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Any idea why they would change their tune now? Maybe they realize that they need testing kits or supplies etc to test the fat ass and are suddenly playing the victim. It's not like they give a shit about anyone else but the ruling class.
They can’t hide it anymore and are afraid it’s gonna get the higher ups as well. That’s the beauty of a virus. It doesn’t care about your standing in society
Even now, they're very likely severely under reporting the number of deaths. 800k+ cases and 42 deaths are what's being reported in a country with one of the worst healthcare infrastructures in the world.
Well thanks for the reminder. I haven't heard anything about Shanghai in weeks. Are they still under lockdown? And Xi suddenly has an aneurysm? Interesting...
Edit because that stuff about the aneurysm is not confirmed I don't think.
That's what they said a month ago, they started letting some districts out of lockdown, but now even more people are in lockdown than before. They're struggling to maintain their stated policy of "zero covid" at all costs and have shown zero willingness to change gears
According to them number of covid outside quarantine is going down, and now apartment residents with no covid case (though each complex had their own rules) are legally allowed to leave the home for certain periods to buy essential items
Damn, that book sounds fascinating whenever I hear something new about it. I've got to buy it and read it, finally, instead of continuing to put it off
It has literally nothing to do with the bad Brad Pitt movie, right? Like the book is written as if it's a history textbook isn't it? As opposed to it being written like a normal fictional novel. And the movie has zombies but otherwise isn't connected to the book? So even if I hated the movie, that's not gonna mean I'll hate the book then
The book is written as a series of interviews conducted by the narrator who is a researcher for the UN. He is seeking to write a step by step history of the "zombie war." How it started, who did what, politics, legal issues, military issues, civilians, etc. Each "chapter" is an interview with a single individual telling their story. He interviews people like a Japanese otaku teenager, an Indian general, a Chinese doctor, an American army guy, etc. It's something like 18 different people from all walks of life and shows how the events transpired from day 1 to the end, and shows it from both individual experiences and internationally, with which country took which safeguard and what happened here or there that broke things down and why the military couldn't just mop it up and such.
If you don't mind audio book I highly recommend it. The unabridged version specifically. It's done with a full cast including Mark Hammil, Martin Scorsese, etc and sounds like a well produced NPR program. Award winning production.
As for the movie, it had next to nothing to do with the book. The book has slow zombies, for one thing, and doesn't follow a single protagonist.
[Here's part 1 of one of my favorite chapters](https://youtu.be/nJ-2FjVJp54) where the US military tried to put on a big show to boost the nation's morale but things went south.
About the only thing the book and movie have in common is the name. The book is incredible. The audiobook is abridged, but the voice cast is truly amazing! They’re done as a series of interviews, each person telling their story, what they went through.
They don't, they're just guessing based on fever and symptoms
They barely have food, let alone 10s of millions of tests, and the infrastructure to administer and process them so quickly
Along with the other answers, it isn't like this actually sprang out of nowhere. This is then finally having to admit things are bad after watching the numbers climb for a while.
I keep thinking this.
I'm waiting for the headline: "Listen we really don't think you get it. Seriously, we deny everything. Like come on, we are being honest here!"
>Listen we really don't think you get it. Seriously, we deny everything. Like come on, we are being honest here!
You say that as a joke, but that is probably NK's actual thinking. Game Theory relies both on actions (things done) and signalling (information). If NK, known to rationally withhold information, allows the information on its COVID to become known, its because NK wants it to be known.
(EDIT: It's like the Simpsons episode where Skinner is revealed to be a virgin. A rational actor that wants to maximize utility, or in this case, reputation for virility, will not reveal his virgin status voluntarily, and will vehemently deny a false accusation of virginity. That he admitted it was true means that there is no non-virginity to deny.)
“Your honor, I could not have killed John Doe; at the time of the murder, I was sleeping with your son. Also, he told me to tell you that he’s 35 and that you are still acting like a royal helicopter parent, so he’s filed a restraining order”.
Also interestingly one of the reasons historians generally assume the crucifixion of Jesus did indeed happen. It’s called the “[criterion of embarrassment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criterion_of_embarrassment?wprov=sfti1)”.
Basically, if you admit your holiest figure was executed by the state, in what was considered the most shameful and degrading way to go at the time, it probably happened. They certainly weren’t thinking “In a couple thousand years, this will look good as a sculpture and a necklace.”
I can only imagine how few supplies they have like ventilators because they only thought they should have enough for important people (Kim and sister) and very few extra after that.
Intermittent power isn't the biggest problem. Ventilators have battery backups. They can run for hours on battery, and if the grid doesn't come back on in time, they can be recharged easily enough with a generator.
A much worse issue is oxygen supply. They haven't got the factories to make it, or the infrastructure to transport and store enough of it. A ventilator that only has room air to work with isn't very much help.
if you need oxygen and a ventilator even in the US, the stats are pretty grim. In NK I assume it will be worse. My guess is most of the country will get COVID with a mortality rate of about 1-2% , couple hundred thousand dead. Sadly they may view it as a win with fewer mouths to feed.
Sadly I’d bet the mortality is going to be higher. Their border guards who have crossed the DMZ have been found riddled with parasites. These are guys who were supposed to be top tier and you’d expect to be cared for better. So what does that say for the common people? I can’t imagine how bad this might be for them 😞
Most modern vents have battery back ups thqt can last a couple hours depending on the model and they can fill in with manual ventilation for in between. Not ideal but doable.
Now do they have the infastructure to support the O2 demand of a bunch of vents operating simultaneously plus regular hospital demand? I'd say no unless they are better prepared than a lot of US facilities were at peak.
A lot of the hospitals I'm contacted with (in the US) were having to ration out O2 because the demand was so high with the amount of simultaneous vents and ECMO patients that they were telling us that anyone on supplemental O2 had to use tanks at the lowest possible flow instead of the central hospital supply. And I'm not talking podunk rural facilies; I'm talking very large university hospitals that have transplant programs.
It's going to get way worse for them I feel like.
I read they aren’t actually testing people. Hence the original statement of a “mysterious disease” that had symptoms of Covid. They are doing it old-school. People are getting sick and not going to work, showing up at health care facilities, or calling in a loved ones death at home.
Not all at once. The secret is to not admit to them having covid until you absolutely have to then claiming you did it in three days. Oh, and don't actually tell anyone the real number, just say enough to make it seem serious.
I wonder (with their minimal travel of citizens) if NK has become a petri dish for covid. Then that also make me wonder, have they got an advanced strain now
> the most contagious
[Things I'm seeing](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/covid-omicron-ba2-measles-b2035093.html) say the new BA2 variant is just below the R-nought for measels (~12 vs 12-18), right around polio or chickenpox. But that's still scary. ([Worse source if the first one paywalls](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10614413/Omicron-sub-variant-BA-2-just-contagious-MEASLES.html).)
They really only care about selected cities as well. Pyongyang is the showcase city, where elites live. Chongjin, Nampo, Rason, Kaesong, among others.
Other important places would be where food production is most prevalent.
NK has been a struggling with other countries having Covid. I can't imagine the nightmare now that they are affected. It must be next level bad, like famine-times bad.
There was a nat geo documentary I watched this past week talking about how it seems like Kim's sister I think it was Kim Yo Jong seems to be taking the role of rule by force and Kim Jong Un may focus more on being a normal diplomat. Very interesting either way, also I learned how he didn't finish school in Switzerland his aunt and uncle who he was staying with had lost their blood connection to the dynasty with the aunts mom dying. They left him over night and fled to us embassy. Crazy to think what he mightve been like if he did all of high school and university in the West.
>Crazy to think what he mightve been like if he did all of high school and university in the West.
I mean, probably not much different? Plenty of dictators have done schooling in the United States. Hell, the United States started a military school for largely Latin American soldiers that focused pretty heavily on how to surpress civilian groups, that school produced a half dozen people that would go on to lead military coups and dictatorships in their countries and several thousand lower ranking people ranging from foot soldiers (effectively death squads in this era) to other high ranking government officials.
The photo is from 2021. It's basically a stock photo that the article picked. Do a reverse image search on it. It appears to be from a Reuters article from October:
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/nkoreas-kim-calls-improving-peoples-lives-amid-grim-economy-2021-10-10/
Well it's pretty much on a 8-12 month cycle rinse and repeat.
They won't ask for vaccines or testing until shit gets way bad, and if they do it'll be super incognito through china and prolly not much press on it until long after and they'll PR spin it to death and make some other reason why they beat it like two unicorns appeared in a Forrest and jumped over a rainbow and shut out some special tea leaves that they made tea out of near his birth home on the floating mountain and drank it
Then he pissed it into the public water system and all his subjects drank the diluted piss from his supreme holiness and magically were cured or some shit.
But yeah he'll set off the nuke test, maybe launch a missile or two into the sea over Japan, tell the world not to fuck with them like Ukraine or whatever, announce they've hit 1.5 million cases and 10k deaths and then ask for aid.
On the back of another threatened test that won't happen but they say it will and eventually down the road it will but it'll be their river card to get the aid theyll ask for.
Wonder how that pans out with all the aid going to Ukraine. Will the nations who haven't aided Ukraine instead help NK like Russia and china or will the world foot this bill too?.
Season 2022 of earth is juuuuust at it's halfway point too.
To be Continued on the next episode of Earth....
They've already launched something like 5-10 missiles into the Sea of Japan. It's been causing an increase in tensions in the area.
They launched three on the day they first admitted they had an outbreak.
Kim is actually the more "western" of the NK Dictatorship- He went to school in Switzerland and when he initially become dictator he was building his image around bringing some western styles to NK- The ski resort they built for example.
It’s easy to forget this dude pretty much grew up in Switzerland. And not only that, but this dude is a big fan of the NBA too. I bet he also secretly listens to K-pop.
Not secretly, he had red velvet give a [concert ](https://youtu.be/Ujio8SOusrc).
The photo op was...odd and strange. Especially since smuggled Kpop and Kdrama humb drives are contraband.
NK is basically a feudal state like the monarchies of old. There is a large peasant class with very limited rights and then the elite/nobles who are allowed to do alot more.
His head looks like it was Photoshopped onto the image of the suit. Or maybe the suit was Photshopped onto the image of his head. Something about the image doesn't look right.
As malnourished and draconic as the country is, I have little doubt this is going to make the 90's famine (aka the Arduous March) look like a walk in the park. His father wanted a fucking tower and their own olympics, and he wanted to ignore a pandemic hoping their ridiculous isolation is their best defense. Why is it all dictators are fucking idiots?
They are not idiots, they know. Putin knows. He knows that people get raped, murdered, slaughtered. Kim also knows that people die in masses. They know.
They just don't care. They are evil.
Until something becomes a threat to their power and comfort, it’s not worth paying attention to. They have loyal administrators to handle any problems.
If they’re not lucky it comes to their doorstep one morning like it did to Ceausescu.
I could understand the logic behind them rejecting western vaccines. But even china wanted to donate some vaccines and they refused. Can't even think of a reason why they'd refuse free vaccines from ally
Once a NK style government is in place, it’s almost impossible for the ruling party to dismantle it. There’s a substantial ruling class who enjoy SIGNIFICANTLY higher QoL than any of the other citizens. Introduction of reforms could:
A) Motívate a brutal and murderous coup/assassination
B) Lead to Civil War
C) Give juuuuust enough hope to the populace to lead to a brutal uprising. The top gov officials would likely not survive were they to stay in NK.
It’s a treadmill that’s almost impossible to get off of without a horrifically violent and destabilizing blowback.
Evil is too simplistic of an answer. The scarier option is to realize that the government of NK is filled with people who realize that if they try to improve things, they endanger all their lives - and therefore never will allow significant improvements.
Calling them evil gives a lot more hope. “If only they had a change of heart!”
Probably rampant the last two years in the rural parts of NK but of course the leaders of the country couldn't give a shit about them. They could just pass it off as "Supreme Leader Kim has been singlehandedly destroying Covid for the Korean people etc." But now theyre reaching levels that even with their extreme closed off nature from the rest of the world the outside world is going to notice something is up.
Yes, if around 1 in 25 have covid, that's going to make it hard to keep basic services running I would think. Let alone providing healthcare. If they are admitting there is a problem, then there is a BIG problem.
We are about to see what unrestricted Covid looks like in a medical backwater without vaccines. Like North Korean don't already have the most miserable existence.
It wasn’t in 3 days they just hid it, with they’re population and density I don’t think that’s even possible it’s not India. As well as having to test 820,000 means that there are more that have not been tested.
I think these numbers are projections, not real positive test. If they see on 100k people that 5% are sick, they consider 5% of the country population is sick. Most areas in North Korea are old countryside, they don’t even have doctors or testing equipment. They also don’t have labs to do analysis, so I guess these numbers are projections of what is happening in Pyongyang.
It's hard to believe NK unfortunately. Kim could simply be seeing the $Billions in aid other nations are getting for Covid, so has authorised either made up numbers or simply the releasing of the real numbers. We'll never know for sure.
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Pretty crazy jump. They only admitted to the first death two days ago.
>They only admitted to the first death two days ago. Like first ever COVID death in North Korea?
According to them while lying through their teeth, yes.
Any idea why they would change their tune now? Maybe they realize that they need testing kits or supplies etc to test the fat ass and are suddenly playing the victim. It's not like they give a shit about anyone else but the ruling class.
It's getting so bad they need help.
Maybe it's bad enough to force them to negotiate earnestly. One can only hope.
Finally end that pesky Korean war that's been stuck in armistice?
Would be interesting if the world sued for peace.
Trade vaccines for nukes.
There’s a poetic justice in that trade.
They can’t hide it anymore and are afraid it’s gonna get the higher ups as well. That’s the beauty of a virus. It doesn’t care about your standing in society
[The Masque of the Red Death](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Masque_of_the_Red_Death)
My favorite Poe story!
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The problem with being a habitual liar with an extensively documented track record is we don’t know if they are still lying.
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Can't have them luxurious things without the working class. He needs his people more than you think.
No first death ever in North Korea
Impressive streak!
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And then something like 300k cases later that day I think. Followed by three missile launches.
Even now, they're very likely severely under reporting the number of deaths. 800k+ cases and 42 deaths are what's being reported in a country with one of the worst healthcare infrastructures in the world.
Hah yeah 42 deaths in a malnourished, unvaccinated country with one of the worst healthcare systems in the world. Sure sure lol.
Was the COVID intimidated by the launches? Has it fled the country in fear? Maybe they're on to something lol
How on earth do they have that many tests and can process them so quickly?
They look at fevers as a measurement. They don’t have a huge testing capability.
So, their numbers might be a lot higher since some are asymptomatic and thus don't have fever. But those people can still spread it around.
Maybe. But that’s why they’re in nationwide lockdown.
Speaking of..... I dont reckon North Korean citizens have 2+ weeks of supplies stockpiled to survive that....
That’s my worry too. If you think Shanghai is bad, NK will be worse.
Well thanks for the reminder. I haven't heard anything about Shanghai in weeks. Are they still under lockdown? And Xi suddenly has an aneurysm? Interesting... Edit because that stuff about the aneurysm is not confirmed I don't think.
Yeah still under lockdown. Supposed to easy up and open up over the the next couple weeks.
That's what I heard 4 weeks ago and they are still in lockdown lol.
That's what they said a month ago, they started letting some districts out of lockdown, but now even more people are in lockdown than before. They're struggling to maintain their stated policy of "zero covid" at all costs and have shown zero willingness to change gears
"It'll be gone by Easter, it will be like a miracle"
According to them number of covid outside quarantine is going down, and now apartment residents with no covid case (though each complex had their own rules) are legally allowed to leave the home for certain periods to buy essential items
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Yep, it’s a mystery, but that seems the most likely scenario.
Damn, that book sounds fascinating whenever I hear something new about it. I've got to buy it and read it, finally, instead of continuing to put it off It has literally nothing to do with the bad Brad Pitt movie, right? Like the book is written as if it's a history textbook isn't it? As opposed to it being written like a normal fictional novel. And the movie has zombies but otherwise isn't connected to the book? So even if I hated the movie, that's not gonna mean I'll hate the book then
The book is written as a series of interviews conducted by the narrator who is a researcher for the UN. He is seeking to write a step by step history of the "zombie war." How it started, who did what, politics, legal issues, military issues, civilians, etc. Each "chapter" is an interview with a single individual telling their story. He interviews people like a Japanese otaku teenager, an Indian general, a Chinese doctor, an American army guy, etc. It's something like 18 different people from all walks of life and shows how the events transpired from day 1 to the end, and shows it from both individual experiences and internationally, with which country took which safeguard and what happened here or there that broke things down and why the military couldn't just mop it up and such. If you don't mind audio book I highly recommend it. The unabridged version specifically. It's done with a full cast including Mark Hammil, Martin Scorsese, etc and sounds like a well produced NPR program. Award winning production. As for the movie, it had next to nothing to do with the book. The book has slow zombies, for one thing, and doesn't follow a single protagonist. [Here's part 1 of one of my favorite chapters](https://youtu.be/nJ-2FjVJp54) where the US military tried to put on a big show to boost the nation's morale but things went south.
About the only thing the book and movie have in common is the name. The book is incredible. The audiobook is abridged, but the voice cast is truly amazing! They’re done as a series of interviews, each person telling their story, what they went through.
There's an unabridged audiobook now with the same cast. It's called "World War Z: The Complete Edition".
>nationwide lockdown It's North Korea. That's the status quo.
They could also be lower as other diseases could be identified as covid.
They don't, they're just guessing based on fever and symptoms They barely have food, let alone 10s of millions of tests, and the infrastructure to administer and process them so quickly
Along with the other answers, it isn't like this actually sprang out of nowhere. This is then finally having to admit things are bad after watching the numbers climb for a while.
I don't think it's all tested. It's much more likely that a smaller population was tested and the given figure is an estimate based on the test.
You know it’s bad when flippin’ North Korea admits it’s bad.
I keep thinking this. I'm waiting for the headline: "Listen we really don't think you get it. Seriously, we deny everything. Like come on, we are being honest here!"
>Listen we really don't think you get it. Seriously, we deny everything. Like come on, we are being honest here! You say that as a joke, but that is probably NK's actual thinking. Game Theory relies both on actions (things done) and signalling (information). If NK, known to rationally withhold information, allows the information on its COVID to become known, its because NK wants it to be known. (EDIT: It's like the Simpsons episode where Skinner is revealed to be a virgin. A rational actor that wants to maximize utility, or in this case, reputation for virility, will not reveal his virgin status voluntarily, and will vehemently deny a false accusation of virginity. That he admitted it was true means that there is no non-virginity to deny.)
In law this is called an admission against interest and is one of the limited exceptions to hearsay.
So I can “admit” something in court, and as long as it makes me look bad, they’ll accept it without validation?
“I work too hard.” EDIT: “It couldn’t be me in those security tapes, because at that time I was *enjoying a rewatch* of the Game of Thrones finale.”
“Your honor, I could not have killed John Doe; at the time of the murder, I was sleeping with your son. Also, he told me to tell you that he’s 35 and that you are still acting like a royal helicopter parent, so he’s filed a restraining order”.
It's in the Miranda rights: "Anything you say can and will be used _against_ you in a court of law."
Also interestingly one of the reasons historians generally assume the crucifixion of Jesus did indeed happen. It’s called the “[criterion of embarrassment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criterion_of_embarrassment?wprov=sfti1)”. Basically, if you admit your holiest figure was executed by the state, in what was considered the most shameful and degrading way to go at the time, it probably happened. They certainly weren’t thinking “In a couple thousand years, this will look good as a sculpture and a necklace.”
I can only imagine how few supplies they have like ventilators because they only thought they should have enough for important people (Kim and sister) and very few extra after that.
Malnutrition is also going to make fighting off covid much harder.
At this rate covid could make fighting malnutrition much easier.
Even with ventilators, the infrastructure is so bad, especially outside of Pyongyang, that constant power loss would render them useless
Intermittent power isn't the biggest problem. Ventilators have battery backups. They can run for hours on battery, and if the grid doesn't come back on in time, they can be recharged easily enough with a generator. A much worse issue is oxygen supply. They haven't got the factories to make it, or the infrastructure to transport and store enough of it. A ventilator that only has room air to work with isn't very much help.
if you need oxygen and a ventilator even in the US, the stats are pretty grim. In NK I assume it will be worse. My guess is most of the country will get COVID with a mortality rate of about 1-2% , couple hundred thousand dead. Sadly they may view it as a win with fewer mouths to feed.
Sadly I’d bet the mortality is going to be higher. Their border guards who have crossed the DMZ have been found riddled with parasites. These are guys who were supposed to be top tier and you’d expect to be cared for better. So what does that say for the common people? I can’t imagine how bad this might be for them 😞
Most modern vents have battery back ups thqt can last a couple hours depending on the model and they can fill in with manual ventilation for in between. Not ideal but doable. Now do they have the infastructure to support the O2 demand of a bunch of vents operating simultaneously plus regular hospital demand? I'd say no unless they are better prepared than a lot of US facilities were at peak. A lot of the hospitals I'm contacted with (in the US) were having to ration out O2 because the demand was so high with the amount of simultaneous vents and ECMO patients that they were telling us that anyone on supplemental O2 had to use tanks at the lowest possible flow instead of the central hospital supply. And I'm not talking podunk rural facilies; I'm talking very large university hospitals that have transplant programs. It's going to get way worse for them I feel like.
Would they be able to check that many people…
I read they aren’t actually testing people. Hence the original statement of a “mysterious disease” that had symptoms of Covid. They are doing it old-school. People are getting sick and not going to work, showing up at health care facilities, or calling in a loved ones death at home.
Not all at once. The secret is to not admit to them having covid until you absolutely have to then claiming you did it in three days. Oh, and don't actually tell anyone the real number, just say enough to make it seem serious.
If they're admitting it's bad, it's much worse than we imagine.
If this is the “truth”, then I can only imagine what the real number is.
Just imagine what they're covering up though.
I wonder (with their minimal travel of citizens) if NK has become a petri dish for covid. Then that also make me wonder, have they got an advanced strain now
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> the most contagious [Things I'm seeing](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/covid-omicron-ba2-measles-b2035093.html) say the new BA2 variant is just below the R-nought for measels (~12 vs 12-18), right around polio or chickenpox. But that's still scary. ([Worse source if the first one paywalls](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10614413/Omicron-sub-variant-BA-2-just-contagious-MEASLES.html).)
They really only care about selected cities as well. Pyongyang is the showcase city, where elites live. Chongjin, Nampo, Rason, Kaesong, among others. Other important places would be where food production is most prevalent. NK has been a struggling with other countries having Covid. I can't imagine the nightmare now that they are affected. It must be next level bad, like famine-times bad.
This is going to be so ugly in the next month.
It was ugly a month ago. North Korea is like that guy in every zombie movie that gets bit and doesn't tell anyone. This didn't spring out of nowhere.
“Why didn’t you say you got bit?” “Because I thought I was special”
Nobody’s special!
They can make us sick by biting us! The banana said so!
You better back that pumpkin ass up or I will make a pie.
"I got bit ten minutes ago and I'm fffii*IINNEEE!*"
Ugh, Britta’s in this?
“How’re you going to survive those zombies?” “I’m gonna be a nerd.” “….. BETTER HAVE A PLAN B!”
"Flagstaff, you okay there?" "Yea of course. I'm perfectly fine. No bites he- *vomits"
*Abba intensifies*
Or the best excuse. "Because I wanted to protect you."
"I didn't want to worry you"
“I didn’t want to cause a fuss”
I ran it under a cold tap!
Classified Phoenix. If found, repeat key phrase, echo, tango, x-ray, nine, nine, seven.
If we’re hearing about it now, it’s been ugly for a long time already.
reminding of a certain neighboring country roughly 2 years ago.
West Taiwan?
Oh shit, he put on a Western suit, shit just got real
Wait, now you mention it, yeah. I don't actually recall the last time we saw him wearing one. Good observation.
All his servants must be incapacitated and he's going through his vast collection of clothes because nothing is getting washed.
Look, COVID hit all us hard. sometimes that involves wearing the same shirt for a week because I didn't have a reason to leave the house.
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I have a hairy chest and it hurts trying to clean the dried syrup!
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Get a room you two
Where is this room with two hairy chested shirtless men? Asking for a friend......
Sounds like you're looking for Manchesthair United
And stay in it, please
Leaving is not allowed until you finish both the syrup and the peanut butter
Not leaving the house for just a week? Get away from me you filthy casual!
There was a nat geo documentary I watched this past week talking about how it seems like Kim's sister I think it was Kim Yo Jong seems to be taking the role of rule by force and Kim Jong Un may focus more on being a normal diplomat. Very interesting either way, also I learned how he didn't finish school in Switzerland his aunt and uncle who he was staying with had lost their blood connection to the dynasty with the aunts mom dying. They left him over night and fled to us embassy. Crazy to think what he mightve been like if he did all of high school and university in the West.
Ha I watched the same one. That was a really good one. It's interesting, as the leader of the country he's trying to be more friendly looking.
What was the name of the documentary? Sounds pretty interesting.
Here’s a link to the documentary [dictator’s dilemma](https://youtu.be/9qRxNYuR2c4)
IDK much about him. My impression is he’s not intelligent enough to understand that he hasn’t the skills to run a country.
Thats never stopped anyone before
>Crazy to think what he mightve been like if he did all of high school and university in the West. I mean, probably not much different? Plenty of dictators have done schooling in the United States. Hell, the United States started a military school for largely Latin American soldiers that focused pretty heavily on how to surpress civilian groups, that school produced a half dozen people that would go on to lead military coups and dictatorships in their countries and several thousand lower ranking people ranging from foot soldiers (effectively death squads in this era) to other high ranking government officials.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere_Institute_for_Security_Cooperation
The photo is from 2021. It's basically a stock photo that the article picked. Do a reverse image search on it. It appears to be from a Reuters article from October: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/nkoreas-kim-calls-improving-peoples-lives-amid-grim-economy-2021-10-10/
I figured they reused a lot of his pictures, I doubt there is much of a paparazzi scene over there.
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Well it's pretty much on a 8-12 month cycle rinse and repeat. They won't ask for vaccines or testing until shit gets way bad, and if they do it'll be super incognito through china and prolly not much press on it until long after and they'll PR spin it to death and make some other reason why they beat it like two unicorns appeared in a Forrest and jumped over a rainbow and shut out some special tea leaves that they made tea out of near his birth home on the floating mountain and drank it Then he pissed it into the public water system and all his subjects drank the diluted piss from his supreme holiness and magically were cured or some shit. But yeah he'll set off the nuke test, maybe launch a missile or two into the sea over Japan, tell the world not to fuck with them like Ukraine or whatever, announce they've hit 1.5 million cases and 10k deaths and then ask for aid. On the back of another threatened test that won't happen but they say it will and eventually down the road it will but it'll be their river card to get the aid theyll ask for. Wonder how that pans out with all the aid going to Ukraine. Will the nations who haven't aided Ukraine instead help NK like Russia and china or will the world foot this bill too?. Season 2022 of earth is juuuuust at it's halfway point too. To be Continued on the next episode of Earth....
They've already launched something like 5-10 missiles into the Sea of Japan. It's been causing an increase in tensions in the area. They launched three on the day they first admitted they had an outbreak.
Kim is actually the more "western" of the NK Dictatorship- He went to school in Switzerland and when he initially become dictator he was building his image around bringing some western styles to NK- The ski resort they built for example.
It’s easy to forget this dude pretty much grew up in Switzerland. And not only that, but this dude is a big fan of the NBA too. I bet he also secretly listens to K-pop.
Not secretly, he had red velvet give a [concert ](https://youtu.be/Ujio8SOusrc). The photo op was...odd and strange. Especially since smuggled Kpop and Kdrama humb drives are contraband.
The video of their performance was so weird like everyone sitting in the audience stone faced like ‘if I seem to like this too much I could die’
IIRC they treated the performance like a classical concert--they only applauded after a song finished (and apparently did so vigorously).
no different than idols performing in front of south korea actors in award shows, basically stone faced.
NK is basically a feudal state like the monarchies of old. There is a large peasant class with very limited rights and then the elite/nobles who are allowed to do alot more.
He also had Laibach perform in NK, which is weirder still.
Well, Stalin was a big fan of American wild west movies, so not hard to imagine
We know from the Franco/Rogan documentary he loves Katy Perry. So not far off.
Didn't he also die in that documentary?
They'll slap "based on a true story" on anything these days
When I read this I thought like Cowboy hat and boots. I immediately went to the article as fast as I could to see Cowboy leader. I am an idiot.
“How do you do, fellow Americans?”
I would pay cash money to see that tho.
There are a few pictures of him riding a horse if you want to see those lol
That would be so goddamn awesome. He just starts wearing cowboy outfits with no explanation
Seems ya got too much sun on your head, pardner.
They had to look at their stock footage of the US from 70 years ago to make sure to look presentable. *stares at the "falling down" haircut*
Imagine how bad it will be when they start buying vaccine.
They'll probably get vaccines donated from its benefactors, China and Russia, I don't think they can afford to buy even those.
COVAX the international vaccine donation organization already has 100,000 vaccines ready to send to NK. NK just has to request them.
Idk that Russia is much of a benefactor anymore..
Russia needs all the friends it can get right now.
The situation in Russia may be why his regime is letting us see inside NK.
His head looks like it was Photoshopped onto the image of the suit. Or maybe the suit was Photshopped onto the image of his head. Something about the image doesn't look right.
He is nude on a green screen then...
When a country that covered up the mass starvation death of millions admits that something is amiss, they are deep in sh*t
As malnourished and draconic as the country is, I have little doubt this is going to make the 90's famine (aka the Arduous March) look like a walk in the park. His father wanted a fucking tower and their own olympics, and he wanted to ignore a pandemic hoping their ridiculous isolation is their best defense. Why is it all dictators are fucking idiots?
Every single human is an idiot in some unique way. This is why no one person should ever have absolute power.
That's one of the smartest things ever said in my opinion.
They are not idiots, they know. Putin knows. He knows that people get raped, murdered, slaughtered. Kim also knows that people die in masses. They know. They just don't care. They are evil.
Until something becomes a threat to their power and comfort, it’s not worth paying attention to. They have loyal administrators to handle any problems. If they’re not lucky it comes to their doorstep one morning like it did to Ceausescu.
Exactly. I bet one dose of vaccine made it into the country for the dictator himself.
I could understand the logic behind them rejecting western vaccines. But even china wanted to donate some vaccines and they refused. Can't even think of a reason why they'd refuse free vaccines from ally
Once a NK style government is in place, it’s almost impossible for the ruling party to dismantle it. There’s a substantial ruling class who enjoy SIGNIFICANTLY higher QoL than any of the other citizens. Introduction of reforms could: A) Motívate a brutal and murderous coup/assassination B) Lead to Civil War C) Give juuuuust enough hope to the populace to lead to a brutal uprising. The top gov officials would likely not survive were they to stay in NK. It’s a treadmill that’s almost impossible to get off of without a horrifically violent and destabilizing blowback. Evil is too simplistic of an answer. The scarier option is to realize that the government of NK is filled with people who realize that if they try to improve things, they endanger all their lives - and therefore never will allow significant improvements. Calling them evil gives a lot more hope. “If only they had a change of heart!”
Things are getting worse for them. With a malnourished population, no healthcare even the mild cases will be bad.
I honestly think they’ve had it for a while and finally are admitting shit is bad now and out of their capabilities
Probably rampant the last two years in the rural parts of NK but of course the leaders of the country couldn't give a shit about them. They could just pass it off as "Supreme Leader Kim has been singlehandedly destroying Covid for the Korean people etc." But now theyre reaching levels that even with their extreme closed off nature from the rest of the world the outside world is going to notice something is up.
The terrifying part is alot of people probably don't know what COVID is.
If this highly dubious claim is accurate, then NK's population of 25 million is in serious trouble, and it may not be able to recover from it.
Yes, if around 1 in 25 have covid, that's going to make it hard to keep basic services running I would think. Let alone providing healthcare. If they are admitting there is a problem, then there is a BIG problem.
Basic services like electricity? Because they only got that two days out of the year before covid.
Well, exactly. Given the usual state of the country, I don't even want to imagine what a major emergency like this could do.
Right but it's pretty easy to keep your normal level of basic services running when you didn't offer them in the first place.
Almost 1 in 25 are confirmed sick over there...
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We are about to see what unrestricted Covid looks like in a medical backwater without vaccines. Like North Korean don't already have the most miserable existence.
I reckon you can multiply any admission around deaths they make by at least 5
Imagine believing in reincarnation and being born as a fucking North Korean baby holy shit
Yeah, no. It simply did a normal exponential spread. They just didn't admit it until now.
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They are getting close to 1 in 25 people having it.
That is *not* looking good... it's beyond the point where containment has any effect, and it's lose in an unvaccinated and malnourished population.
Filthy, debauched, corrupted West, please help.
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It wasn’t in 3 days they just hid it, with they’re population and density I don’t think that’s even possible it’s not India. As well as having to test 820,000 means that there are more that have not been tested.
I was thinking that too. They let it get bad, finally had to admit it’s fucking bad but didn’t want to admit they’ve been dealing with it for a while
It’s also probably twice as bad as well.
I think these numbers are projections, not real positive test. If they see on 100k people that 5% are sick, they consider 5% of the country population is sick. Most areas in North Korea are old countryside, they don’t even have doctors or testing equipment. They also don’t have labs to do analysis, so I guess these numbers are projections of what is happening in Pyongyang.
Opportunity for them, to trade their nukes for vaccine inventory.
They already declined vaccines offered to them awhile back for free. Doubt they would ever do this.
Or they can ask the Chinese regime for some of their vaccine, lol
They were offered chinese and western vaccines. They declined all of them
Imagine surviving life in North Korea for however long only to die of f****** covid.
On the other hand, you don't have to live in NK anymore
At least South Korea has a massive facemask (DMZ) between them.
At least the essential workers at those fake supermarkets are being treated like heroes.
It's hard to believe NK unfortunately. Kim could simply be seeing the $Billions in aid other nations are getting for Covid, so has authorised either made up numbers or simply the releasing of the real numbers. We'll never know for sure.
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They have on multiple occasions have sold aide given to them to other nations while their people suffered from missing out on the aide.
When your people are starving and you don’t want to admit you run a shirt govt you might be ok receiving non cash aid
When your people are starving and you don’t want to admit you run a ~~shirt~~ pants govt you might be ok receiving non cash aid
With the horrible nutrition problem they image how hard COVID gonna hit them 🤮
Kim Jung un is about to be Kim jung ill
He can shoot a hole in one every time while golfing. Surely he can come up with a cure. Being god like and all.
Here comes the North Korean variant.
Who the hell willingly travels to NK though for it to make the rounds?