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February 11, 2007
Sunday
 
 
"America" is Hell, but the DPRK is Paradise
Adriana Lukas (London)  Korea

By strange twist of browsing, I came across this North Korean propaganda video. The producers probably went to the same Stalinist school as Soviet and East European communists, so it seemed eerily familiar. There is also a strange propensity of propaganda writers to write paragraph long-sentences full of rousing adjectives (check out the text next to the video on YouTube). Hm, reminds me of corporate speak... But I digress.

This documentary movie objectively shows the fondamental difference between the criminal capitalist system of "USA" that is at odds with human rights and the genuinely benevolent Juche-based man-centered Korean-style socialist system of the Democratic people's Republic of Korea blessed with the flawless Songun leadership of Dear Leader Comrade Generalissimo Kim Jong Il the Heaven-born great brilliant Mt. Paektu type general born on the Sacred Mountain.

This would be hilarious if not for the fact that it comes from an evil place where there is no regard for the truth and human life. That this is still possible makes me think that nothing ever changes and people never learn from the past.


Comments
suffer the intense political and social oppression awash with crime, guns, violence, prostitution, drug trafficking, murder and jaywalking
Yes, murder, and jaywalking! I would most certainly not want to be caught doing that in North Korea.


The video is hilarious, but it has "flame bait" written all over it. I mean if somebody is able to edit a movie and put it on Youtube, they can't be that stupid?

If it's not fake, it makes you wonder why the creator of the movie hosts his blog and videos using an evil American corporation like Google. Does the Dear Leader Comrade Generalissimo Kim Jong Il not provide a blogging or video hosting service?


Posted by David Amon at February 12, 2007 12:22 AM

What's the deal with putting "America" in quotes?
Is it supposedly America?

Also, this video was a great example of how leftard protesters give aid and comfort to the enemy.


Posted by DeQueued at February 12, 2007 12:35 AM

It's not a fake. it's exactly like communist propaganda films I used to watch when growing up. I know, incredible but true.


Posted by Adriana at February 12, 2007 12:51 AM

America in quotes is used in the last sentence of the text next to the video on YouTube.

Incidentally, it reminds me the habit of some people who use the 'so-called' phrase...


Posted by Adriana at February 12, 2007 12:53 AM

1. Our waterslides are, like, a million times better than that. Hell, we have a hotel about 30 minutes from where I'm sitting that has about 20 completely indoor slides along with jacuzzis, booze, etc.

2. Hitler? What the?

3. "Retard bus"? Is that what they're saying about the people with the badass guns?

4. "Thus Korea defeats 'America'." C'mon, that's hilarious. This is soooOoOoo not real.

5. Did you click on the user who posted it to see the other titles in the series? "Kim Jong Il the Great Dietician"???!! "US Imperialist War Crimes in France"??! Just a quote from that last one:

[On D-Day]..."The criminal US imperialists bombed the French cities without any regards for the civilian people and their puppies."

Kim Jong Bored is behind these, not Kim Jong Il.


Posted by Adam at February 12, 2007 01:49 AM

If I didn't have Adriana's word for it, I would immediately suspect Nick of havin' a bit of fun. :-)

Can't say it's all bad, though. Would you mess with Americans after watching that? What match are guitar strumming troubadours strolling down bucolic lanes against desert rats with machine pistols for sidearms; the men toting 50 cal machine rifles and even the girly guns chain fed?

Not even I'd mess with me after seeing that!


Adriana, did anybody believe this stuff? At all? I worked with a guy that got out of Poland in the late '70s and he said the sports news he believed, everything else he assumed was 180 degrees off.


Posted by Midwesterner at February 12, 2007 01:57 AM

Adam, yes. I did click through everything I could related to the video clip. That is why I linked to the text in the article. And yes, I posted it here precisely because it is so unreal. But alas, it is real.

Given that NK is hell on earth, governed by a junta that starves, brainwashes and murders thousands, why would they be embarrassed to produce propaganda as crass as that?! Who is to tell them?

As a context to this, I just spent most of the evening watching YouTube clips of Czechoslovak communist broadcast/propaganda, which was no less ridiculous than this. Alas, the clips are in Czech otherwise I'd post them here too. But first I need to find a way to edit them adding subtitles in English. Any ideas?


Posted by Adriana at February 12, 2007 02:03 AM

Midwesterner, to answer the question of whether anyone believed the 'news' broadcast by communists... Hmm, I think it depends. I didn't, but then I was 'fortunate' enough to have dissidents for parents. But imagine you have no other information or reason to doubt what you are told, and however much you want to resist the indoctrination, it is impossible not to be affected by it. Without some alternative source of information and reason to trust it, that is. Which is what the whole dissident movement was really about.


Posted by Adriana at February 12, 2007 02:09 AM

It's a joke people. The video was posted to YouTube by Songunblog. If you go to Songun Blog and read some the posts you will soon realize it's a joke site. Actually, a pretty funny joke site. This is one of the funnier posts.


Posted by David Crawford at February 12, 2007 02:16 AM

Yes, yes, I have seen the blog and was linking (indirectly) to it in the post. Songunblog is the name of the user posting the videos and on the blog. And your point is?

What makes you think it's a joke site rather than that NK propaganda is that ridiculous?


Posted by Adriana at February 12, 2007 02:23 AM

If it is a spoof, it is brilliant because it is entirely believable.


Posted by Perry de Havilland at February 12, 2007 02:53 AM

OK, it's very late and I'd like to say much more (especially to Mid & Adriana) but the wooden hills to Bedfordshire beckon so I'd best be brief.

I honeymooned in the USA (DC & FL) a few months back. We thought of a number of places (Malta was looking good for a while) but at no point did we ever consider the "People's Paradise".

I wonder why?

More seriously, Adriana, I wish I still had the links to some of the even more bonkers NK videos I've seen and discarded.

I once holidayed, as a kid, on Lopud(sp? - then Yugoslavia, now Croatia) in the 80s and was horrified by the difference between the clear seas, outstanding beauty of the place and the absolute lack of anything to do... It was a tragic and pathetic squandering of the human spirit and after that I've never never seen socialism as being anything but stultifying at best and we all know what it is at worst.

I'd love to riff on this some more but I'm very tired.


Posted by Nick M at February 12, 2007 03:12 AM

But imagine you have no other information or reason to doubt what you are told, and however much you want to resist the indoctrination, it is impossible not to be affected by it.

I remember believing this stuff before being exposed to my first Beatles song and my first chewing gum (yuck). However, I also remember thinking that somehow neither I nor anyone I knew ever got to participate in any of the wonderful activities shown in those movies.

BTW, all those movies I got to see as a kid were in Russian, not English, as they were geared towards internal propaganda. I think this one is a spoof created from clips of real NK propaganda, with English comments added. "...without any regards for the civilian people and their puppies." I only wish that these people were this stupid.


Posted by Alisa at February 12, 2007 06:01 AM

Wow, that North Korea place looks great, though judging by the music at least the video producer accepts that the Devil does indeed get all the best tunes, as usual.

p.s. Kim Il Sung's hairdresser really needs to open a branch somewhere we decadent westeners can get to.


Posted by Tuscan Tony at February 12, 2007 08:46 AM

Ah yes, mighty Songun blog! It's great satire (anyone who thinks it's a serious NK mouthpiece should have gander at this). And the genuine NK propaganda films Songun features are fascinating.



Posted by James Waterton at February 12, 2007 11:48 AM

From the Korean Friendship Association (KFA) forum (a suitable candidate for your "Havens of fluorescent Idiocy", Perry):

Consumer Goods Production Increases
Pyongyang, February 9 (KCNA) -- The working people of the light industrial factories throughout the country have turned out in the efforts to implement the call of the joint New Year editorial for decisively improving the production of consumer goods. The light-industry and the local-industry factories are increasing the variety and quality of consumer goods by tapping to the maximum the latent reserves and potentials in order to supply more consumer goods to the people this year meeting significant holidays.
The Ryongsong Disabled Soldiers' Injection Boots Factory, the Pyongyang Hosiery Factory and the Songyo Knitted Goods Factory in Pyongyang are considerably boosting their production.
Similar successes have been reported from the light industrial factories in North Phyongan Province which have closely combined production with science and technology.
In particular, the Pakchon Silk Mill the blanket production process of which has been put on modern footing is mass-producing blankets of various patterns to suit the living customs and feelings of the Korean people and the Sinuiju Cosmetic Factory functional cosmetics to delight the people.
The Sinuiju Shoes Factory and the Sinuiju Enamel Ware Factory turn out fashionable and quality shoes and snow-white enamel vessels to satisfy the growing demand for the products.
The workers of the Hamhung Disabled Soldiers' Plastic Daily Necessities Factory are manufacturing various kinds of raincoats including raincoat and rainjacket while striving to extend the assortment of goods.
The newly reconstructed essential foodstuff factories in Pyongyang, Kanggye, Haeju, Pukchang and other parts are making large quantities of tasty and nutritive soy sauce and bean paste for the improvement of the people's dietary life.

Not exactly Samsung or LG is it? Those poor, poor sods.


Posted by Nick M at February 12, 2007 04:44 PM

Certainly a lot of Eastern Europe is run by corrupt exMarxists (indeed some of the people in government and in the corporate world in Britain are corrupt exMarxists) - but they are still "ex" Marxists. Even Putin in Russia (stealer of companies and murderer of opponents) is not about to reintroduce full collectivism.

Sooner or later the regime in North Korea will fall. Certainly many of the people in the present regime will still be in comfortable positions ("scum rises to the top" after all), but they will no longer be starving people to death or killing vast numbers of them (although they may still kill a few people now and then, if they are a threat).

It would be nice if the people who opposed collectivism in the past all had happy lives, but such is not the way of the world (mostly such people end up as "gas station attendents", in the words of Brian Barry about the fate of those who opposed his socialist ideas, or other such).

In the end good deeds have to be their own reward - for there is not going to be any other reward for them on this Earth.


Posted by Paul Marks at February 12, 2007 04:56 PM

The first few bars of music remind me very much of the soundtrack to Silent Hunter 3...

one wonders who made this!


Posted by The Last Toryboy at February 12, 2007 05:35 PM

Whomever made this has a completely warped mind. During the gun scene they had the Wesley Willis song free tapas playing.

If you know who he is you realize the depth of the creators depravity.

Simply Brilliant.


Posted by Bender at February 12, 2007 10:23 PM

It all made sense except for the bit about the dog and the baby competing for the mother's love. Oedipus complex extended to housepets?


Posted by Andrew L at February 12, 2007 11:12 PM

hello songunblog,I see you have a new blog.I just came to tell you that even if america is full blown imperiralist[which is isnt]we would have more chains in n korea,in a way communism is a remedy for imperiralism,but with hefty prices to pay.the geneside,high taxes,permission fo revery thing,no controol of your own proporty.but capitalism [in the us] isnt perfect ethier.I cant remeber all the falws but in life nothing is perfect,now it is possible to be as perfect as possible ,but at sometime people will make mistakes.and if there is anywhere that is close to hell,its ethier chyrnoble[the soviet ukrane nuclear reactor that failed that turned many cities close to it into a radioactive dead zone]or anywhere slow painfull deaths [like consantration camps]is possible.


Posted by comrad anomis at June 15, 2007 10:30 PM

BY the way ,ih8communism told me that you moved to south london. and do me and every north korean gov hater and your motherland and you a favor GO FUCK YOUR SELF


Posted by comrad anomis at July 13, 2007 06:31 PM

BY the way ,ih8communism told me that you moved to south london. and do me and every north korean gov hater and your motherland and you a favor GO F YOUR SELF


Posted by comrad anomis at July 13, 2007 06:33 PM
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