It might not get weirder than this

Google ^

[chessplayer]

Disclaimer: I am a North Korea amateur and can only share what it's like to be part of a NK-bound delegation. Straightforward trip report here: no discussion of meeting details or intentions--just some informal observations.

[SueRae]

Ping for later...only have time for a glance just now. Strange indeed...I’ve never seen anything from the inside.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

Obama’s dream world!

[bigheadfred]

What is weirder to me is that they have been able to sustain it for years.

[PieterCasparzen]

Thanks for this post, a wonderful eye-opener.

America, this is what most of Congress either knowingly or unknowingly is working towards.

Monopolists are statists.

They think since they can organize GE so well they could also organize a one-world government just was well.

That fallacy is so deceptive and alluring.

To a monopolist, NK is just a captive market.

[STYRO]

Whatever they were monitoring for the government was too sensitive to show foreigners. They were instructed in every aspect of the visit, including their demeanor. Likely the penalty for breach of protocol would be death. In the USA they are called ‘data centers’.

[chessplayer]

And don’t for a minute believe North Koreans, aside from a very few defectors, oppose this. They love their govt. The outpouring of grief and sadness when Kim Il-sung died was genuine. They weren’t faking it.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Interesting.

Q: Did these athletes play indoor or outdoor soccer? A: Trick question. They have no heat, so what's the difference?

In order to keep the populace in the dark, they really do have to keep them in the dark:
.

it's like The Truman Show, at country scale.

Ted Turner, communist sympathist/entrepreneur, was also allowed to visit North Korea once. I remember his words were something like "I didn't see any starving peopole, they just looked a little thin".

[bigheadfred]

My brother worked for a time in China for Simplot. The Chinese arranged for a visit to North Korea. My brother said it was mondo bizarro then, just after Kim Jong il manifested.

[TigersEye]

NK is a very enviro-friendly country. Only Kim Il Gore has electricity.

[Free Vulcan]

North Koreans are weird even for commies.

[martin_fierro]

핑!

[oust the louse]

even if those people get liberated and free of communism, they are brain dead for the most part....they only know one way to live and that’s hell.

[VRW Conspirator]

One problem: No one was actually doing anything. A few scrolled or clicked, but the rest just stared.

The probably had never seen a computer until that day and hour. Just a bunch of privates from the military dressed in civilian garb. After the visitors left, they were marched out and it was back to border duty.

[Third Person]

Here’s an excellent, super weird internet documentary from Vice TV on getting into North Korea (along with hidden camera), circa 2008:

http://www.vice.com/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-to-north-korea-1-of-3

Summary from Vice TV founder, Shane Smith:

Getting into North Korea was one of the hardest and weirdest processes VICE has ever dealt with. After we went back and forth with their representatives for months, they finally said they were going to allow 16 journalists into the country to cover the Arirang Mass Games in Pyongyang. Then, ten days before we were supposed to go, they said, “No, nobody can come.” Then they said, “OK, OK, you can come. But only as tourists.” We had no idea what that was supposed to mean. They already knew we were journalists, and over there if you get caught being a journalist when you’re supposed to be a tourist you go to jail. We don’t like jail. And we’re willing to bet we’d hate jail in North Korea. But we went for it. The first leg of the trip was a flight into northern China. At the airport, the North Korean consulate took our passports and all of our money, then brought us to a restaurant. We were sitting there with our tour group, and suddenly all the other diners left and these women came out and started singing North Korean nationalist songs. We were thinking, “Look, we were just on a plane for 20 hours. We’re jet-lagged. Can we just go to bed?” but this guy with our group who was from the LA Times told us, “Everyone in here besides us is secret police. If you don’t act excited then you’re not going to get your visa. So we got drunk and jumped up onstage and sang songs with the girls. The next day we got our visas. A lot of people we had gone with didn’t get theirs. That was our first hint at just what a freaky, freaky trip we were embarking on…

[MrBambaLaMamba]

Obama is seriously jealous.

[Vince Ferrer]

The probably had never seen a computer until that day and hour. Just a bunch of privates from the military dressed in civilian garb. After the visitors left, they were marched out and it was back to border duty.

This is most likely true. Another video on the web from a British tourist that managed to get to NK on a tour showed something similar. He and his party were taken to a restaurant. The group, about ten people, were the only people in the restaurant. In order to try to make it less weird, the restaurant staff made food enough for every seat in the room, and served it, to a nearly empty restaurant, as if they were waiting for a large party to show up. But no one else ever came.

This is probably the same thing. They needed a data center, so they put some computers in a room, turned them on, and got some people to sit there pretending to work.

[Vince Ferrer]

Third Person’s video is the video with the restaurant scene. It is a well worth the time for anyone to see.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Enviro-friendly, good point. Give it enough time, and the warmers will have us living the same way. Communism and all, no doubt.