h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

At school we didn't only see pictures, we actually went to a concentration camp (Mauthausen) which is now a kind of museum/memorial place.

Re Post 134

I found it to be interesting and may point towards what Kim Jong-Un really wants out of this. If racial purity is such a big thing, a huge achievement would be to force the US to physically leave S Korea. One possible way to do this would be to ratchet up the tension to highlight his capability then announce a proposal for a complete peace treaty (not the current cease-fire). Under the terms of the peace treaty, the North guarantees the security of the border (perhaps further guaranteed by China) and withdraws the huge arrays of artillery there. The quid pro quo would be the Americans would have to remove their forces from S Korea.

I think this could certainly be played as a win-win-win-win situation -

1) China removes US forces from near its borders
2) N Korea achieves "Racial Purity" on the peninsula
3) S Korea gets better access to cheap labour in the North to maintain growth
4) The US gets to make significant cost savings in withdrawing troops (similar to their withdrawals in Europe).

All four parties get to claim they created a lasting peace in Korea.

I'm afraid I can't see that happen any time soon

But then I - like millions of others - never thought I'd see the Berlin Wall come down in my lifetime either...

Maybe it is our right, maybe even an obligation, to be optimistic?

Here is a list of books in English on North Korea from the Washington Post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2013/04/05/10-illuminating-books-about-north-korea/

Thanks, Elektra, an Interesting article

"North Korea shouldn’t be considered a communist regime". My thoughts exactly!

Just like any state that uses the word "democratic" in its name never is anything like that!

We have never seen a truly communist regime. Cuba may have been a preparatory communist regime back in 1959 - but just like all the other experiments this too got pear shaped

Oops, I'm ranting, back to NK

Interesting news from within DPRK itself - http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm

And not ONE word about the Danish documentary mentioned in postings 104 through 106? I am apalled!

Chapter 3 "The Broken Bridge", of Hessler's book provides his observations and remarks on special instructions by the PRC to PRC tourists touring NK.

(What happened to posts 141 & 142?

I'm getting a 'page inaccessible' note.

Not even a simple "Yikes!".)

Its coming up now.

Right, OK, so I'm reading some North Korean news.

The news in North Korea always is this:

The United States keeps escalating its aggression with nuclear threats and maneuvers and fabricating grounds for the UN to impose sanctions. But North Korea will not take this provacation lying down. If the world cannot stop the US from initiating a nuclear war, North Korea will mercilessly wipe them out. And they will also get rid of the puppet regime in South Korea. All progressive peoples and anti-imperialists in the world support North Korea and its beautiful, highly civilized, socialist system. Progressive and socialist peoples all over the world laud and celebrate Kim Jong Un, Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung. Despite the threat of war the Korean people are sure to triumph and the future is rosy.

My old friends column (mentioned in post 134) makes more and more sense to me as the days go by