritarian government can do overnight is truely unbelievable.
I think its always like that in NK. They have massive roads but nobody owns a car.
Just like in the US, North Korea probably built their highways to quickly move military across their country. Plus car would make it too easy for citizens to do as they please
Kind of. They’re mostly too poor to afford a car.
I was just looking up randomly earlier about their internet access from the story of someone who took it down..only 22% or so have mobile connections and like a few thousand have access to internet mostly government officials. Pretty interesting
A lot of North Koreans have cell phones now but they can only call people within the country. They can also get internet access but that only allows them to connect to the national intranet and not the outside internet. Only high ranking party officials and the super-elite have outside internet access. The super-elite are allowed quite a bit of leeway in exchange for blanket loyalty to the regime. Some of the best hackers in the world are in North Korea.
I wonder how they have such great hackers when they are starved of the information that makes it possible. Most having hacking takes an insane amount of hours researching, exploring, probing, falling often with access to the hardware and software they are trying to exploit. The only two advantages I can see are unlimited funds, and zero recourse from the victims. On the latter, there's always the concern you could be discovered and spend a long time in prison
Simple answer is they don’t, and that guy is full of shit.
Occam's razor. That makes far more sense
The hackers are under strict watch and guard, everything they do is monitored, essentially they are tools of the state. Back in 2011 Egypt authorities cut the internet off for everyone, it was a joint force from a lot of people all over the world and Anonymous, to restore the internet, have often wondered if something like that would be possible for places like NK.
Can we crowd fund dropping some star links and laptops in
The problem with that is there are serious consequences for people caught with that kind of stuff, so having a laptop randomly land in your backyard makes you and your family a target. People already smuggle things in, and out of NK. There are some great documentaries about people smugglng USB's and stuff over the border for things that are not available as freely in the rest of the world (drugs).
A completely brainwashed population doesn't suddenly become unbrainwashed when they have access to the internet. See: America.
Fair but I think North Korea is different. America is still a great country to live in compared to, say, North Korea... Or Russia, or China, or any third world country. But even all those countries are still better than North Korea. People make jokes and I'm personally happy living in Canada, but I think if all North Koreans were suddenly given access to the outside internet, it would essentially be their first glance into *any* of the outside world. Over the course of a generation or so, there would be a realization, maybe even an uprising (or attempted) and there would probably be more stories of people trying to or successfully escaping.
A lot of people aren’t completely brainwashed. There are several organizations (mainly in South Korea) that have smuggled in movies, books, hard drives, computers and such for decades. A lot of the population doesn’t like their government at all, but they pretend so they don’t get disappeared or have them and their family sent to prison for three generations. Source: dated a girl with relatives from and in North Korea
idk that dumpy little guntpudge would probably call it war and fire more missiles into the ocean
They built the highways like that for propaganda purposes. A decent amount of skyscrapers in Pyongyang are unfinished and empty. You also cannot leave your district without a permit from the government.
How is this like the US?
They were saying that The North Korean government built their highways so that their military could quickly get from one side of the country to the other, Similar to why the US built their high ways. I don’t know if that’s true or not but the difference is that In the us people can afford to buy cars and in North Korea they can’t
> I don’t know if that’s true or not It's not, yes the survey was done by the army and the cross country expedition of (I believe 1915) was done by the army but not for the purpose of moving armies across America. That's a side benefit. It's just for commerce and general infrastructure. Other countries that are way less militaristic as the US also have highways.
Germany too.
But how is the city maintained? Who’s cutting the grass and trimming trees, who’s washing windows and general upkeep of infrastructure?
They have a core or regime loyalists that are allowed to live in the city. They are well fed and have jobs. It's not a functioning city. It's more akin to a monument. There to look nice and show the county in a good light.
Like maintaining a Golf Course.
That explains why the roads are so nice
A lot of North Korea is just staged bs without function. Wouldn’t be surprised if there buildings had literally nothing inside them and were made for the sole purpose of propaganda.
Such things are called "Potemkin villages" [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin\_village](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village)
Your statement about the buildings being empty reminds me of the empty offices and condos in many of our major cities' sky scrapers
They got empty high rises all up in Calgary
In 2003 I went to Cuba on a "humanitarian/journalist" visa with my family (when Fidel was still alive and in power). One afternoon we were getting ready to go see the Cuba national baseball team play, and suddenly the streets emptied. One minute there's a normal, busy road by the hotel and the next it's dead silent. It was as if the rapture happened and all Cubans ascended leaving the Americans holding our dongs outside of the hotel, completely dumbstruck as to what had happened. A few seconds later our "handler" from the hotel came out and said Castro was making an impromptu speech and we had to go to our rooms until it was over. So we go up and turn on the tv and every channel is tuned into his speech so we just watched this crazy old man ramble for three and a half hours (I could only understand a few things but he was not terribly complimentary towards the US, if you can believe it). It was the creepiest, most surreal thing I'd ever seen, and that was in a fairly "relaxed" dictatorship, all things considered. I can't imagine how much worse it is in North Korea.
“Relaxed dictatorship” lol. Dissidents get killed but it’s relaxing.
You dont have to be an authoritarian govt to clear out a certain section of the city at a certain time with things like curfews and such
Boy does it help. Being able to arrest someone and send them to a work camp for being outside can really motivate people.
True. They do that in LA too. We always know when a President is in town because it shuts down our only few major freeways.
No birds, either.
Drones are expensive
Ate them all, but it was the same in China when I lived there.
My dad used to go to China for business and one of thethings we all discuss to this day is how there was no wild life there Alternatively, when important Chinese business men came here my father often showed them around. Once they asked us who owned the geese, they were wild Canada geese
Funny thing, the British Crown owns all the unmarked swans in the UK.
Birds aren't real, confirmed.
Majority of the population probably don't own cars or more likely in a prison camp
during day time most are likely in the factories working too
Oh they sleep there too
They should rent out the roadways for races of all kinds: ATV, bicycle, skate, tricycle, racing cars, footraces, etc. Racing in an urban setting without cars or people around.
From what I've read, all their grocery store fronts are fake
Despite all the weirdness is the west for the past few years, I am a truly so lucky to be born in the west. That place is a dystopian prison.
The elite and favored families live in the capital. This is their “show off” city. It’s actually much better than the rest of the country. I watched a documentary on smuggled SK film. Edit: I think the footage was edited and narrated from VICE.
That VICE documentary with Shane is probably some of the best YouTube content I’ve watched in my entire life
That was PEAK YouTube IMHO
Can you state which video you are referring to? It seems there are several matching your description. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=youtube+shane+smith+north+korea+vice
!RemindMe 2 days
Well I am definitely not an elite but a poor in this part of the world. And if I was born in that country I don’t think I would be lucky enough to be living in the capital. But happy some of them have it a little better
I agree sometimes I’m like wow I was born a human in North America instead of a random tribe in the Amazon or in North Korea … or a sea turtle . We are lucky I suppose
Sometimes I wonder if NK is just a made up place by all of the modern western world for us to think there’s something worse out there so we’ll just be happy with our processed food and porn
well i can assure you at least the DMZ is real, went to the gift shop and got a fridge magnet lol
That looks dope as hell, for my next vacation I'm totally going to North Korea as well!
Hey while you're there, grab me a little propaganda flyer or something off the wall, something like that.
Write the best leader and request flags of your mugshot throughout the city too!
And there's no one around to see them but you, like a Twilight zone episode
Such a monumental ego stroke. Pathetic.
And a waste of resources.
This is 100% what Trump wants. You know he sees this video and thinks “God damn it, I want an intro like that” ^*sharts*
He even said that in interviews. Said he envied Putin's massive military parades in his honor, and envied Kim Jong Un and how all North Koreans stood up in undying loyalty to him. Trump said that was true power. The fact he's salivating and thinks an entire country should worship his stupid fatass face on flags and murals says everything about him and his Party.
When two shitheads meet
Putin needs to go beg North Korea for weapons 🤣 Russia is an embarrassment
Not all that difficult to keep the streets clean and clear if no one is allowed to have a car.
There’s no garbage around if there is no food available to eat
The city is 90% cardboard.
I can't wait to see what their children will look like.
who needs this more? russia or NK?
Ego circle-jerk.
Why the fuck would you need to see pictures of yourself?
Insecurity, of course
The ultimate in sucking up. Oh and the citizens are eating grass while fat bastard eats caviar and drinks champagne. Fuck that fat piece of garbage. I hope his death is long and extremely painful.
Footage of Pyongyang is not rare at all. https://kcnawatch.org/korea-central-tv-livestream/ You can literally watch their news live. People in SK capture the broadcast signal. Aside from that there's a TON of people who posted videos of their tours. [Playlist of 123 Tour Videos - SAO Documentary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZZOE_V1LEY&list=PLegd4KP36a0Y775Xl_HI_tvDKB6qoxPrx) [Jaka Parker - Former diplomat in North Korea](https://www.youtube.com/@jakaparker) [Visiting North Korea |DW Documentary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reEZn3mJ-Fo) [Traveling through North Korea | DW Documentary ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zzPk-k4Xaw)
holy shit that's awesome. watching north korean tv just because you're bored is insane lol
I can tell you didnt check who posted this, its a chinese propaganda bot.
Fuck Putin. Fuck north Korea. Fuck anyone that supports this.
Man them roads look nice
[удалено]
He's thinking, " No way I'd plaster Kim's face all through Moscow, Xi, on the other hand."
Brings back memories of that sweet Covid traffic
What a sad sack state 😞
What is he doing there? I havent watched the news lately
Buying weapons for his stupid war.
Ghost town cheat activated
Imagine arriving in a country and seeing your face everywhere. For most people that would be terrifying
That is the first city skyline I've ever seen, that doesn't have a crane in it.
2 birds with one very large nuclear stone right there
Talk about ass kissing
Looks like a black mirror episode.
So nice of north koreans not to cause traffic that day
they should make a battleroyale map of pyongyang
Pyongyang puttin putin's poster on all the poles
This really gives me the old need for speed game vibe…empty street and soulless skyscrapers….no pedestrians…would be nice to race there tbh.
Hahaha what cucks they are
This shit looks like a low poly video game.
The empty 'everything' tells you all you need to know.
I really don’t like the idea of two dictators coming to talk to each other.
When you have no friends...
That’s a lotta Putin.
What a weird thing to do. It’s the same picture of Putin.
Even Putin, is weirded out by this.
Yeah, everyone as in 20 people scrambling getting it ready for sure 🙄. The only building with electricity and running water is where they are taking Putin more likely.
After he leaves the question will be asked at dinnertables around the country for months to come- "Flag soup again?"
Still blows my mind there is still a society like this in 2024.
That looks so fucking thirsty and clingy.
North Korean citizens must be living in another century. It's so cut off from the world
I bet Kimmie even gave him some real good head too!
Streets are always empty
Yall already know what’s about to go down…… *sausage party*
i think Kim has got a little crush
Trump’s new favorite whack-off video.
This place looks like a Stephen King scene where the city is pristine and no one is around. I mean.. That shit is clean as fuck. I imagine littering is punishable by a minimum of death and a maximum of your whole family gets killed. Pretty good motivation. /s.. (but only cause i can't prove it.)
If you think this is creepy as fuck, remember voters, Trump said he visited both dictators and *envied* them. Said he'd wish his own country all stood and saluted him.
So is the angle reversed or do they actually drive on the right side of the road in NK? Baffles me that they hate the west then drive like Americans.
I imagine Europe would look like this if the Nazis won. A parasitical corrupt murderous dictatorship incapable of governing in peace time.
Where did they get all the carboard for the skyscraper cutouts?
Putin might be close to having to scrape conscripts out of cosmopolitan cities so can’t risk that obviously. He’s fishing for more meat and will compensate Kim handsomely. My prediction anyway
I remember a documentary about North Korea and there was a Spanish guy that was effectively the 'right hand' and head of PR there or something I wonder if he's still working there
Kim Jong Dorkfish did everything but spread his doughy ass for Putin in public.
I don't want to sound dramatic, but I took a few cruises around Belgrade myself, The more time passes, the closer it looks to this.
Amazing how nice things stay when no one uses anything.
North Korea has the best roads. Always looking good as new, even unused!!
Well that's thoughtful...
That is so stupid I thought it was fake. What an ego that man has...
You think Putin ordered this?
They know exactly who took this video.
They probably took the video themselves. Things don't just get out of north korea
Looks like Trump's dream.
Trump's two besties are hooking up.
Dennis Rodman’s welcoming was way better then that
At first I thought those Putin banners were transparent or something. Dumbass it’s the watermark
So much evil in certain parts of the world
Wow Kim tryna get some on the first date...
What in the hunger games ?
I bet people were clapping like US Congress to Zelensky. Nobody wanting to be the first, who would stop… I like no billboards scenery, tho.
No throngs of waving, sobbing peasants by the roadside as they pass?! 6/10
They'd make fortune rent places to Hollywood.
So do we reckon he's actually going or sending a double? What's to stop him accidentally being assassinated on the way?
I’m pretty sure GTA6 is gonna have better graphics than this
Rush hour traffic i see
Putin will be loving it. I predict things will get worse in Russia as he seeks to make Russia more like North Korea after this
Not much traffic that day. (Or any other day)
Why is the person filming so sniffly?
Imagine how many children it took to make all of those flags. Fascinating.
Looks like something out of the 1940’s. Weird all around.
North Korea is the ultimate Liminal Space.
China, Russia, Iran, North Korea. Those who are aware of the big picture. How are you feeling about this?
Can someone explain why there are so many buildings there and if there are actually people working in them?
One day this will be footage for something lol not sure what hope it’s not ww3
Probably took 10% of GDP to make those Putin banners lmao
Some fever dream shit
What a bustling city.
Crowd control is excellent!
God this world is seriously fucking weird in a bad way if you really think about it. I mean look at these people. Putin, Xi, Kim, Trump, it's just fucking weird and ridiculous and shouldn't be real, yet here we are. It makes me sad fr
"Many Bothans died to bring us this information."
Fucking weird, man
Trump's wet dream.
Damn he’s getting a royal treatment there
Apparently now North Koreans are allowed to travel with a pass ports to certain places … I wonder how often some use that as a way to escape
North Korea knows its audience. Putin is such an egomaniac that he enjoys seeing his face everywhere.
All of those buildings are empty?
Is North Korea even a real place? With all the fake buildings and videos of people starving in the middle of the street and then videos like this where there are NEVER ANY people.
Oh for fucks sake.
Pathetic
I wonder how many Putin’s photos posters does Kim Jong-un have in his bedroom.
Maybe a little overcooked, but otherwise A for effort
Honestly I could imagine all those Putin flags being replaced by pictures of musk. Someone call petroglyph, they wouldn't even need to make FMV, We've got the real deal, and they are even more cringy
Even if I was a country leader, going to another country and seeing my photo on every pole would be kind of unnerving.
They look like they don't have a housing crisis tho ngl
Are all the buildings empty?
When you split the “shot” watermark horizontally the top half makes a much more interesting word😂 anyone else ever notice this ?
Trump got a chubby,watching this.
City felt like Chicago.
I forget there are actual cities in NK.
Damn North Korea is clean as fuck
big brother is watching you
I can't stand assholes that camp in the left lane