Update: here's the new version
It should be in the right order now + i added the missing city names
https://imgur.com/a/BybJ7DQ
:kim-peace:
The album includes pictures from Hamhung, Chongjin, Sinuiju, Nampo, Wonsan, Kaesong, Sariwon, Pyongsong, Haeju, and Anju.
There are some descriptions along the way (mostly just city names + general info)
I also included rural photos, and some showing various housing/development projects
Normalize relations between North Korea, end occupation of South Korea. If libs are worried about North Korea invading, the US military will probably leave behind all it's weapons which the South will use. Feels like the bare minimum we can do. Let the two Korea's determine their future.
I remember growing up around 11-12 and I read a story about NK by a guy who was visiting. They stopped for a pee break in the woods during a long trip and as he went deeper in, he stumbled across some kids playing around and laughing while collecting wood for their families.
That was the first time I really started to realize that "Hey even in these places we call repressive regimes, people at the end of the day still are just that, people."
This has pretty greatly influenced my views on how we treat other countries. Even if you believe everything that is said about places like China or NK or Cuba, we should still help their populations out because they are people too and people should help people. The amount of hatred towards people in these countries is so disturbing.
Anyway I mentioned this because these pictures bring back that sort of feeling I had. They're just living their lives, I really especially like that one of arm wrestling. This is something you don't see much out of "enemy nations" since most English sources don't want to publish it and it's great to see.
i remember someone posting an article in the old sub (or possible here?) with some pictures taken by a western journalist. every picture was accompanied by a description that made it seem completely dystopian, even when it just showed people doing completely mundane stuff. it was also presented as if the journalist was in some sort of grave danger for "exposing" the "kim regime".
i really don't think there's a single group of people more dehumanized in the western imagination than north koreans. you're only supposed to think of them as people if they deflect and disavow their homeland. and even then, they're mostly threated as an attraction.
I remember that too, like one of the pics was just children waiting to cross a road or a railroad or something I don't remember specifically but it was painted as some evil thing which was just weird.
uncritical support for the DPRK in its heroic struggle to liberate occupied Korea from the genocidal American empire
It's crazy how much the cities resemble South Korea. Almost as if they're all originally part of the same country or something.
Is there a reason why so many rural houses are abandoned for subdivisions rather than be upgraded? Maybe it's simply more costly? In any case it's sad to see nice old villages go away even if material conditions improve. I see this urban planning mistake in developing countries very often.
For example, houses like this very likely have no insulation, heating, plumbing, water, electricity, etc. Living here would be a massive upgrade in your material conditions, but the soul of the old town is lost. Why not have both and upgrade the housing?
it would probably be more costly, and the lack of infrastructure might be a problem.
i don't disagree that it would be nice to preserve older villages though, but i think for the dprk it makes sense to focus on new planned housing projects—especially given their limited resources. even if you upgraded existing rural housing, that wouldn't solve the issues like access to education and healthcare.
Uh, left a little curious what this building is for. Why is there a weird painted parking lot? Is it like a hospital or resort or something?
Probably, it's got a pool out back and a walking path with some ponds out front.
The painted parking lot thing seems to be a pedestrian area, probably for like doing public group calisthenics or dancing (you see a lot of that in DPRK). Don't see any parking lot, so it could be a workplace or college campus too.
here's the source (from dprktoday)
i'm not quite sure what that specific building is, but it's definitely something for children. probably a school/kindergarten?
edit: it might serve some additional function as well
This is really awesome. Can I ask how you curated all of these?
Also, this is mostly related to Pyongyang, but why does it always seem like the downtown areas are just ...empty. I'm also still only at the beginning of this album but it often seems like there just aren't people around in DPRK photos.
It’s likely the middle of the day, which could explain the lack of crowds in scope, as in people are working not going to-from work. People are also more spread out.
Mostly what really makes it look barren are the lack of advertising and heavy signage.
https://i.imgur.com/czFDoV6.jpeg What even is this building? It looks like a cross between a public park, museum, and water treatment plant
here's the source (from dprktoday)
according to comrade natalie on twitter it's an orphanage, but i'm not sure where she got that information from
edit: i tried searching for orphanage on dprktoday, and i found the building: Pyongyang Baby Home and Orphanage
Ah. an Orphanage. That explains why the building looked childlike
thank you very cool stuff, i really wanna visit one day, put my Romanian citizenship to good use lol. have u considered posting this on reddit or could I?
i think they nuked my reddit account after the chapo ban, but yeah, feel free to share it. if you give me a sec, i can try to reupload the pictures to imgur so that they appear in the right order (with city names etc)
cool ill post it in a few places, this is very cool thanks for putting it together! if u click edit u can reorder the images and add info in the album on imgur btw
unfortunately i had to reupload it, but here's the fixed version:
https://imgur.com/a/BybJ7DQ
thanks! i posted it around a few subs, tho u should upload 1 more image to the album if u can to make it exactly 400 lol
They've got a really pretty and distinct architectural sensibility. I like the colorful way the buildings are painted.
the new housing is ghastly, uniform color, too clean, no decoration or flair
Kaesong is marvelous, all the old places are cool looking
