While the rest of the world was preoccupied with Corona Virus ....
North Korea, was a land mercifully free of such decadent bourgeois illnesses ....
... at least right up until the 3rd of July 2020, when Kim Jong-un was still claiming a 'shining success' in dealing with it. Mr Kim said the country had no virus cases and had "prevented the inroad of the malignant virus and maintained a stable situation". It had achieved this remarkable feat by closing its borders and putting thousands (more like millions we suspect), into isolation on the 30th of January 2020 - See, paranoia pays off.
He added that the success in handling the virus was "achieved by the far-sighted leadership of the Party Central Committee" aka himself. However this lockdown has also left stockpiles of PPE and medical supplies, including vaccines built up at the border unable to get through .... ah well, but as Mr Kim would say ... "you know the saying 'you cant make an omelette without breaking someheads .. err eggs (if we have any)'."
This record was only broken when on the 25th of July 2020, North Korea reported its first official suspected case of coronavirus ... in the rather unlikely form of a returning defector from South Korea, who had crossed back across the demarcation line 3 weeks beforehand, apparently wanting to come back to the warm embrace of the North, and who had been found to have Covid-19 symptoms in detention in the border city of Kaesong. What happened to the returning defector wasn't stated, but Kaesong was placed in lock down, and dire warnings of punishment for all who let him get through the DMZ border were reported.
But apart from this strange propaganda laden breach (dirty South, clean North), North Korea had been free to indulge in its favourite hobbies of launching missiles and arguing with or winding up its southern neighbour.
One particularly strange bone of contention was South Korean TV dramas and films, which the North claimed showed the North in a bad light, and creating an "atrocious provocation". Whilst the blast from the North was non specific, its assumed that the cause of the Norths ire was a TV drama series Crash Landing on You and a blockbuster action movie called Ashfall.
The Uriminzokkiri website that contained the Norths tirade, stated that "Recently, South Korean authorities and film producers have released anti-republic films and TV dramas that are deceptive, fabricated, absurd and impure, putting all their efforts into making strategic propaganda." ... Of course the North Korean regime is aware that copies of the film and the TV show will be circulating illegally amongst its population ... not least dropped by balloon.
The TV soap drama Crash Landing on You has the unlikely plot of an South Korean heiress accidentally paragliding in to the North and being rescued by a guard who doesn't betray her ... love and defection then follow (parts based very loosely we assume on this real story). However it portrays the North as run by a privileged elite that enjoys everything wealth can provide, while the rest of the country is underdeveloped, with frequent power cuts, and often hunger and shortages as well. All while fearing the secret police .... fair enough you might say.
Uriminzokkiri calls the producers "misers and human rubbish without any conscience" who "turn the tragic division of Korea into a source of entertainment".
The movie Ashfall features Mount Paektuin in the North, which a mystical mountain and a dormant volcano, and is also coincidentally (strange or what) the birthplace of the demi-god Kim family, who claim a "Mount Paektu bloodline" ... the film sees the mountain blown up using North Korea's nuclear weapon stockpile. Thus stopping the volcanic earthquakes (which incidentally destroyed communist headquarters), and removing North Korea's nuclear threat, and that resulting in a united government overseeing the reconstruction of the Korean Peninsula. Not a plot line likely to endear the movie to the North .... in fact it caused an "unbearable insult"
The site goes on with a dig at capitalism ... "It is a pity that movie and programme makers produce such insulting programmes while ditching their integrity, dignity and conscience as artists and are blinded with making money."
It finishes off with the usual fist shaking threats "The South Korean government and production houses will pay the price for making and distributing such movies and programmes which are full of manipulation and fiction that insult the reality of the bright situation of the North."
Glad to see there's still life in the regime ... I had lost sight of them and their florid prose over the last year or so. I expect plenty more where that came from (including more missiles), as their economy is squeezed till the pips squeal over the next couple of years.
 |
| Corona Virus Free - The Mystic Mountain Helps ... Oh And The Lack Of Heating Fuel |
North Korea, was a land mercifully free of such decadent bourgeois illnesses ....
... at least right up until the 3rd of July 2020, when Kim Jong-un was still claiming a 'shining success' in dealing with it. Mr Kim said the country had no virus cases and had "prevented the inroad of the malignant virus and maintained a stable situation". It had achieved this remarkable feat by closing its borders and putting thousands (more like millions we suspect), into isolation on the 30th of January 2020 - See, paranoia pays off.
He added that the success in handling the virus was "achieved by the far-sighted leadership of the Party Central Committee" aka himself. However this lockdown has also left stockpiles of PPE and medical supplies, including vaccines built up at the border unable to get through .... ah well, but as Mr Kim would say ... "you know the saying 'you cant make an omelette without breaking some
This record was only broken when on the 25th of July 2020, North Korea reported its first official suspected case of coronavirus ... in the rather unlikely form of a returning defector from South Korea, who had crossed back across the demarcation line 3 weeks beforehand, apparently wanting to come back to the warm embrace of the North, and who had been found to have Covid-19 symptoms in detention in the border city of Kaesong. What happened to the returning defector wasn't stated, but Kaesong was placed in lock down, and dire warnings of punishment for all who let him get through the DMZ border were reported.
 |
| North Korean Diplomacy At Work ..... |
But apart from this strange propaganda laden breach (dirty South, clean North), North Korea had been free to indulge in its favourite hobbies of launching missiles and arguing with or winding up its southern neighbour.
One particularly strange bone of contention was South Korean TV dramas and films, which the North claimed showed the North in a bad light, and creating an "atrocious provocation". Whilst the blast from the North was non specific, its assumed that the cause of the Norths ire was a TV drama series Crash Landing on You and a blockbuster action movie called Ashfall.
The Uriminzokkiri website that contained the Norths tirade, stated that "Recently, South Korean authorities and film producers have released anti-republic films and TV dramas that are deceptive, fabricated, absurd and impure, putting all their efforts into making strategic propaganda." ... Of course the North Korean regime is aware that copies of the film and the TV show will be circulating illegally amongst its population ... not least dropped by balloon.
The TV soap drama Crash Landing on You has the unlikely plot of an South Korean heiress accidentally paragliding in to the North and being rescued by a guard who doesn't betray her ... love and defection then follow (parts based very loosely we assume on this real story). However it portrays the North as run by a privileged elite that enjoys everything wealth can provide, while the rest of the country is underdeveloped, with frequent power cuts, and often hunger and shortages as well. All while fearing the secret police .... fair enough you might say.
Uriminzokkiri calls the producers "misers and human rubbish without any conscience" who "turn the tragic division of Korea into a source of entertainment".
 |
| Born In A Cabin On A Sacred Mountain ... |
The movie Ashfall features Mount Paektuin in the North, which a mystical mountain and a dormant volcano, and is also coincidentally (strange or what) the birthplace of the demi-god Kim family, who claim a "Mount Paektu bloodline" ... the film sees the mountain blown up using North Korea's nuclear weapon stockpile. Thus stopping the volcanic earthquakes (which incidentally destroyed communist headquarters), and removing North Korea's nuclear threat, and that resulting in a united government overseeing the reconstruction of the Korean Peninsula. Not a plot line likely to endear the movie to the North .... in fact it caused an "unbearable insult"
The site goes on with a dig at capitalism ... "It is a pity that movie and programme makers produce such insulting programmes while ditching their integrity, dignity and conscience as artists and are blinded with making money."
 |
| Some Are More Equal Than Others In A Socialist Paradise ... They All Get Soaked Except The Tall Demi God. |
It finishes off with the usual fist shaking threats "The South Korean government and production houses will pay the price for making and distributing such movies and programmes which are full of manipulation and fiction that insult the reality of the bright situation of the North."
Glad to see there's still life in the regime ... I had lost sight of them and their florid prose over the last year or so. I expect plenty more where that came from (including more missiles), as their economy is squeezed till the pips squeal over the next couple of years.
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