[benVFR]

You guys have to see the recent National Geographic Explorer show on North Korea. (I recorded it last weekend, hard to believe it won't be re-broadcast.)

Basically they were able to bring cameras into North Korea under the guise of medical research as they were on a trip to do cataract surgery.

The sad story is North Koreans develop cataracts at 10x the worldwide rate due to something in the way they are malnourished. Even little kids are going blind there, whereas practically no one goes blind from them in the West or even in China. (Basically they get a spot like grandpa does here.. but they get them really young, and since there are no doctors capable of doing the surgery the spot just grows till they're totally blind.) And they had little kids 5-6 years old that were already totally blind in both eyes.

As part of the project they had nice surgical gear & machinery for eye surgery brought in to a hospital in Pyongyang.. but no NK doctors are capable of using it. And the hospitals aren't sanitary and don't even have reliable power to run the medical equipment. So the team brought their own Honda generators into the North Korean hospital...

In 10 days they operated on 1000 North Koreans with a 100% success rate.. pretty amazing.

The shocking thing? As soon as they had their bandages removed they completely ignored the doctors and ran to the Poster of Kim Jong Il on the wall and started screaming and crying "Thank you great leader, Thank you for restoring my sight! Praise you! Praise you!."

These people are totally fucking GONE. Apparently the whole country is like a cult.. David Koresh style. (There are all kinds of other examples in the documentary - no photos of anything but Kim Jong Il in the country, etc.. )

Craziest moment.. old codger gets his bandages removed, has sight in both eyes thanks to American technology, doctors, and aid.. "Praise the great General for restoring my sight! Praise Him, Praise Him...! Oh Great General with the eyesight you have bestowed upon me I promise I will get a gun and kill all Americans!" And the whole room of patients stand up and start crying and yelling praise together like a Church!

We here about this regularly but you very rarely see just how crazy it is.. this show is mind blowing.

[slaps76]

Fuzzy memory, but I read something last year about an American journalist who was over there. He had to be chaperoned around by a N.Korean, and said the citizens are like robots. He would ask them a question, and they would give a weird pre-thought response that had nothing to do wiht the question like "yes,the day here is beautiful." It's sad that many of them have no clue what's going on in the rest of the world, and that's all they know.

[benVFR]

Oh another one I forgot.. they have a fascinating segment with the US & South Korean soldiers at the DMZ.

For the most part the zone is all electric fence and mine fields to stop North Koreans from defecting. But there is one area where there is a building that crosses the border where the North and South Koreans can have meetings, etc.. on the outside here there is no fence, just a 6" high concrete curb to indicate the border.

The North Korean soldiers stationed at the border there to await communication are arrayed in such a manner so as if any one soldier tries to dash across the border there will always be another soldier who can shoot him.

If the US or SK troops need to pass a note they do this hysterical daisy chain thing where each guy holds onto the guy in front of him. The front guy will then pass letters/documentation across. This way the guy who approaches the border can't be pulled across.

No US or SK troops under 5'8" are allowed to be stationed here.. to remind the NK troops what properly fed soldiers look like!

[richw]

No I was wrong steel is weak flesh is strong

[Karaya One]

This brainwashing is the reason why they want Kim in power still - they being the West. The cost to SK of reunification of that country would devastate SK. You have to re-educate generations of people to the western way of thinking.

At least East Germany had technology, a base economy and an educated populace. NK has none of this. No way they could just absorb several million people.

[rjh200]

Originally Posted by Karaya One

This brainwashing is the reason why they want Kim in power still - they being the West. The cost to SK of reunification of that country would devastate SK. You have to re-educate generations of people to the western way of thinking.

At least East Germany had technology, a base economy and an educated populace. NK has none of this. No way they could just absorb several million people.

The problem is the longer this goes on, the higher the cost.

[Karaya One]

Originally Posted by rjh200

The problem is the longer this goes on, the higher the cost.

And who is going to step in and fix it? The UN???

This has been going on for 50 years. China doesn't want NK citizens, either.

If Kim takes a bullet tommorow, what will his military do? 4 million brainwashed soldiers with fairly current Soviet technology? Seoul is within arty range of the DMZ.