I doubt many people would expect to see much natural beauty in North Korea. I was surprised to see a lot once we got out of Pyongyang. You could only call most of the land stark. Little of it was arable. I don’t claim to be an experienced photographer — see Joseph’s blog for that quality of picture — but I saw some great stuff. My pictures don’t do the[…] Keep reading →

Pyongyang could become beautiful I think when the city opens up it has the potential to become very beautiful. So much of it is held back from lack of maintenance. But it also has grand open spaces. If advertisers and developers don’t get to it first, they could be made beautiful and accessible to the public. Department store oddness Our tour took us to a department store, or at least[…] Keep reading →

Okay, this post has almost nothing to do with North Korea, but I learned how to do the trick to make images look like miniatures, called tilt-shifting or miniature faking. I did it with an image of Pyongyang from the Juche Tower. The top, though low resolution, shows the original. The bottom shows the retouched version. Click for larger versions. Anyway, it’s just for fun and practice. I think the[…] Keep reading →

Before visiting Pyongyang, you might expect a dismal, dreary place. Below I’ll show some views that met my expectations (click for bigger views, email if you want higher resolution) The city also has many monuments and sites — monuments, stadiums, statues, victory arches, grand libraries, grand boulevards, etc. I’m not sure, but I suspect whoever is leading the planners envisioned creating a Paris of the East. They had a lot[…] Keep reading →

Pyongyang has a huge, remarkable ten-lane highway. I forget its name, but it’s called something like the Children’s Highway. I never asked, but I think they said children helped build the road, a claim of dubious value, if I remembered it right. When I get out from China’s bizarre firewall I’ll post video of the road, but you’ve never seen anything like it. It deteriorated nearly to where you can’t[…] Keep reading →

North Korea’s propaganda focuses a lot on industry — from the posters of mining, energy, factories, etc to what they show off to tourists. They showed us giant factories, barrages (I had to look it up too), train and subway museums, and stuff like that. The U.S. hides industry. What do we stick in your face? What can you not miss in America? Ads. Stores. We motivate personal consumption. And[…] Keep reading →

Inequity and its consequences If some people succeed without having to work and others have no chance to succeed, you create feelings of unfairness. Those feelings of unfairness will motivate people to return the unfairness at those who create, maintain, or benefit from the system. Everyone recognizes this situation in North Korea. Even outsiders, who have no interaction with the system, feel outraged and wish harm on the people in[…] Keep reading →