This is a fascinating video of a trip around Pyongyang on May 14,2014. The camera operator had special permission (and I"m sure a very carefully planned route) to put a Gopro camera on his car and drive around.
My thoughts when I watched it:
1) I'm SHOCKED at how modern this area of Pyongyang looks. I truly expected to see soviet style concrete buildings with minimalist styling. With a little additional thought I realized that it's very important for North Korea to project an image of wealth and prosperity so it makes sense that some areas should look like this. It would be interesting to know if those shopping districts are actually open for business.
I wish my morning commute was like this! They have large roads and very few cars. Most of the intersections are uncontrolled, though there are a few stoplights and even a few of the famous traffic girls directing traffic. I wish they would have been stopped by one of the girls to see her directing traffic - what I’ve seen in other places shows they’re fascinating to watch!
The lack of people - there are areas where there are bikers and people walking. Most of the bus stops have long queues, but beyond that there are very few people around. Despite the beauty of the area, it looks like a ghost town. This probably answers my question in my first point about how much shopping actually happens in those shopping districts.
I’m sure I’ll raise more points as I think of them, but wanted to share the video first to see what you guys think as well.
Who knows about that particular district, but this Frontline documentary had a lot of video that wasn’t shot under the eye of the North Korean government. One of the most comedic scenes dealt with a premier department store that was filled with luxury goods. None of them were for sale, however. You’d never be able to restock what was sold. The whole thing existed entirely for propaganda purposes.
I recommend the documentary as a counter-point to this video, anyhow. Some of it is pretty horrific.
Yeah, there’s no question this is a propaganda tour. What you say is a good way to describe the scene: Form without Function. The modern skyscrapers and shopping centers are there, but they don’t appear to be being used. There’s no hustle and bustle or anything else that would make me want to spend time there. It’s more like a museum.
Yeah. Something’s gotta go on inside the buildings. But I wonder about what that looks like/how full they are. I also am curious about the process of building all those things. Just thinking about running a state that directly controls everything from the engineering to the construction and potentially the decoration of all those structures makes me tired.
I’ve offered this link several times in the past here on the Dope, but if you haven’t watched The VICE Guide To North Korea (three 20 minute segments, so 1 hour total run time), it’s a real eye-opener. Basically, a couple of guys from VICE flew to China where they secured visas to enter North Korea. They filmed nearly every minute they were there, at risk of spending the rest of their lives in a DPRK prison. The footage they got is, IMO, unequaled (even by the Frontline doc linked to upthread).
I think this photo pretty clearly that even though Pyongyang appears to be a major city there just isn’t much going on there (or in the rest of the country).
They drove for 23 minutes and I saw no gas stations or truck stops. I did see what looked like a fuel truck at one bus stop parked off to the right, but it could’ve been a water truck.
Three red cars, several jeeps all same color olive drab/green, lots of buses, lots of people waiting for buses. One scene had a tunnel with many people walking in the tunnel, but when the gopro car came out there was no buildings, no where for the people to walk to or from, strange.
They say the buildings with balcony’s are for the well connected, lots of cranes on unfinished buildings.
That first Vice video was one I’d seen a few years ago and is the reason I expected everything to be depressing. The second Vice video in Russia was fascinating! That train ride in Siberia looked crazy enough to be a video in its own right. After I watched those then I found the Vice video with Dennis Rodman. Shane Smith narrated at the beginning and admitted that he’s been banned from North Korea. Anyway, while the crew was driving at night they noticed that many of the buildings (some of which I recognized from the driving tour) were lit up in very colorful displays. They commented that there was such a huge disparity between what they were witnessing in Pyongyang vs what they knew to be facts (the satellite pic of NK at night) that they felt completely discombobulated. They truly felt it was a grand theatrical performance for their benefit.
I thought every main road had to have a special lane reserved for the Leader’s use only; I saw no evidence of such.
A lot of subway entrances, but no signs, no station names.
No ads, no billboards, no street vendors or streetlife in general (though at one point you pass a bunch of people crouching who might be shooting craps.) A lot fewer propaganda posters than I expected; the space that would be occupied by ads on bus shelters in any other country looked like just landscapes.
Pollution controls, if they have them, aren’t working. One of those buses was belching enough black smoke that you couldn’t hardly see the back of it.
There was a blue Mercedes limo at about 13:00 which must have carried a cabinet minister or someone of that sort.
I was thinking those were subway entrances, but then it occurred to me that they might simply be the entrances to pedestrian underpasses. Because of all the, you know, traffic.