Culture
UK Foreign Office warns on taking digital media to North Korea
Dec 3rd
Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office is warning visitors to North Korea that they need to “carefully consider” any recorded video that they attempt to take into the country.
The warning came in an update to the FCO’s travel advice for North Korea that was made on Tuesday.
“Consider carefully any films or television programmes that you bring into the country, either on DVD or on data storage devices. Those deemed to have an anti-DPRK government message may be confiscated and you may face detention as a result.”
The travel advice is typically updated in response to incidents that have occurred, so it’s likely that More >
Visiting Tokyo’s Korean Book Center
Oct 9th
There aren’t many places in the world outside of North Korea that you can just walk in and peruse DPRK propaganda, but Tokyo’s Korea Book Center is one place that you can.
It was a place I never managed to get to when I lived in Tokyo, so I decided to visit last week when I was back in Japan.
I had imagined the place would be bigger, but it’s really no larger than an average size room. (Click images below for larger versions)
There are three lines of bookcases with books in Korean and Japanese. There’s also some audiovisual content, which I’ll More >
DPRK are new baddies in Hollywood movie remake
Aug 14th
Imagine, you’re midway through shooting a movie in which China invades the U.S. and all that stands in its way of national domination is a small group of teens. You might think that sentence sums up your biggest problem, but you’re wrong.
Portions of the script and photos from the set have been leaked in China, one of your biggest potential markets, and the Chinese are not pleased.
The Beijing-based Global Times, which always has much to say about Sino-U.S. issues, shouts “U.S. Reshoots Cold War Movie to Demonize China,” and “American Movie Plants Hostile Seeds Against China,” on successive days in its More >
North Koreans gaining more access to foreign media, says report
May 13th
Cracks in the information wall that has long surrounded North Korea are increasingly allowing citizens in the country more exposure to foreign media, according to a report published on Thursday.
The report, produced by Intermedia for the U.S. Department of State, was based on surveys of several hundred defectors, refugees and travelers, and found “substantial numbers” are able to access outside media.
It’s based on a relatively small sample of a few hundred people made up of those who have already made it outside the country, either by defecting or crossing the Chinese border for trade. Therefore, the results can’t simply be More >
‘I’ is for the Internet he bans
Sep 26th
Kim Jong Il made a surprise appearance on the season premiere edition of Fox TV’s “The Simpsons” on Sunday night. And so did “the Internet he banned.”
The episode, which marked the beginning of the 23rd season of the hit animated show, features a former CIA agent called Wayne. Played by Kiefer Sutherland, Wayne becomes a security guard at the nuclear power plant and eventually saves Homer’s life.
It’s right at the end of the show that he reveals he was “in a North Korean prison being forced to write a musical about Kim Jong Il with a car battery hooked up More >
