Only Directing but Not Doing Anything Funny
Baroque Things That Just Be In North korea
Ed Jones/Getty Images
To put information technology very lightly, Democratic people's republic of korea is different than anywhere else in the world. While other countries go more than and more connected, the Democratic People'southward Republic of Korea has become increasingly isolated since the Korean War's armistice in 1953. Ruled past a succession of megalomaniacal and paranoid leaders, information almost what really goes on there is limited. But what the world does learn from defectors, spying, and diverse other means paints a picture show of a land that is unique in ways that are sometimes funny and sometimes deeply concerning.
Life in N Korea is not fun for its citizens, and much of that comes down to the creative ways the regime finds to oppress them. Even other tyrants don't manage to crush their populations with and then much originality. Thankfully, for some comic relief, their isolation likewise means Democratic people's republic of korea has to come upward with their ain versions — unremarkably slightly ridiculous ones — of the things the rest of us take for granted.
Punishment the whole family tin can enjoy together
Shutterstock
Kim Jong-un is pretty much one guy trying to keep an iron grip on 25 meg people, many of whom are starving. The Kim family unit has decided the all-time way to do it is through fear. Punishment in the state is absolutely horrific. Human being Rights Watch reports citizens are systematically denied basic freedoms and threatened with detention. Prison camps are intentionally inhumane to scare people enough they won't even think of doing anything wrong and risk ending upwardly in 1. There are routine public executions for vague crimes to keep everyone terrified.
But while all of that is bad, it's non unique to North Korea. Other despotic regimes like Saudi arabia and Syrian arab republic do terrible things to their people besides. Where North Korea goes even further is with their three-generation punishment rule, too known as commonage punishment. According to the BBC, if you are suspected of a political crime, you're sent to the absolute worst kind of labor camp, called kwan-li-and then. These places are "harsh across endurance," and inmates are routinely starved, browbeaten, tortured, and sexually assaulted. Information technology's not simply the person who was convicted, though; it'southward upward to three generations of their relatives too, fifty-fifty if no ane else in the family is fifty-fifty remotely suspected of a criminal offence. You could be the most loyal citizen in North Korea but if your granddaughter gave the finger to a picture of Kim Jong-un, you could spend the rest of your life in a labor campsite.
A caste system based on loyalty
Ed Jones/Getty Images
From the moment you are born in Democratic people's republic of korea, your life is more than or less laid out for you. Sure, maybe you'll rebel and stop up in a labor army camp, or risk trying to escape the country, only in general your parents can predict your future. That'southward because everything depends on your nomenclature in North Korea'due south caste system, known as songbun. Unlike India'due south social hierarchy, this i is based on a "family unit's history of perceived loyalty to the authorities," according to Human Rights Watch.
The system began in 1957 as part of Kim Il-sung'due south consolidation of power, but it takes into business relationship family unit loyalty to Korea every bit far back as 1910. There are three primary categories, which and then have many subdivisions. You lot're either "core," "wavering," or "hostile." If you lot and your family take been the most loyal loyalists to always loyal, great. You go plenty of nutrient in a country that is continuously low on it, you lot have permission to live in Pyongyang, and y'all could get a task equally a authorities official. If y'all and your family are in the lower groups? The authorities probably made you motion to a tiny hamlet and become farmers, doing backbreaking work for barely plenty sustenance.
This really kicks in when you plow 17 and want to go to college. The Guardian says only potential students with acceptable songbun will be admitted to the state's best universities. However, the access departments take been known to overlook a low nomenclature if you somehow have enough money to bribe them.
A propaganda village no 1 lives in
Kim Jae-hwan/Getty Images
Due north and Due south Korea are separated by a thin strip of land serving as a buffer, since they're technically still at war with each other. It'due south called the Korean Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ. Republic of korea built a village on their side of the DMZ, meant to show any North Koreans looking over how peachy life could be if they escaped. According to Amusing Planet, the 226 residents who live there go major perks, similar paying fewer taxes, gratuitous farmland, exemption from compulsory military service, an incredible school system, and abnormally large household incomes.
Democratic people's republic of korea also built a propaganda boondocks, known as "Peace Village," just in case anyone really wants to defect to the totalitarian government. Unlike the South Korean version, this village is a consummate sham. Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that, first and foremost, no ane lives there despite Democratic people's republic of korea's claim it houses 200 people. While there are houses, schools, daycare, and a hospital, every building is just a concrete shell. They didn't even waste material money installing glass in the windows. Lights plough on and off, but observers say they seem to be on an automatic timer. The but human activity is people brought in to sweep the streets and sometimes tend the surrounding fields to continue it looking dainty.
The hamlet besides has a massive flagpole that was at 1 point the tallest in the world (it's at present the fourth), which they built just to dwarf the ane in the South's propaganda hamlet.
Hot women directing traffic
Democratic people's republic of korea isn't known for many things that aren't absolutely horrible, which makes their iconic traffic girls a nice modify. They even have their own fan pages around the internet. According to Young Pioneer Tours, back before stoplights were common, North korea, as well every bit many other places, used humans to direct traffic. In Pyongyang, young, attractive, single women were selected. Now fifty-fifty Democratic people's republic of korea can afford traffic lights on every corner, just the women are still ubiquitous, with about l of them working in the capital, and they have become national symbols, reports the Washington Post.
It's an extremely coveted job. Koryo Tours says the traffic officers are reported to get meliorate pay and more food than the average North Korean, equally well as free housing and wellness care. They article of clothing crisp, military-style uniforms and stay at their posts in all weather. Kim Jong-il was said to take a "personal interest" in the girls, and he bought them all new equipment, including fancy, umbrella-covered platforms to stand up on. Less of import men like them every bit well; traffic women are supposedly "highly desired" by guys in the country. Their good looks and higher social condition ways "competition for their affection is fierce."
In 2013, ane traffic daughter received Democratic people's republic of korea'due south highest military laurels. Even for a job everyone there loves, this was weird. While video of her getting the award was released, the reasoning behind the honor was extremely vague. One theory is she accidentally stopped an assassination endeavour when directing traffic.
The worst internet e'er
Shutterstock
North Korea strictly controls its citizens' access to data. According to Vox, you lot need permission from the government to own a personal computer, and they are each registered with the police as if they were dangerous weapons. You'd think the government would but ban the internet outright, but for diverse reasons they don't. While about of the country couldn't dream of affording a computer to access information technology on, an extremely pocket-size segment of the population uses computer labs in offices, universities, and cyber cafes in major cities. However, internet in Democratic people's republic of korea isn't like in the rest of the world.
For one thing, it's an intranet, not the real internet. Kwangmyong ("brilliant star") runs off pirated Japanese versions of Microsoft software and looks a scrap like the internet did in 1994. The BBC reports that equally of 2016, users could access fewer than xxx websites. The list was accidentally discovered by a U.S. engineer and showed the earth what North Korea allowed its net users to meet. More often than not it consists of propaganda, authorities concern, tourism data, and some recipes and Northward Korean films. All the websites are extremely basic and load slowly, probably because many of the people accessing them still do then on dial-upward.
Of course, the very highest elite in the country don't have these limitations. Information technology'south estimated that a few 1000 people, mostly top regime officials, have access to the full outside net. And so if whatever of them are reading this, hi! Your land is weird.
Real fashion constabulary who destroy unacceptable clothes
Carl Courtroom/Getty Images
I way to keep people in line, then the thinking goes, is to put them in uniforms. When everyone looks the aforementioned, it'southward harder to rebel. Vesture is a huge office of self-expression. And then North Korea controls everything about its citizens' appearances. According to a women's magazine published by the regime (via Refinery29), clothing needs to exist loose-fitting and minor, with whatever foreign trends totally forbidden. Women'due south looks must "fit the socialistic mode of living," while those who express individuality in their attire should exist shamed. While a study that there were only a small-scale number of haircuts allowed in N Korea was never confirmed, the magazine did dictate that women could non grow their hair long.
Since people like to dress how they want, there is rebellion. The New York Times reports women in Pyongyang frequently article of clothing stiletto heels, skirts to a higher place the knee, and colorful vesture. In that location is a thriving black market of clothes and makeup from S Korea.
In order to clamp down on these shows of expression, at that place are literal style law. A women's union carrying whistles enforces the rules for ladies, while the Socialist Youth League keeps young people in check. Married women's husbands are supposed to control their look. Rules include no blue jeans, hair dye, or obvious makeup. Punishment can happen right on the street and ranges from being berated to having your hair cutting off to being browbeaten and having your offending wear ripped upwardly.
Food fertilized by human poop
Pedro Ugarte/Getty Images
There's a serious food shortage in North korea. Part of this is considering the Kims spend money on the military and nuclear bombs rather than agronomics, but the country besides lacks chemical fertilizer. They don't have the ability to make their own, and sanctions mean they can't become any from the outside earth. With farmers desperate for help with their crops, there's a huge marketplace for "dark soil." In other words, they put human poop on their fields.
Co-ordinate to the National Post, shops selling man excrement started popping up in 2010. Farmers had been using their own families' waste for a long time, simply poop had become such a precious article that information technology made sense to sell information technology openly. Business organisation Insider says that past 2014, Kim Jong-united nations officially told his people to employ homo and livestock manure on crops. Since livestock was deficient, it was mostly from humans. Perhaps trying to make the best of a bad situation, human excrement became known as the best fertilizer, and vegetables grown in it are considered specially yummy. If a farmer's family can't produce enough poop and they tin't afford to buy any, people have been known to steal waste matter from other homes.
It should be obvious, but using human poop is non sanitary. The Washington Post reports many defectors from the North accept been found to accept intestinal worms, including a soldier who had one that was an well-nigh unheard of 10.half-dozen inches long. The parasites sap nutrients and lead to an even unhealthier population.
Methamphetamines as a popular New year's day'south gift
Shutterstock
Plenty of places accept drug bug, but few are every bit unique as North Korea's issue with meth. Co-ordinate to the Daily Beast, in the 1970s, the regime oversaw an official opiate production program. The idea was to export the drugs and make bunches of money for a land that had very lilliputian. But when floods and other disasters ruined the poppy fields in the 1990s, they switched to making methamphetamine. Domestic use of the drug skyrocketed.
These days, the government doesn't produce its own anymore. Notwithstanding, there is all the same a huge demand for the drug, and enough of people who used to produce it in factories now have their ain minor meth labs. It's a good source of income for many poor families. Now that they aren't the ones making coin, the government discourages the use of meth, making it illegal and saying it'due south unpatriotic. Simply in a country without drug treatment facilities, too many people are addicted. One study estimated 40 percentage of people who've tried meth in Due north Korea are hooked, and defectors say eighty percent of residents in some towns are users.
Meth is fifty-fifty seen equally a luxury and a popular souvenir. The New York Times reports it's common to exchange meth on the Lunar New year, especially for young people. People use the drug as casually as they would smoke a cigarette, and it'due south considered little more than an energy boost. Information technology has the added benefit of making a starving population feel less hungry.
Their own basketball rules
Wang Zhao/Getty Images
When the world discovered Kim Jong-un and Dennis Rodman were besties, in that location was a collective "Await, what?" But basketball is an accented obsession of the current supreme leader and his late father. Strange Policy reports Kim Jong-il was said to have installed total-size courts at nigh of his palaces and supposedly built a library containing videos of most every game Michael Hashemite kingdom of jordan played with the Bulls. Secretarial assistant of State Madeleine Albright knew about the late Kim's love and brought him a basketball signed by Jordan as a gift in 2000. However, Jordan turned downwardly the chance to travel to Northward Korea and see Kim in person. The younger Kim, who would take to eventually settle for a visit from Rodman, went to schoolhouse in Switzerland, where he was said to be "fiercely competitive" on the court, as well equally "tough and fast."
Of course, if you love something you should ... change it? For some reason, that'south what the North Koreans did. While they play by the rest of the world'southward rules in international tournaments, at home they have their own. According to the Herald Sunday, in North Korean basketball games, slam dunks are worth three points, and a iii-pointer is worth iv if the ball doesn't touch the rim. Adding some serious excitement, baskets in the last three seconds of the game score a whopping eight points. And if a player misses a free throw, they lose a signal, which must completely change a team's strategy depending on how close the score is.
Their own version of the calendar
While all the Kims are revered, information technology'southward North Korea's founder, Kim Il-sung who has an virtually godlike condition. Even decades afterward his decease he's still officially the "Eternal President," according to the Washington Post. The North Koreans even have their own calendar, based completely around his date of birth, April 15, 1912. (That's also the twenty-four hour period the Titanic sank, for the tape.) Known every bit the Juche calendar, a adult female who grew up in North korea told NK News it is used alongside the Western calendar, then you would say, "We are now in Juche 108, the yr 2019." (You subtract one since there was no yr nix.) She says she always found using the Juche year more elegant and idea her young friends who didn't looked dumb, peculiarly since they were constantly quizzed on information technology in school. In one case she defected to South Korea it took her a long time before she stopped mentioning Juche forth with the Western year.
Immature Pioneer Tours reports Juche, which means "self-reliance," only came into beingness in 1997 on the tertiary anniversary of the OG Kim'south death. Since then all North Korean publications accept included both years, and everyone is expected to employ it. The government makes it easy to call up, though, since so much is based around the birthdays of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. So if a new span was being built, the goal volition be to finish it past "the 60th birthday of the Full general," for example. Information technology's impossible to escape the Juche year.
The cure for AIDS and Ebola
Shutterstock
If you are very ill and looking for cutting-edge health care, head to North Korea. Despite being backside in so many ways, the country has invented a phenomenon drug that cures some of the worst diseases known to humanity. Of grade, you lot have to take their word for it, but they wouldn't lie, right?
According to Newsweek, in 2015, the country's official Korean Central News Agency reminded the world their scientists had invented the Kumdang-2 vaccine in 1996. (They besides trumpeted information technology in 2006 and 2013, per the Guardian.) It was a cure for Middle Due east respiratory syndrome (MERS), which was convenient, since South korea was in the midst of an outbreak that had killed 24 people. If simply everyone in the South would defect to the Due north, they would be fine. But that'due south not all this astonishing drug tin can practice. It also treats "diabetes, drug addiction, bird flu, AIDS, center affliction, impotence, the common cold, 'impairment from use of computers,' indisposition, epilepsy, cystitis, all forms of hepatitis, tuberculosis, various cancers and venereal illness as well every bit offering 'resistance to crumbling' and 'anti-radioactive,'" plus SARS and Ebola considering why not. Convinced yet?
And Northward Korea offered "clinical" evidence, saying the drug had been used on "millions" of patients. The hugger-mugger of this medical marvel? It'due south made from ginseng that'southward been grown in fertilizer (hopefully not the human poop kind) mixed with rare-earth elements, gold, and platinum. And the exterior world could even buy the prayer-answering drug from a Due north Korean website for about $25.
Source: https://www.grunge.com/156064/bizarre-things-that-only-exist-in-north-korea/