North Korea’s Kim Jong-un has banned sarcasm because he fears people only agree with him ironically, according to reports.
Government officials were apparently warned they will “not be forgiven” if they are heard being sarcastic. 

This would be hilarious – other than the fact he’s a nut job.

Here

Yeah, cos if he catches you, he’s going to exectute you with an anti aircraft gun…. Riiiight

Oh.

What a nice little man he is…

I call BS.

The same as the haircut nonsense.

I call BS on that as well. Having visited North Korea earlier this year I found that a lot of the ‘news’ we hear about them is nonsense. They know much more about us than we do about them. That’s not to say there aren’t some awful things going on but the stuff about haircuts, thinking they won the world cup, unicorns and most likely this are total nonsense. The North Koreans we met, whilst very much in love with their dear leaders, were incredibly warm, welcoming and fun to be around.

The North Koreans we met, whilst very much in love with their dear leaders, were incredibly warm, welcoming and fun to be around.

The the things is people as individuals often are.

Collectively they seem to accept and perpetrate all sorts of actions you’d assume only complete monsters would tolerate or do.

I met a number of South Africans in the 80’s who were generally ok but had a complete moral blind spot when it came to apartheid – they just couldn’t see that there was a problem or that their country could exist in any other way.

STW: always looking out for and defending the little guy.

Even North Korea.

He should probably avoid playing Rocket League then. 😉

That’s brilliant, what’s next?

North Koreas blushing brides to be must be overjoyed at the thought of rain-free wedding days and appropriate numbers of knives in kitchen drawers.

Having visited North Korea earlier this year I found that a lot of the ‘news’ we hear about them is nonsense.

Are these people you met whilst with a government minder ?

It’s just occurred to me, maybe he actually tried to ban lonely but they couldn’t understand each other 😀

Ban ronery,
What’s ronery?
You know, ronery!
Ok boss!
He wants us to ban ronery
What’s ronery?
You know, ronery!
Ah, like sarcasm, ronery, I got you. Ok, I’ll send out the memo

STW: always looking out for and defending the little guy.

I don’t think anyone is defending North Korea, just pointing out that our media sometimes spouts BS.

defending the little guy

Kim Jong is many things but little is not amongst them 😉

Having visited North Korea earlier this year I found that a lot of the ‘news’ we hear about them is nonsense.

Of course, that’s what they’d have you believe. In a country so tightly controlled I doubt you were really allowed access to anybody who might have caused problems for the regime. North Korea has no press freedom so I don’t really think you were able to judge things correctly on the ground. Not saying the people can’t be nice one on one obviously.

Yeah, of course he did 🙄

Is that hyphen in the correct place, does he really want people to be Fergal Sarky? 😆

I’m under no illusions that I saw anything beyond exactly what the North Korean government dictates was ok for me to see. Our group did have slightly better access to everyday life as we were the first ever westerners to ride bicycles in Pyongyang. We were treated with a mixture of confusion and excitement by most of the people we passed. People would be hanging out of the passing trams and waving, we were high-fiving school kids on the street. There aren’t that many people that can speak English so it’s pretty difficult to sit down and have a conversation with them as I don’t speak Korean. The North Korean guides we had were great. We could talk about anything but prison camps as long as we were respectful. We talked about politics, life, love, the internet, music, bikes, history and sat up until the small hours drinking with them. They certainly have a blind spot for many things but they also have many arguments for their nuclear program, the benefits of communism etc. They’re not totally blind automatons though, they do have opinions you wouldn’t expect on certain things; granted I doubt they’d express them so freely in certain other company. We were also allowed to wander freely amongst the locals, without a guide, in certain places including the water park and the department store we purchased our bikes from. Some of what we saw was really odd and a bit f’d up; the Children’s Palace and War Museum in particular.

I can’t defend the indefensible human rights stuff but I can dismiss a lot of the absurd nonsense that gets passed off as facts in our press.

For anyone that’s interested, here’s a write of up of the tour that I was on, with some videos and pics. http://www.youngpioneertours.com/blog/bicycle-north-korea-tour
It’s definitely a mind-bending trip that I’d recommend taking.

If you can’t afford a trip to North Korea then watch the Propoganda Game on Netflix. It’s by far the most representative documentary of the experience I had.

this is all America’s fault

I’ve been working as a tour guide in the DPRK for three years

How do you feel about enriching a country that has concentration camps ?

Kim Jong-un bans sarcasm

Does that mean his barber’s looking for a new job?

I’ve been working as a tour guide in the DPRK for three years

How do you feel about enriching a country that has concentration camps ?
Ever bought anything made in China?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laogai

egb81 – you’re the North Korean Head of Tourism aren’t you? I win!!! 😆

As you didn’t answer the first question…

How do you feel about a country that has just tested a nuclear weapon ?

When you were leaving N. Korea did you consider that every citizen prisoner in that country, were they to be caught trying to leave would be sent to a concentration camp alongside their families ?

How do you feel about those that financed and/or explained away the activities of the Nazis in the 1930’s ?

As you didn’t answer the first question

Ever bought anything made in China?

😉

I think the point is we are all compromised by some degree by our participation in enriching countries we do not necessarily agree with

Granted its easier to avoid working in north korea than buying something at least partially chinese made but none of us are pure i guess it’s just how hard we try

Given your question wasn’t aimed at me, as I’ve never worked as a tour guide (I’m an office worker in Bristol) I didn’t really feel the need. The tourist industry in North Korea is minute, a drop in an an economic ocean. Their largest economic income is from supplying cheap labour to China, a country that has considerably larger concentration camps and an incredibly dubious record on freedom of speech and many other human rights. Ask yourself your own questions as you’ll find you’re somewhat of a hypocrite. How much stuff have you feathered your nest with that was made in China, a global super power off the back of massive inequality, a complete lack of democracy and forced labour camps. Is it ok because they trade with the west?

If you’d have bothered to actually read my post properly all I’ve actually said is that most of the stupid BS that comes out of our media about DPRK is as stupid as it sounds. Misinformation isn’t going to help anyone, it’s merely a different form propaganda. I’ve not defended the actions of their government once.

I went to North Korea (I also traveled in China on the same trip) because I found out it was surprisingly simple to do so and I wanted to see at least some of it for myself. I had a really interesting experience, thoroughly confusing, sometimes frustrating, sometimes very enjoyable.

“I can’t defend the indefensible human rights stuff but I can dismiss a lot of the absurd nonsense that gets passed off as facts in our press.”

Korea was always about East vs West imperialism, and about US attempts to ‘contain’ China and the USSR, by controlling militarily strategic waters off Japan. As Western imperialism has waned relative to China and Russia, especially since the establishment of N Korea’s nuclear capability, the West is now reduced to cheap jibes against that nation. Whilst knowing that it can’t really do much against China and Russia. North Korea became a claustrophobic little basket case, a buffer zone between global military powers. This has had a terrible effect on the country and it’s people, and also of great negative impact to South Korea. So many families split because of outside imperialist belligerence.

“How do you feel about enriching a country that has concentration camps ?”

We in the UK really need to learn about glass houses and throwing stones…

Toddboy – Member

egb81 – you’re the North Korean Head of Tourism aren’t you? I win!!!

It would be an interesting job 😀 . Our Western guide had spend well over 200 days of last year in the country. He said it was a nightmare to get anything done due to mixture of incompetence, a complete lack of business sense, bureaucracy and the fact that business meetings are generally pretty booze soaked.

Korea was always about East vs West imperialism, and about US attempts to ‘contain’ China and the USSR, by controlling militarily strategic waters off Japan. As Western imperialism has waned relative to China and Russia, especially since the establishment of N Korea’s nuclear capability, the West is now reduced to cheap jibes against that nation. Whilst knowing that it can’t really do much against China and Russia. North Korea became a claustrophobic little basket case, a buffer zone between global military powers. This has had a terrible effect on the country and it’s people, and also of great negative impact to South Korea. So many families split because of outside imperialist belligerence.

Nail on the head right there.

I suspect that once China no longer feels the same ‘threat’ from the US (which won’t be all that long, as the US is rapidly declining as a global force), North Korea may hopefully open up, and the despotic dictatorship replaced with something much more reasonable. NK is kept as an unpredictable basket case, to serve Chinese military and economic interests, and to keep the US at bay. Once that threat evaporates, it will be far more useful for China to use NK as a gateway to the sea of Japan, and enable it to control those lucrative trade routes.

I suspect that once China no longer feels the same ‘threat’ from the US (which won’t be all that long, as the US is rapidly declining as a global force), North Korea may hopefully open up, and the despotic dictatorship replaced with something much more reasonable. NK is kept as an unpredictable basket case, to serve Chinese military and economic interests, and to keep the US at bay. Once that threat evaporates, it will be far more useful for China to use NK as a gateway to the sea of Japan, and enable it to control those lucrative trade routes.

Yep. Continued Chinese support of North Korea seems to be mostly about keeping the US from their border. China could pull the plug on DRPK and the whole lot would plunge into chaos. The politics in the region are a mess and won’t be changing any time soon. The regime is pretty entrenched, any military interventionists will largely be treated as imperialists rather than liberators. I’d agree with Simon Jenkins comments in the Guardian that the only way to shift DPRK out of this current mentality is through slow cultural change and engagement with the west. It’s highly unlikely to happen though as it’ll be used as massive victory for DPRK and it would mean accepting that the west sometimes gets it wrong. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/09/north-korea-nuclear-test-sanctions-embargo