DAMN!!
Do tell . . . PLEASE!! Did he talk about White at all? Was White a misfit, or was he just crazy?
Okay. Here’s the deal. I was an SP4 at the time (yes, it was that long ago) and attending the Vietnamese course at DLI. The SGT was attending one of the Korean courses (I can’t remember if it was a refresher course or the regular course) and we were assigned as roomies because I’d already tested out on Korean a couple of years before. Remember also that this is not only hearsay but second-hand hearsay at that. The SGT told me that the dude wasn’t a good Soldier at all. Said that he was constantly failing uniform inspections and room inspections.
The SGT was an interesting character. One day I forgot my car keys and when we got to my car, parked at the bottom of the Presidio, he said, “I’m not walking back up there; hang on and I’ll pick the lock for you.” We spent the whole day in San Francisco with him picking my car locks. Part of his job in the Army had been teaching some Soldiers how to pick locks. Wish I could remember his name.
Anyway, here’s an interesting link about the case.
Many thanks, Monty, that was fascinating.
Kamsamnida!
That official DPRK link is filled with lies. It’s really entertaining to read what they say about their society. Well, that is until I remember that it’s real people really being starved, jailed, and killed for merely trying to live. The biggest fear the North’s government has is that information about it will get outside the country. Thus the limit on foreigners coming to the place. Obviously, a foreigner will most likely have family outside the country, family who will be very concerned if there’s no further contact with the family member inside the DPRK. Just going there is a major task in and of itself. Now imagine trying to prove that you’re not a foreign spy.
The North, of course, is desperate for cash and food. That’s one of the reasons it’s been so happy to take the food from the US, all the while blaming the US for the food shortage. The cash influx currently is coming from the tourism jaunts of South Koreans to one particular resort in the North. It’s completely choreographed and 100% monitored.
No, you’ll not be getting a free and easy blissful life in North Korea. Very Bad Idea[sup]tm[/sup] to move there.
In books on N. Korea I have read about Koreans who were stuck in Japan during WW2 who tried to move back to N. Korea afterwards to help build the country. They were sent straight to concentration camps. The author then lamented on how bad an idea it was to send people who spoke Japanese and lived in Japan who wanted to build Korea up to concentration camps, and then kidnap Japanese citizens and build international outrage for something those Koreans would’ve done willingly.
There is also the case of Joe Dresnok, who is still living in NK. He’s married with three kids and appears to be living a happy life. He was “frenemies” with Jenkins while he was still in the DPRK but after he was sent to Japan, he started telling people all of these horror stories including ones about Joe beating him for saying bad things about the country. I don’t believe these things to be true at all. I suggest watching “Crossing the Line.” After seeing him tell his story I believe that he is truly happy inside, despite the fact that in some scenes he has guides with him and it was heavily monitored. I don’t think that it bothers him at all, we all have our own beliefs and our own lifestyle preferences.
It definitely take a certain kind of person to want that kind of life. A lot of people have called him a traitor and in a military sense he is, but beyond that I believe that he was just searching for the right life for him and it’s very possible that he has found it.
The people who made Crossing the Line also run Koryo Tours, a travel agency out of Beijing that specializes in tours of North Korea. I thinking about visiting later this summer, possibly for the Mass Games.
Let’s hope for his and his families sake that he never changes his mind about the “lifestyle”.
One can argue that obesity is much lower in NORK, than in the USA.
Maybe this thread should be joined with the disappointing vacation spots thread 
I would consider going for a vacation, but then again I want to go to Kyzyl for the same reason Richard Feynman wanted to go … [I actually have a copy of his Tuva or Bust with the little record still intact =)] but the only way I would live there is as an employee/dependant at the US Embassy. I do not think there is any job that the NK government could offer me that would tempt me to move there, and I do not think that there is any US owned industry there. [or any foreign owned industry either]
There is no US Embassy in North Korea.
There are some foreign-owned industries there, most notably the Kaesong Industrial Region, which has several South Korean-owned companies, and the Rajin-Sonborg Economic Special Zone, which has investment from Russian and Chinese companies.
For anyone interested I highly suggest The Vice Guide To Travel: North Korea which can be found on YouTube. The magazine’s founder Shane Smith and a cameraman with a hidden camera go on a tour of North Korea and it’s the most bizzare thing I’ve ever seen, but still enthralling. Everything, every single little thing is 100% staged for his benefit. He’s also threatened with arrest or expulsion approximately every 10 minutes by his “guide”.
I think that was a joke…
If you have Netflix, I highly recommend streaming “National Geographic: Inside North Korea” to get an idea of just how much they hate us. The documentary is about an eye doctor who performs 1000 cataract surgeries in a week (might have been 10 days). When many of the elderly regain their sight, they immediately praise the “dear leader” and proclaim that they will get guns and personally kill all the Yankee devils. It’s creepy stuff.
link.
Whoosh. Counter-Whoosh. I like yer style psychonaut.
Didn’t the North Korean nurses position them in front of a portrait of the Kim Jong-Il (or his father) so that his image would be the first thing they saw once the bandages were removed?
I think they did.
While I was watching it I was wondering just how much was genuine praise for Dear Leader who gave them their eyesight and acting because I know that if someone just said, “Sweet, thanks doc” and walked out of there without crying and bowing they’d probably be disappeared.