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Koreas to send joint cheering squad to Olympics

Monday, February 4th, 2008

Yonhap
2/4/2008

South and North Korea agreed Monday to send a 300-strong joint cheering squad to the Beijing Olympic Games in early August, the Unification Ministry said.

One hundred and fifty people from each side will travel across the heavily armed border by train to Beijing, it said.

The agreement was made by working-level officials at a one-day meeting in Kaesong, a North Korean border city.

The two sides agreed to hold another round of talks to discuss the details of sending the joint cheering squad, the ministry said in a news release.

Hailed as a symbol of inter-Korean peace and reconciliation, the cross-border railway was reconnected in May last year for the first time in 56 years. It was severed in the early stage of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The two Koreas agreed during the second summit of their leaders in October to transport the joint cheering contingent to the Aug. 8-24 Olympics using the Gyeongui railway, which is linked to the Chinese railway system.

South Korea also hopes to connect the railway to the Trans Siberian and Trans Chinese railways so products from the world’s 13th biggest economy can be transported to Europe at lower costs and in less time.

Yoo Sang-il, a member of the Korean Olympic Committee, led the three-member South Korean delegation to the talks. Yoo’s North Korean counterpart was Hwang Chol, a department director of the North’s Council for National Reconciliation.

Posted in Civil society, Railways, Sports, Transportation | Comments Closed

N. Korea: Last cold warrior standing

Thursday, January 31st, 2008

Joong Ang Daily
1/18/2008

North Korean athletes will enter the 2008 Beijing Olympics in August with a completely different concept of international sport to the one embraced by former Cold War allies.

Eastern Bloc states used to spend heavily on sports systems that turned out Goliaths, whose wins at the Olympics were used to validate what they argued was a superior political system.

The impoverished North, however, is happier playing the role of David, where its rare wins are attributed to the teachings of pudgy leader Kim Jong-il and its losses are blamed on a playing field made unfair by its foes.

“North Korea’s paranoid nationalism can use defeat just as well as it can use victory,” said Brian Myers, an associate professor at Dongseo University in Seoul, South Korea. He specializes in analyzing the North’s ideology. The reclusive North spends its limited resources to inspire its masses and not to impress the outside world on the playing field.

“North Korean nationalism does not boast that North Koreans are physically superior to other races,” Myers explained. The North’s propaganda spreads the message of being morally superior.

North Korea is likely to grab a handful of medals in Beijing in sports such as judo, weightlifting or wrestling. It has shunned overtures from the South to compete as a joint team in Beijing, which could bring it greater sports glory, because its neighbor wants to field a squad with the best athletes on the Korean Peninsula. The North wants equal representation. At the 2004 Athens Olympics, South Korea won 30 medals while the North took five. Their combined 35 would have been seventh highest, just below the 37 of their mutual arch-rival Japan.

“North Korea has realized at this stage that no number of victories on the sports stage could change the country’s reputation as an economic basket case,” Myers said.

North Korea’s athletes may be better at providing entertainment for the opening ceremony than at competing. The North’s biggest sports spectacle is its Arirang Mass Games, a circus-like extravaganza that includes legions of teenage girl gymnasts, goose-stepping soldiers flashing taekwondo kicks and a massive flip-card animation section.

The message of the event, in which some 100,000 play a role, is that the group is North Korea’s strength, and the group reveres and protects the leaders of the destitute state.

Sports are often associated with the ruling communist party, featuring competitions with farming collectives, factory workers and soldiers. Its best athletes are celebrated for upholding “the dignity of the nation”.

“Sports constitute a powerful driving force in firmly preparing the entire people for national defense and labor,” its official media said, citing the teachings of state founder Kim Il Sung.

The North relishes the role of underdog. When one of its athletes or teams achieves even moderate success, it makes the most of the victory, proclaiming it a result of the state’s military-first policy and its self-reliance ideal called “juche.” And of course, Dear Leader Kim Jong-il, who is celebrated in state propaganda for penning operas, piloting jet fighters and shooting 11 holes-in-one the first time he played golf, also turns out to be a remarkable motivator for athletes.

After Jong Song-ok won the women’s marathon gold at the 1999 World Athletic Championships in Seville, state media quoted her as saying: “I ran the race picturing the great leader of our people Kim Jong-il. This greatly encouraged me and was the source of my strength.”

Kye Sun-hui, North Korean Olympic gold medalist in women’s judo, said Kim “gave her strength, courage, matchless guts and pluck.”

Posted in Civil society, Football (soccer), Mass games, Political economy, Sports | Comments Closed

2008 Olympics visit Pyongyang

Monday, December 17th, 2007

Olympic torch ‘going to N Korea’
BBC
12/16/2007

North Korea will host a leg of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games torch relay, state media has reported.

The flame, which is due to pass through 22 cities in the four months before the Games, is expected to reach North Korean capital Pyongyang on 28 April.

Chinese and North Korean officials made the agreement in Pyongyang, said the official Korean Central News Agency.

A day earlier the torch is scheduled to pass through the South Korean capital of Seoul on its way north, say reports.

The torch, which will be lit at Olympia in Greece on 25 March, is due to cover five continents before the event begins on 8 August.

The planned 137,000-km (85,000-mile) relay route will include a trip to the top of Mount Everest.

The two Koreas have agreed to send a joint team of officials to the Beijing Olympics by train, as part of reconciliation efforts after their 1950-1953 civil war.

Coca-cola And Samsung Billboards to Appear in Pyongyang
Daily NK
Park Hyun Min
12/17/2007

Coca-cola and Samsung billboards, viewed by the North Korean regime as symbols of “American capitalism” and “Imperialistic culture,” will soon be visible in downtown Pyongyang just on April 28, 2008.

The China-based Huanqiu Times reported that the Beijing Organizing Committee of the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG), the Chosun (North Korea) Olympic Committee, and the Pyongyang People’s Committee signed an agreement to cooperate during the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay.

Samsung, Coca-cola, and Lenovo (a Chinese IT company), three of the main companies sponsoring the Beijing Olympics, will be allowed to advertise their products by cars when the Olympic Torch Relay passes through Pyongyang on April 28.

The three companies will be able to distribute pamphlets to North Korean citizens, but the extent of the content of these pamphlets will limited to the history of the respective companies’ sponsorship of the Olympic Games. Outdoor billboards will not be permitted along the relay path.

Additionally, with the exception of Shanghai-Volkswagen (the official car company of the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay), car companies will not be allowed to reveal their logos during the event.

The upcoming Torch Relay marks the first time in Olympic history that the Torch will pass through Pyongyang. Fifty-seven members of the Chosun Olympic Committee, six representatives from the three sponsorship companies, one member of the International Olympic Committee, and four Chinese diplomats will act as torchbearers in the event.

The relay will begin at the Tower of Juche Idea. Sights along the route will include the May Day Stadium, Kim Il Sung University, the Chosun-China Friendship Tower, the April 25 House of Culture, the National Liberation War Memorial Hall, Pot’ong Gate, the People’s Palace of Culture, the Pyongyang Gymnasium, Kim Il Sung Plaza, the Chollima Statue, the Arch of Triumph, and the Kim Il Sung Gymnasium. The total distance will be 20 kilometers.

The Pyongyang leg of the relay will begin after the South Korean leg is complete. The Torch will cross the DMZ by airplane and will be run through downtown Pyongyang from 2p.m. to 8 p.m. on the 28th of April.

Posted in Advertising, China, Sports | Comments Closed

North Korea Google Earth (Version 7)

Friday, December 14th, 2007

The most authoritative map of North Korea on Google Earth
North Korea Uncovered v.7
Download it here

This map covers North Korea’s agriculture, aviation, cultural locations, manufacturing facilities, railroad, energy infrastructure, politics, sports venues, military establishments, religious facilities, leisure destinations, and national parks. It is continually expanding and undergoing revisions. This is the sixth version.

Additions to the latest version of “North Korea Uncovered” include: A Korean War folder featuring overlays of US attacks on the Sui Ho Dam, Yalu Bridge, and Nakwon Munitians Plant (before/after), plus other locations such as the Hoeryong Revolutionary Site, Ponghwa Revolutionary Site, Taechon reactor (overlay), Pyongyang Railway Museum, Kwangmyong Salt Works, Woljong Temple, Sansong Revolutionary Site, Jongbansan Fort and park, Jangsan Cape, Yongbyon House of Culture, Chongsokjong, Lake Yonpung, Nortern Limit Line (NLL), Sinuiju Old Fort Walls, Pyongyang open air market, and confirmed Pyongyang Intranet nodes.

Disclaimer: I cannot vouch for the authenticity of many locations since I have not seen or been to them, but great efforts have been made to check for authenticity. These efforts include pouring over books, maps, conducting interviews, and keeping up with other peoples’ discoveries. In many cases, I have posted sources, though not for all. This is a thorough compilation of lots of material, but I will leave it up to the reader to make up their own minds as to what they see. I cannot catch everything and I welcome contributions.

Posted in Architecture, Art, Automobiles, Aviation, Cell phones, Civil society, Coal, Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, Communications, Computing/IT, Construction, Dams/hydro, Department Store No. 1, Education, Electricity, Email, Energy, Film, Finance, Football (soccer), Forestry, Gambling, General markets (FMR: Farmers Market), Golf, Google Earth, Hana Electronics Company, Health care, Hoteling, Hwanggumphyong and Wihwado Economic Zones (Sinuiju), Hyesan Youth Cooper Mine, International Aid, Internet, Intranet, Juche, Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), Kim Chaek University of Technology, Kim Il Sung University, Korea Computer Center (KCC), Korean Buddhist Association, Korean People's Army, Light Industry, Lumber, Mansudae creative Company (art studio), Manufacturing, Mass games, Maternity Hospital, Military, Mining/Minerals, Ministry of foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Trade, Mt. Kumgang Tourist Special Zone, Musan Mine, Nuclear, Pyongyang Embroidery Institute, Pyongyang Film Studio, Pyongyang Informatics Center (PIC), Pyongyang International Information Center of New Techn, Pyongyang International Trade Fair, Pyongyang Metro, Pyongyang University of Medicine, Radio, Railways, Rason Economic and Trade Zone (Rajin-Sonbong), Real estate, Religion, Restaurants, Sea shipping, Sports, Television, Transportation, Wind | Comments Closed

Surfing Net in North Korea

Monday, November 12th, 2007

Korea Times
Andrei Lankov
11/12/2007

Kim Jong-il loves to surf the net. In 2001 he asked the U.S. Secretary of State for her e-mail address, and in 2002 he told a visiting North Korean dignitary that he spent much time going through South Korean sites. He repeated this statement during the recent summit describing himself as ”an internet expert.”

Despite his relatively advanced age, Kim Jong-il takes the IT industry seriously. He obviously believes that the IT industry might become a wunderwaffen (super weapon) which one day will save the ailing North Korean economy (Kim Jong-il has always believed in simple, one-step, technology-based fixes for problems).

Now and then, news agencies report on North Korean efforts to train software specialists, or on a technology firm established by the North Koreans, or even on Kim Jong-il’s plans to create a large industrial complex which would become the North Korean reply to the Silicon Valley.

Efforts to create a computer industry go back to the late 1970s. In those days, the U.N. Development Program helped the North build a small pilot integrated circuit plant. Its history was plagued by one misfortune after another: the plant’s building proved to be badly insulated, the electricity supply was unreliable, and the engineers who were sent overseas for training arrived too late (most of them did not speak English, anyway). However, by late 1985 the plant was operational, producing ICs, an essential component of a computer.

By the early 1990s, the North was producing some 20,000 computers a year. Not much, but enough to provide for the military and even earn some money from export (over 60 percent of them were said to be exported).

In the early 1990s the North Koreans developed their own software, including a word processor. The latter had, among others, a peculiar function: it could automatically insert the names of the Great Leader and Dear Leader through a specially designated hot key.

In the North the PC was never meant to be a personal computer. It is reserved for office or industrial use, not for home – not least because the Internet is unavailable. For a regime which (correctly) assumes that its survival depends on its ability to keep the populace ignorant about outside world, the internet presents a mortal danger. Matters are further exacerbated by the unique success of the South Korean internet. If North Koreans were allowed to surf the numerous Southern sites at will, the carefully constructed picture of the world would instantly fall apart.

Thus, the internet is outlawed – but not completely. In recent years, foreign embassies have been allowed to connect to Chinese internet providers, but they have to pay the exorbitant fee for an overseas call (currently, $2 a minute). The connection is unreliable, but if your bills are paid by your country’s taxpayers, you probably can check your email… Access to email through business centers and even Internet cafes is becoming possible as well _ as long as one is a foreigner and is willing to pay exorbitant prices.

Only the privileged few have unlimited high-speed access to the Internet. But these trusted people are numbered in the hundreds or, perhaps, count a few thousands. Access is provided for the military, intelligence, and few privileged research centers only. Rooms where the internet-connected computers are installed are considered off limits for the North Korean personnel, and only people with proper security clearance can access this source of dangerous knowledge.

Less privileged institutions have access to local networks with limited connections to the World Wide Web. Their task is to let scientists and engineers retrieve the data they need without unduly exposing them to the dangers of overseas decadence.

There have been attempts to make money through IT. None of the grand plans for selling locally developed software on the international market have come to fruition, but there are easier ways to make a buck. In 2002 the North Koreans started an on-line gambling site in cooperation with a South Korean company. It targeted South Koreans, since gambling is illegal here. Its message board attracted much popularity since it was a place where the Southerners could exchange messages with the North Korean staff. The ability to chat with the Northerners was exciting (even though the largely young participants probably did not realize to which extent their interlocutors were controlled). The combination of gambling and propaganda obviously terrified Seoul, and the site was closed down.

Another area where North Koreans are trying their luck (and obviously not without moderate success) are game development and computer animation. Indeed, even major studios are sometimes inclined to outsource their animation work to North Korea.

The Internet remains a hot potato for the North Korean leaders. They understand its importance, but they do not know what to do about its political dangers. While facing such a choice, they have always opted for political security.

Posted in Animation, Art, Communications, Computing/IT, Email, Gambling, Internet, Light Industry, Manufacturing, Sports, UNDP | Comments Closed

Google Earth North Korea (version 6)

Sunday, November 11th, 2007

The most authoritative map of North Korea on Google Earth
North Korea Uncovered: Version 6
Download it here

Additions to the newest version of North Korea Uncovered include: Alleged Syrian nuclear site (before and after bombing), Majon beach resort, electricity grid expansion, Runga Island in Pyongyang, Mt. Ryongak, Yongbyon historical fort walls, Suyang Fort walls and waterfall in Haeju, Kaechon-Lake Taesong water project, Paekma-Cholsan waterway, Yachts (3), and Hyesan Youth Copper Mine.

Posted in Advertising, Agriculture, Architecture, Automobiles, Aviation, Banking, Black markets, Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, Communications, Computing/IT, Dams/hydro, Department Store No. 1, Economic reform, Education, Electricity, Energy, Environmental protection, Film, Finance, Fiscal & monetary policy, Football (soccer), Forestry, Gambling, Gasoline, General markets (FMR: Farmers Market), Golf, Google Earth, Hana Electronics Company, Health care, Hoteling, Hwanggumphyong and Wihwado Economic Zones (Sinuiju), Hyesan Youth Cooper Mine, Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), Kim Il Sung University, Korea Computer Center (KCC), Library, Light Industry, Mansudae creative Company (art studio), Manufacturing, Mass games, Maternity Hospital, Military, Mining/Minerals, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Foreign Trade, Mt. Kumgang Tourist Special Zone, Musan Mine, Music, Nuclear, Pyongyang Embroidery Institute, Pyongyang Film Studio, Pyongyang Informatics Center (PIC), Pyongyang International Information Center of New Techn, Pyongyang International Trade Fair, Pyongyang Metro, Railways, Rason Economic and Trade Zone (Rajin-Sonbong), Real estate, Religion, Restaurants, Sea shipping, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013), Sports, Steel, Supreme Peoples Assembly, Television, Tourism, Transportation, Water, Wind | Comments Closed

American Tourists in the DPRK 2008

Wednesday, November 7th, 2007

According to the Koryo Tours website, the DPRK will once again be performing Arirang in 2008. This time around, American tours have been extended by a full day. Where as previous tours ran from Saturday to Tuesday, now they will run from Tuesday to Saturday (matching the days that Air Koryo flies to Beijing).

I saw the Mass Games in 2005 with Kim Jong Il himself (official coverage, Simon’s coverage). It was quite an experience. You will never see anything like it.

Traditionally the Mass Games have only been held on big holidays (typically on notable anniversaries: 10,15, 20, etc.) This is now the fourth year in a row that Arirang will be performed (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008), a show that was first performed in 2003 (I think).

To the Americans out there: it is not illegal and will not put you on any kind of watch list.

Warning: flooding in October has interrupted trips the last two years!

Posted in Koryo Tours, Mass games, Sports, Tourism | Comments Closed

Signals coming from the media in North Korea

Saturday, November 3rd, 2007

Joong Ang Daily
Brian Lee
11/1/2007

Newspapers indicate a desire for more outside interactions

North Korea is increasingly sending out signals through its state media indicating a desire to interact more with the outside world.

The North’s communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in an editorial earlier this week that it is no longer a time for production and construction to be achieved through the workers’ bare hands alone.

“We are stressing self-sufficiency, but that does not mean we are disregarding international economic relations while striving to build our economy,” the newspaper said. “The republic has always maintained its position that it wants to have good relations, even with capitalist countries.”

The Chosun Sinbo, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan widely believed to be representing North Korea’s views, also said this week that progress in the six-party talks reflected Pyongyang’s political will to improve ties with neighboring countries.

“The nuclear test was Pyongyang’s tool to change the stalemate with Washington,” said Koh Yoo-hwan, a North Korean specialist at Dongguk University. “It got its attention and now both sides are talking. The diplomatic exchanges with other countries are a sign from the North that it can accept capitalist methods and that it is open to the outside. This is not coming just out of the blue. In the North everything is planned from the top and all these moves are done strategically. They want to connect to the outside.”

Yesterday, North Korea restored diplomatic ties with Burma after 24 years of severed ties over the North’s involvement in a bomb attack on South Korean cabinet members in 1983, The Associated Press reported.

North Korean Premier Kim Yong-il has also embarked on a rare sweep of the Asian region, visiting Vietnam last week with Malaysia, Cambodia and Laos also on his itinerary.

Washington has tried in its own way to lure the isolated North more into the open.

A visit by the New York Philharmonic to the North is being pondered while the JoongAng Sunday reported that the North’s women’s soccer team may visit the United States.

In a related development, Christopher Hill, Washington’s chief representative to the six-party talks, met with his North Korean counterpart Kim Gye-gwan in Beijing yesterday to discuss progress in the nuclear negotiations.

Hill is scheduled to arrive in Seoul today to brief officials here on the meeting, a government official said yesterday on condition of anonymity.

Foreign Minister Song Min-soon told reporters a U.S. team of nuclear experts is scheduled to enter the North today to take actual steps to disable the North’s key nuclear facilities. Pyongyang said earlier this week that such measures would start within this week.

Posted in 2002 Economic reforms, Civil society, Domestic publication, Economic reform, Football (soccer), Foreign direct investment, Music, Myanmar, Political economy, Sports | Comments Closed

Pyongyang No. 1 Senior-middle School, the Best Elite Training Institute in North Korea

Monday, October 22nd, 2007

Daily NK
Yoon Il Geun
10/22/2007

As part of special education policy for the talented, North Korean government established in 1984 Pyongyang No. 1 Senior-middle School, whose education course corresponds to the national curriculum for high schools in South Korea. By 1985, the North Korean regime had finished establishing No.1 Senior-middle School at every seat of provincial government and started a full-scale special education for the gifted.

The competition for No. 1 Senior-middle School is fierce because only those graduates from these schools can get into universities. The No. 1 Senior-middle School is different from the ordinary schools in terms of teaching materials and the quality of teachers. However, there is a huge difference even among No.1 Senior-middle Schools. The best one is Pyongyang No.1 Senior-middle School.

Located in the Shinwon-dong of Bontongkang-district, Pyongyang, Pyongyang No. 1 Senior-middle School has a total floor space of 28,000 square meters, a four-story building for primary school, a ten-story building for Senior-middle school, dormitories, cafeteria, and other accessory buildings. It is surely the best school in North Korea.

The entrance quota is approximately one thousand students with around 300 selected from the countryside. The dorms for these students from provinces have better facilities than the dorms of Kim Il Sung University have.

The predecessor of the present Pyongyang No. 1 Senior-middle School was “Pyongyang Namsan Advanced Middle School,” that Kim Joing Il attended between 1957 and 1960. In those days, the school only received as its students the children of army general, anti-Japanese fighters, the cadres of the central party, cabinet members, and renowned artists or intellectuals. It was “the school for the nobility.”

As part of Kim Jong Il’s policy for special education, the school changed its name into Pyongyang No.1 Senior-middle School. The latter now boasts about having best education and experimental facilities, and prominent teachers. The school buildings which were constructed at a cost of 5.8 million U.S. dollars are very modern. All facilities were imported from Japan including desks and chairs, interior decorations, laboratory tools, reagents, musical instruments, and sports equipment

Also called as Kim Jong Il’s alma mater, the school has a pool of teachers, most of whom are graduates from Kim Il Song National University, Kimchaek University of Technology, and Kim Hyong Jik College of Education. It also has twenty (or so) up-to-date laboratories, an excellent specimen room, and the scanning electron microscope, one which is not available even in Kim Il Sung University.

At the 10-story and its accessory building, there is the “Kim Jong Il Memorial Hall,” which exhibits materials from Kim Jong Il’s school days, and is used for idolization education of Kim Jong Il. Moreover, the school has an auditorium with the sitting capacity of 500 persons, libraries, gyms, swimming pools, dispensaries and a barbershop.

Inside the 10-story building are the principal’s office, the room for party secretaries, teachers’ rooms, classrooms, laboratories, audio-video classroom for foreign language studies, “Kim Il Sung Revolutionary History Study” room, modern computer labs, and a studio fully equipped with Japanese electronic musical instruments.

Those students originally from Pyongyang are mostly the children of the central Party or central ministry members, anti-Japan fighters, army generals, and rich Pyongyang citizens including some Korean-Japanese. Unlike the children of the upper classes, students from the countryside are selected not based on family background but talents. Most of these students are transfer students from provincial Senior-middle Schools. Therefore, there is a stark contrast between less qualified students from affluent Pyongyang families and highly talented transfer students from not–so- rich families.

The students from provinces display real talents.

In fact, it is these transfer students from provincial No.1 Senior-middle School who really raise the prestige of Pyongyang No.1 Senior-middle School. For the most time, it is them who won awards at the International Math Olympic or computer tournament, or achieve academic success later in college.

Apparently, Pyongyang No.1 Senior-middle School serves two purposes. It is both an aristocratic school for the upper-class children and a special school which offers education for the gifted and produces the most brilliant men in North Korea.

As the most elite school, Pyongyang No. 1 Senior-middle School values not only science and technology education but also art and physical education. This is what makes Pyongyang No.1 Senior-middle School different from other provincial No.1 senior-middle Schools. The physical education program emphasizes activities such as basketball, swimming, and apparatus gymnastics (horizontal bar, parallel bars), and offers lessons of boxing, soccer, and table-tennis. It is mandatory to make swimming lesson two times per week. In addition, the music education program offers classes such as singing and composition course, and electronic piano lessons. There are also music bands in the school.

As a result of the broad-based curricula of Pyongyang No.1 Senior-middle School, the graduates of this school are taller on the average than their counterparts from No.1 provincial Senior-middle Schools, and display better performance at physical and music education. The self-confident students of Pyongyang No.1 Senior-middle School are also good at dating.

On the streets in Pyongyang, people can easily spot schoolboys with school badge of Pyongyang No.1 Senior-middle School flirting with school girls from No.1 or No.2 Geumsung School Special Art Schools.

Thanks to Kim Jong Il’s favoritism, Pyongyang No.1 Senior-middle School enjoys many kinds of privileges. In 1997, the students received exemption from military service. Furthermore, they have great advantage over the students of No.1 provincial Senior-middle Schools in obtaining the nomination letter needed to get into top universities,

When it comes to entering into Kim Il Sung University, each No. 1 provincial Senior-middle School is allowed to write about 5~9 nomination letter whereas Pyongyang No.1 Senior-middle School can write about 80~90. Similarly, the provincial schools can write no more than 1~2 nomination letters for Pyongyang Medical School whereas Pyongyang No.1 Senior-middle School can write 20~30 nomination letter. Almost all students who graduated from Pyongyang No.1 Senior-middle School go to top universities. Those graduates who were poor at school performance go to Pyongsung College of Science.

The graduates from Pyongyang No.1 Senior-middle School also enjoy special treatment in their universities. They are more likely to be selected as student leaders and to receive attention from professors. As Kim Jong Il’s alma mater, Pyongyang Senior-middle School No.1 draws national attention and support. It is surely the best elite school in North Korea.

Posted in Civil society, Education, Music, Political economy, Sports | Comments Closed

North Korea on Google Earth

Saturday, October 6th, 2007

Version 5: Download it here (on Google Earth)

Additions to the latest version of “North Korea Uncovered” include updates to new Google Earth overlays of Sinchon, UNESCO sites, Railroads, canals, and the DMZ, in addition to Kim Jong Suk college of eduation (Hyesan), a huge expansion of the electricity grid (with a little help from Martyn Williams) plus a few more parks, antiaircraft sites, dams, mines, canals, etc.

I hope this map will increase interest in North Korea. There is still plenty more to learn, and I look forward to receiving your additions to this project.

Posted in 1990s Famine, Advertising, Agriculture, Architecture, Arduous March, Art, Automobiles, Aviation, Banking, Civil society, Coal, Communications, Computing/IT, Cosmetics, Dams/hydro, DPRK organizations, Economic reform, Education, Electricity, Energy, Environmental protection, Film, Finance, Fiscal & monetary policy, Football (soccer), Foreign direct investment, Forestry, Gambling, Gasoline, General markets (FMR: Farmers Market), Golf, Google Earth, Health care, Hoteling, Hwanggumphyong and Wihwado Economic Zones (Sinuiju), Illicit activities, Juche, Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC), Labor conditions/wages, Leisure, Library, Light Industry, Manufacturing, Mass games, Military, Mining/Minerals, Mt. Kumgang Tourist Special Zone, Music, Nuclear, Political economy, Pyongyang International Trade Fair, Pyongyang Metro, Radio, Railways, Rason Economic and Trade Zone (Rajin-Sonbong), Real estate, Religion, Restaurants, Sea shipping, Special Economic Zones (Established before 2013), Television, Tourism, Transportation, Water, Worker's Party | 2 Comments »

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