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Life experience in North Korea of Indonesian Expatriate.

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DVD shop

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More videos are here: Jaka Parker (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzvCf_q10UZkUJE0lOav0ag/videos)

Maybe Blockbluster should move into North Korea - they still use DVDs.

Cities like Pyongyang is where the elite North Koreans reside. So obviously the living standards will be much higher than the other regions. Also, the life in North Korea has become a lot tolerable during the last 10-15 years.

The picture of North Korea in my head is not what the picture is showing. What I imagine about the residential and commercial areas of North Korea is an area that is full of armory and barracks of army ready to get into war. Maybe I am just overthinking about what is North Korea. I have grown up believing that people in North Korea have a hard time living their life since military troops are almost everywhere.

Sad point to think about is that even in the most built up places in North Korea where most of the elite reside is also a place where DVD's and other technologies that most developed nations have mostly stopped using altogether. Some people are still keen on using them but most DVD shops and stuff along those lines have been taken over by online digital services such as Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, and so on.

Would really hope that the North Korean regime is overthrown in order to allow the development of North Korea to really occur.

But I do not think that Pyongyang is a good example for the entire country of North Korea.

The party leaders and elites of the state live in this capital, so the economic situation or supply of food is usually much better than in the rest of the country.

Wonsan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNY43swKpUQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2GM-5kN0_k
https://youtu.be/fKRBG6C0-n8?t=10m46s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnkvuBgDL7c

LOL this reminds of the movie the Interview with seth rogen and james franco. Though i don't think it's entirely the same as in the movie with all those fake fruits and all, but i agree. Pyongyang being the capital may be the best the north korea can show to the world. I'm curious as to how other provinces and cities really are though

I'm planning on going there some time this year hopefully, if it isn't  a nuclear slag heap  by then. I recommend the various vice documentaries on YouTube. The weirdest one is when they head to deepest Russia to seek out logging camps filled with north Koreans sent there to work for years on end. When they eventually do manage to interview some workers they didn't seem to understand the concept of a day off.

I think mostly photos and videos shows life in North Korea better than it really is. All tourists, journalists can take photos only when their guides or other controling people allow to do it. And there are only few routes for foreign people which they can visit. Everything is done to avoid showing of real life of North Korea.
By the way, it's really strange that American cartoons are sold in the DVD kiosks. America is biggest evil for North Korea.

How do you know the cartoon's dialogue hasn't been changed to spout nothing but anti imperialist rhetoric? That would give them great satisfaction.

So I'm not interested in spreading and sharing western mainstream opinion against North Korea.
But I also don't want to share this propaganda of the North Korean leaders.
And everyone knows, in recent decades in North Korea there have been several famines.
A lot of people died because of hunger and infection due to poor health... which are also facts for the other regions.

The troops are everywhere, even in the posh areas of Pyongyang. If the military doubts that you are planning to defect to South Korea, then the entire family will be sent to penal colonies.

Very interesting photos, thank you for sharing.
You have to be aware that foreigners in Korea don't have freedom to go anywhere.
They can visit only places allowed by the government.
North Korea is very isolated and closed country, without any real freedom.
All citizens are brainwashed and believe that North Korea is the best country on the planet Earth.
It's like in Orwell's book ''1984''.
They also trying to manipulate all foreigners, showing only the best places in their country.
In reality, people are poor and literally starving in N. KOrea.
It's so sad reality.

Check the Youtube channel. This dude go around Pyongyang with a body camera.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj7qFgmvCUg

That is an incorrect statement. Brainwashing no longer works. North Korea is flooded with DVDs of Chinese and Hollywood movies. People know what is going on outside their isolated nation.

Is Pyongyang where most of the Christian people in North Korea are?

It's cool to see the inside of North Korea again instead of with a potato camera lol thanks for the youtube video Sex Video Chat VKcams.com.

I think that Christianity is officially banned in North Korea. Missionaries are usually executed immediately or sent to penal colonies if caught proselytizing. In this regard, North Korea is very similar to Saudi Arabia (although KSA mostly deports the missionaries without harsh sentencing).

Look's like there are still places where you can make money selling Tom and Jerry cartoons. World is so strange...

From the pictures one could assume they aren't so poor. They even have subway in there, while most cities in Europe don't.

I also tought that Christianity and other religions are banned in North Korea, but I checked this article and found that North Korea have small Christians community
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_North_Korea (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_North_Korea)
Mostly people in North Korea are atheists, but they have few traditional religions.

Not going to happen those people prefer to sink the whole country before giving up their power so that is going to be very unlikely.

According to a pastor who has been to North Korea, there are some 11,000 Christians in North Korea. The authorities tolerate the already existing Christian community, to a certain extent. But attempts to make new conversions are foiled, and anyone engaging in proselytizing is severely punished.

It's probably very difficult for people to live and show their true desires and beliefs. And most importantly, and this I saw in one of their documentary programs, that for citizens of North Korea there is only one God, and this is their ruler.

Kim Jong Un wants to project himself as a re-incarnation of some oriental god. But I am not sure to what extent that works among the general population in North Korea. The country is not as isolated as everyone thinks about it. Pirated DVDs of Hollywood movies are easily available in the black market.

I am surprised North Korea isnt as terrifying and as bad as the media claims it to be. This shows how mislead we are by the media. There is no truth and integrity within the media nowadays.

My friend, I would not want to argue with you, but I dare say a few words. Citizens of North Korea, these people are a thousand times stupefied than they were in the Soviet Union.

Go visit the country and then you will have the right to comment that North Korea is a fine place to live.
I am aware of stupidity and propaganda in western media but we have enough of independent sources showing the truth about life in NK.
What you saw in these pictures is the largest and probably the only city in NK where you will see private cars on the streets.

Look here, other NK cities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_North_Korea#/media/File:Hamhung_view.jpg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_North_Korea#/media/File:Hamhung_view.jpg)

The media exaggerates like always so must always take anything they say with a  grain of salt but at the same time that is the city little towns probably have way worst standards of living.

In all countries, cities are better than villages. This is probably because in the cities of developed industry with a higher added value than in agriculture. In addition, the infrastructure of cities is always more developed.

The cities are OK. But you need to go to the labor camps and penal colonies where the dissidents are being tortured to death. According to some estimates, there are some 300,000+ people incarcerated in these facilities, in appalling conditions.

Facade, mostly facade. I remember a NatGeo documentary before. There was this guy who travel different countries and explore parts tourist don't go to (for example, cemetery villages in Manila). He was allowed to go to North Korea but he was heavily monitored by police where ever he went. One time he was in a hotel room and he saw a group of buildings nearby. They all look dilapidated (concrete look too moldy) but the parts facing the street look newly-painted. As he takes pictures one of his "escorts" showed up and told him to stop.


And despite that it still look quite sterile to me. I live in shitty Philippines but we have districts that look better than these.


China has also been following this trend. They've been cracking down on Christians in recent years. This cause some split there, making it necessary for Christians loyal to the See to worship in underground churches rather than the "official" registered churches.

I don't condemn what the Chinese authorities do. Christianity and Islam are two religions, which actively attempt to influence the government and the politics. Look at Philippines and South Korea. Both these nations are essentially run by the evangelical / catholic church.

Not run but the sphere of influence of the Catholic Church specially in the Philippines is evident. Remember the People Power that topple the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos? It was the Head of the Catholic Church that call for the people to march in the street in protest. Currently, the Church was against the killings of "innocent" addicts by the government of the Philippines. But Duterte is not giving in to them, on the contrary, he is anti-Church because he believes that the Catholic Church has abuses or abuse its authority and he is also a victim on this.

I wouldn't really say it's being run by the Catholic Church. Even when they do endorse politicians (which they rarely do) people usually don't listen. That's we say here that there is no Catholic vote here. (Christian spino-offs like INC, El Shaddai, etch are a different matter though). I may even dare say that the hold of the Church here is weaker than ever. I'm a secularist but I do not agree with gov't meddling with religious affairs unless it's for really important security reasons. For example, even Singapore closed down a mosque once because it was being used as recruitment site for terrorists. (The shut down was after they arrested people who tried to bomb Changgi airport.)


I think with the case of Marcos the people are fed up anyway. The only reason it required Church intervention to start the revolution was that the Church was the only unifying force available back then (we still don't have sms or social media).

As for the current spat between Church and Duterte, I've never really heard priests claiming that those druggies and peddlers were innocent. Rather they were pointing out that people deserve the chance to CHANGE and that innocent people are also dying as collateral damage (mistaken identity, children dying during police operations or vigilante killings, etc).

As for Duterte, I didn't vote for him and ambivalent towards him. I'm OK with his stance on some issues but I do not like the implementation of some. The way he's treating the Church strike me as nothing but rude. You can criticize others without calling them names.

Organizing protests against a dictator is not something that I would condemn. But at the same time, the church should stay out of governance and vice versa. For example, the single biggest threat facing the Philippines is over-population. And as a result of the opposition from the church, the government can't popularize birth control measures.

True, there are things better left to experts. I remember when I was a kid one of the last phrase was "go forth and multiply"!  ;D A few years ago they finally decided to change it to "go forth and share the Word of Lord".  :D

They only really speak out when it's the government trying to distribute condoms or talk about sex education. They don't bother with NGOs. The Church do encourage family planning but only natural methods (funny, they never mention pulling out  ;D ) which we know is not for everyone.

I don't want the government to go full authoritarian on the issue though. Some are arguing One Child Policy caused the demographic problem China is facing now. We don't want that problem. Our growth rate is just above replacement level. The only problem is it's not distributed evenly across the social levels (the poor usually have more kids, I've seen one family with 22)

All people is keep thinking how to earn extra income daily in this world, their hard work sure can get better life soon, goodluck to everyone!

If you look at China, they have benefited enormously from the one-child policy. The economic growth they achieved as a result was unbelievable. But it had consequences such as ageing and gender imbalance. But overall, I would rate it as beneficial for the Chinese.

China now has a 2 child policy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-child_policy#China (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-child_policy#China)

China now has a 2-child policy, because their economy is in a good state right now, and they don't need to limit the population growth. Population control is needed only when the government is unable to provide to its citizens.

I like it! It has a certain je-ne-sais-quois...  Nice buildings too.

Or am I missing something?

And how does an Indonesian end up in North Korea?

His name is Jaka Parker, and although it is extremely difficult to believe, he claims that he lived in the city of Pyongyang with his family (wife and children) from 2012 to 2016. Indonesia is one of the few countries having diplomatic contact with the DPRK. Not much is known about him. We don't even know in which sector he worked in North Korea, or how much was his salary.

No they abolished the 1 child policy because it strongly damaged their demographics.
Right now they are trying hard to increase the chinese child birth rate.

If nothing changes in less then 1 generation they have to import double digit millions of workers.

Btw. The increase in child birth was much less then anticipated - which shows again that industrialisation decreases child birth rates.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/23/chinas-birth-rate-soars-after-relaxation-of-one-child-policy

its like time travel, look like cuba with they old car. I cant imagine how face expression of karl marx when see north korea 😂

It feels like modern-day Nazi Germany. I heard prisoners there where fed to dogs.

I see no dogs on the video.

The East Asian birth rates are among the lowest in the world. Countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan.etc are having fertility rares between 1.0 and 1.4, which is less than the average European fertility rates.