The photos from Koutch back up that of the original poster with the exception that he included more shots of facilities and functions reserved for tourists and party apparatchiks. Nice contrast to the lifestyles of the rest of the population. What Koutch misses though, is the simple fact that the country is and has been in a crisis which can be directly attributed to economic policies and the manner in which the nation is governed. The BBC had a nice write up about it last year.

Irregardless, don’t think that I am making a value judgment about the people of North Korea. My feeling is that they are stuck with a less than optimal government and saddled with an incredible amount of corruption. But unlike the Philippines and Thailand their economy is centralized and does not allow for them to have a diversity in commerce and culture.

At the end of the day the world is nearly the same around with regards to Thailand, Philippines, the Koreas. Hell, just drive down the street a couple of miles and you’ll hit some blasted sections of Connecticut.

I’ve been to both Thailand and the Phillipines in the Navy. In both places, I saw filth and squallor like the first ‘russian’ shows, but there’s a lot more to those countries, too. Don’t let one unsubstantiated author make your opinion for you.