@@tagomisan2865you replied to a comment about North Korea on a video solely about North Korea, produced by a Brit. And your first instinct is to whatabout the USA. Lmao. You’re obsessed, you can’t keep it off your envious little tongue. Success breeds contempt
It is kinda amusing to me that their megaprojects are all hotels and aimed at attracting tourists... when you consider that North Korea is right up along side with Afghanistan as places most people wouldn't dream of visiting, due to the high likelihood of not being able to leave again.
Am I the only one who's suspicious of the fact that it never looks like plumbing, gas, sewage, and water lines are not installed PRIOR to the buildings being built? Shouldn't there be all types of lines put down BEFORE you start buildiing? It always looks like they just clear the spaces, build the buildings, and the roads then "pretend" that the whole thing is going to actually be for humans to occupy.
That "makes sense" and is "practical" but doesnt look nearly as flashy so instead they focus on the most obvious parts of the building first like the main structure and windows. it's all about posturing so those practical aspects are more of an afterthought
Absolutely. In NK, a lot of things are just a facade. Either figuratively or literally. LOOKING successful and prosperous is more important than laying down the systems for true success.
I loved how in all propo photos of Kim visiting the many, many projects and initiatives he has in his country, he's followed by an entourage of his generals, scribbling on notepads like it matters. There has been no greater depiction of "the boss is here, look busy". Seriously, why are the bottlecap (their medals) generals overseeing the progress of a beach resort project?
Because men go straight into the military for 10yrs after high school, but it isn’t really military, it is the government construction workforce. Then you get out of military get married have kids doing the job the gov gives you for the rest of your life. You can not visit outside your province or move from your province without government permission, which essentially never happens. NK is virtually the largest prison on the planet, less than 100 people were able to escape last year. The border is 100% walled, mined, camera’d, with shooting towers and jammers every so many meters to prevent broadcast or reception of any information.
@@jameskiehm546loyalty is more important to a dictator than competence. High competence also often led to that person being removed, as to not outshine the leader
I once talked to an engineer from east Germany who worked at the hotel in the late 80s as part of a exchange program between socialist countries (or something like this). He said for the price of 750 mio. US$ the building should have been easily finished. North Korea has it's own steel and concrete industry and the cost of labour is pretty much zero. The problem was apparently an insane level of corruption and misuse of funds where everyone and their grandma wanted to be bribed to do anything and government officials just moving the decimal dot (or comma, don't know what they use) to the right to literally pocket 90% of the money. Also the military would randomly confiscate material and machines never to be seen again. More over, the north korean workers who were organized in bataillons would be regularly assigned totally pointless jobs like brooming the roads when a foreign leader was visiting Pjongjang.
I swear every time I see the immense statues of the dear leaders, I immediately think of the statues of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse at Disneyland. Come to think of it, Disney could easily do a better job of running North Korea.
North Korea's entire GDP is equal to about 1.5 months of business for Samsung Electronics, and theyre trying to run a whole country complete with a nuclear armed submarine fleet, its not a surprise they bite off more than they can afford to chew
They do have 2 GDP's. Russia kinda props the country up. Hince why South Korea took off and north Korea failed. South Korea was told to look after themselves. North Korea was told Russia will look after them. So they are being paid monthly by Russia
@@mvb88when you look at the Soviet oil and mineral industries and where the money went its downright hilarious how much of a house of cards communism is. Every time the oil industry dipped the Soviets and their allies showed serious problems and when oil prices went up they went back to being functional states, but most of the communist world was reliant on Soviet subsidies and the minute those dried up suddenly communist governments fell like dominoes. Soviet heavy industry turned out to be a joke as it was horribly inefficient and propped up by oil income. Much like modern Russia they're basically a petro state.
I've seen a few videos purportedly from tourists to North Korea who showed how their nearly antique in-hotel TVs and other electronic devices had enough cables in them to look like IT spaghetti. I wouldn't be surprised if the bedbugs had little microphones on them at this rate. How they expect to attract tourists while spying this hard on them is anyone's guess.
They do have microphones in the rooms bbc did a documentary holidays in the axis of evil and yeah the rooms are bugged and they even interview a yank who got arrested for asking his tour guide how come your leader is so fat when your all starving he got six months in prison
I was in North Korea in 2012. Every hotel we stayed at was half empty. The Ryanggang hotel had a revolving restaurant that didn't revolve. We were stuck in the elevator twice because of power cuts. Hot water was limited to 1 hour in the morning and evening.
For a country that has been on the receiving end of brutal US sanctions it's actually done pretty decently for itself. Produces nuclear energy and weapons, is more industrialized than Portugal, Greece or Ireland, had to create it's own pharmaceutical sector. Of course the propaganda fed to Westerners is extreme but for the few people who have lived there longer than a tourist visit it is a country that has existed against all odds. The irony of meeting Westerners is that they are the most brainwashed slaves on earth yet they hardly know it. They are slaves who can't see their own shackles.
@@muppetb.lansing8374lol who cares about dragons be worried about some North Korean jackboot putting jumper cables to your balls! It's should say something when a US citizen was worked to death.
Just imagine if they spent that money on things that actually matter. They could have had been almost respected nation at this point rather than a laughingstock with a human muppet as a dictator.
Right now, I consider my chances of coming back alive from North Korea greater than those of coming back alive from the USA. Still doesn't make me eager to go there, but it's starting to become somewhat appealing.
It doesn’t get more dystopian than having propaganda cartoons played for the public on a 105 floor building that’s intimidating on the outside and empty on the inside.
Thats right for most people, but i think there would still be enough to reach their one million-goal. Thing is we already have resorts like this in countries that are not exactly nice to their own people (even if there is no one beating NK in that regard). And their concept works. You don't see the real country except maybe some bus tours to important locations and the rest of the time you are in the resort which of course is nothing like the rest of their cities. And there you have amenities the people usually don't have (like alcohol in coutries where that's normally illegal). Personally i'm not interested in something like this but there are many people love such resorts. And if the price isn't too high they would even go to NK, especially just to say they visited the country (even if they didn't really) ...
I like how the only really successful accomplishment the country ever made was making statues and monuments dedicated to their leaders. Does show that whoever is in charge gets the say at what gets done, the rest is up to the scraps.
That's not true. We've created a missile program despite sanctions, built a huge dam that costed billions, and built monuments for other countries around the world.
@@brandongaines1731 African Renaissance Monument in Senegal, the largest monument in Africa! We've built several things around the world through our Mansudae Overseas Projects, like the Tiglachin Monument in Ethiopia and the Three Dikgosi Monument in Botswana.
@@SupremeLeaderKimJong-unfat load of good missiles do for starving ppl. 😕 To be fair, if sanctions weren't in place, NK would probably be doing a lot better, but nuclear weapons are more important to the leader, so the sanctions remain (and I can't blame other countries for doing them either).
It's really the saddest of all stories of what the North Korean government has done to It's people. The Kim family puts all other dictators pale in comparison. I remember reading an article about North Korean refugees & how, because of the lack of proper nutrition, are all considerably smaller than their South Korean counterparts. May God have mercy on their souls (the people, not their government). 🙏❤️🙏❤️🙏❤️
Staying in North Korean hotels is great! You get to pet wild dogs right in your room, and anything you need can be brought to you immediately since they're watching and listening to you for your entire stay! The sweeping view of unfinished buildings is only beat by the sight of their famous dirt farms and hunger competitions.
Another instance of the DPRK outdoing South Korea when it comes to height is flagpoles. In the 1980s, the South Korean/ROK government built a 99.8 m (327 ft) flagpole in Daeseong-dong, which flies the ROK flag weighing 130 kilograms (287 pounds). Naturally, the DPRK responded by building an even taller one, the Panmunjom flagpole, at 160 m (525 ft) with a 270 kg (595 pounds) flag in the village of Kijong-dong. For over a decade, the flagpole was the tallest supported flagpole in the world. But in 2010, Azerbaijan took the record as they built one in Baku at 162 m (531 ft). Currently, the Panmunjom flagpole is the sixth-tallest flagpole in the world. And another famous megaproject is of course our Rungrado 1st of May Stadium. After the 1988 Summer Olympics had been awarded to Seoul, the DPRK intensified its efforts to present itself as the legitimate Korean state. As part of these efforts, it successfully bid to organize the 13th World Festival of Youth and Students in Pyongyang in 1989. Massive construction projects were initiated in preparation for the festival, one of which was the Rungrado 1st of May Stadium. It has a capacity of 114,000 and is home to the Arirang Mass Games, which is the world's largest gymnastics display. It was the world's largest stadium from 1989 to 2020 when India rebuilt Motera Stadium and renamed it Narendra Modi Stadium.
Way back when my husband was a working aerospace engineer, he would need to fly to Taiwan many times - but the pilots had to be extremely careful about where they flew as it was very easy to just muck a corner of North Korea - which did happen once! Luckily the plane was not shot down!!
An amusing instance of North Korean business dealings was an order of 1000 Volvos from Sweden back in the 1970s. Volvo agreed to the order, delivered it, then North Korea decided to not pay up. It is now known as the largest car theft in history.
The fact they just pretend it doesn't exist is hilariously pathetic. Ew! I would never go to that beach after learning it had been covered in faeces... all it takes is one missed and covered pile and your day is ruined.
The fact that the Kim Dynasty can't afford to feed their own people but they can splurge massive amounts of money on these failed "megaprojects" is fucking insane.
@@michaelhowell2326 Nothing that's going on in North Korea has anything to do with communism. What about reading up on the subject before you fall for the lie?
@@michaelhowell2326NK is not practicing communism. Neither is China for the record despite the name of their gov in power (they have stated they are the Chinese Communist Party bc getting to communism one day is their goal so they say). They are as communist as North Korea is democratic (they call themselves the Democratic ppls republic of KR despite) or the Nazi's were socialists (they weren't despite their party name, they killed actual socialists and communists). The only thing these regimes are are dictatorships, often with fascism and capitalism as well.
Even if I got a fully paid, all-inclusive trip to North Korea *nobody* could make me go. I'm way to curious for my own good and I swear I'd be screened and jailed in a heartbeat for asking something I think is completely normal, or just going on a walk and end up somewhere they wouldn't like. And then I have a huge problem with keeping my mouth shut when I see things that I think is deeply unfair, and that whole country is nothing if not *deeply fucking unfair* - so I'd probably come back from that trip in a coffin.
I'm sure the risk of going somewhere they don't want you to go is relatively small in this case. If this resort will ever be opened it will be surely cut off from the rest of the country, which wouldn't make it look better, but that doesn't matter. This is why the airport makes extra sense in this case. It will be probably the only way for the tourists in and out. Nobody inside is allowed to see the actual NK and all the things that might not be very nice ... on the other hand their own people are not allowed in except for the workers. So even if someone wants to see the country they won't - at least not really ...
Well, for one thing, you won't be allowed to just wander around. The way tourism is there now (or was before the pandemic) is that any Western tourists, at least, could only go where their guides took them. They'd take tourists out to see a bunch of staged stuff, like a farm with a bunch of successfully grown crops, but not to an actual farm with dying crops. There's no way they'll ever let someone see the real North Korea.
@@dx1450I think she meant like a Otto warmbier situation where he went to a floor of the hotel he wasn’t supposed to be on and taking a propaganda poster off the wall as a souvenir Yeah he died
A megaproject they've completed successfully is the Nampo Dam. It was built by the Korean People's Army from 1981 to 1986, with the resources of the whole country directed to this big construction project during this time. It's located 15 km west of the special city of Nampo on the Taedong River which is the country's most important river. It closes off the Taedong from the Yellow Sea. Why? Because their goal was the prevention of seawater intrusion into the fresh water, thus solving the water supply problem as well as the irrigation of additional land, enlarging the arable territory of the region. It is a large, eight-km-long system of dams, three lock chambers, and 36 sluices, allowing the passage of ships up to 50,000 tons! The West Sea Barrage non-electrified railway line (which goes between Cholgwang and Sillyongri in Nampo) of the Korean State Railway also runs right across the dam! It was built at a cost of four billion US Dollars, and it's an achievement they are quite proud of as it's shown in many North Korea music videos as well as a backdrop for KCTV news segments. And of course, they take tourists there too!
@QBCPerdition I saw it December on 2021 when it was under construction. Had no idea what it was until I saw videos of it recently all lit up. It's pretty cool
Reading about NK is so surreal. From the parasite epidemics resulting from overusing human fertilizer, to the tallest building in the capital city being abandoned. The entire state is almost a parody of the faults of authoritarianism
No bro come on bro they did it to themselves dude! It has absolutely nothing to do with the entire western world barring them from any participation from the get go forcing the government to become this insane military state that thinks everybody is trying to kill them (everybody is trying to kill them)
A true “Geisha House” is *NOT* a brothel. The word “Geisha” means “”Skilled Person.” These women have spent years learning traditional Japanese arts of entertainment, such as the *Samisen* or *Koto* as well dance and songs. Sex with the Customers is NOT requisite part of it.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE have little issue attracting tourists, especially the latter. I appreciate they're not quite on the same scale of oppressive as North Korea, but they're not great. It's amazing what can be accomplished when all the dodgy stuff is kept out of sight.
I don’t think Saudi Arabia is a big Western tourist spot…..never heard of any one from the US vacationing there. But N. Korea is worse, especially after Otto Wormbier?! Warmbier?? He was a young man from the US (I think) who visited N. Korea with an “extreme tourism group,” was imprisoned for supposedly stealing a poster…which was made him a “Western spy trying to destroy N. Korea,” was given a show trial and long prison sentence, then suddenly released home….because he was in a coma and dying. He never spoke and passed away shortly after.
@@samuelconnolly347 Dubai is a tourist spot solely because filthy rich "expats" benefit from the massive corruption and what is functionally a 3 class caste system of rich>native>immigrant when 90% of the city is functionally enslaved immigrants It's a gilded hell of oil money, and north Korea would have to figure out how to gild it's public image first. And they don't allow international social media.
Come, check out this hotel, come check out this beach, come check out the nuclear missile launch test? yeah I’ll get right on top of that. Various countries over the years have paying them off to not develop nuclear weapons. At this point I wouldn’t give them 20 bucks to change a tire.
I actually work in a building like that hotel. So poorly designed the skyscraper lists a bit because the materials used... well, you got what you paid for.
Fun Fact: The Ryugyong Hotel was featured in Mecenaries: World On Fire. It was the site of the first major boss battle and the player had to destroy it using a fuel air bomb.
That building was used in the background of a Netflix B-movie I saw a few years back. The context was that a group of people found a building that could jump through realities and they jumped into a version of New York City that was "20 years more advanced than us".
I would actually love to see a video of sideprojects which the DPRK did complete, there must be something that a government like that must have acheived through sheer force of "will", I mean oppressive coercion, that's radical or impressive??
It's just nukes and ICBMs...that's literally where all their money goes trying to keep their military relevant and the upkeep so that if they do start something they won't be wiped away like a bad pot of Texas red...
I suspect that all of the impressive ones are military, so you’ll never see them unless the regime falls. There’s supposed to be a great many underground air force bases, including a handful of runways that run through mountains.
@@SpadeDraco Technically. However most of them are less than 40m long, and only used for landing special forces. The rest are fifty-year-old Romeo-class derivatives.
It's sad, really. Imagine how many disappointed people wake up each and every day saying, "Y'know, I really, really wanted to vacation in the oppressive totalitarian regime of North Korea." Cheers....
Who in their right mind would choose North Korea as a fun get away. Maybe North Korea could use the people who designed their nuclear weapons to build tourist sites.
I would go to visit - it’s better to be open minded than a slave of western propaganda. Go see the country yourself and make a decision on your own about how good or bad it is.
First Ferengi rule of business, right after profit, which as we all know is the definition of "business" is DON'T kill the investors... at no right away...
Love the videos but as fast as you speak those whisper moments make me have to scan back and turn the volume up, back er down a few syllables a second bro.
HTF hasn't the North Korean government been overthrown yet from all this wasteful spending, I haven't a clue. When people are desperate, they will go to extreme lengths.
NK is so incredibly brainwashed. They know they are starving, but blame the Americans for it. They also think that, though they are starving, that everyone else in the world has it worse off than they do.
And to think they could've just used all that money to invest in improving their agriculture infrastructure so that their people aren't constantly starving. And how the heck do you attract foreign investors and/or tourists when you're incredibly insensitive about your national pride that you have incidents and this horrible reputation of making people horribly suffer or worse: killed.
"the elevator shaft is straight" "yes sir" that's the problem with dictatorships that won't take no for an answer "russia has the #2 top military equipment in the world" sure it does... North Korean tourism "you will have fun...or else!"
The tourist resort isn't insane to me in concept. We need only look at the success of places like Dubai to know that autocratic nightmare realms in a perpetual state of humanitarian crisis are still somehow considered perfectly acceptable places to go spend your money if the hotels are nice enough.
I see the military wears lots of hats, Generals do it all, they are resort builders, auto mechanics, bakers, bus drivers and any other jobs needing help.
Every time I hear about the Ryogyong Hotel, I get more and more fascinated. It's such a poetic analogy for the regime itself. Its ostensible rival, the Westin Stanford, now Swosshôtel the Stamford has kinda proven to be a bit of a footnote in history, not to insult the place, I'm sure it's a plenty ritzy place that's well beyond my price range, but it's not even the greatest achievement in Singapore, nor the greatest achievement of any South Korean company. Yet the North Korean regime touts the Ryogyong as a great achievement and the highlight of Pyongyang in this day and age. It, like the regime itself, has been left behind in time, and it's not even finished. It's a hollow façade that projects a brilliant shining future on the outside, but is completely empty and miserable on the inside, not even suitable to be left standing, much like the whole country itself. North Korea's people deserve better than the Ryugyong, and the deserve better than the regime that built it.
Of the Kim dynasty whose fault it is entirely that the entire country should have to live like this, I direct this pearl of wisdom from Karl Jung; 'People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls'.
A 105-story billboard! 🤣😂🤣 Beach resort: here’s an idea: complete one thing at a time. Make a modest hotel, a restaurant, and a small shopping center. Start generating some revenue in one corner. Then build another piece. Over the decades, you will end up with a quality resort. You don’t need to build the entire thing in one go!
