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The Metro uses rolling stock imported from Berlin, Germany. While North Koreans like to pretend that the trains were built locally, the graffiti in German on windows give the carriages' former lives away.
Because electricity is scarce, only the ends of the cars are lit, making for a very dark ride. Incidentally, each car prominently displays portraits of the leaders, close to the working light fixtures.
Visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlTOga-rTF4 for a six-stop ride on the Pyongyang Metro!
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Showing the North Korean half of the train to Sinuiju on the Chinese border. We were in two standard-issue Chinese sleeper carriages attached to the end of the local train. Behind me there was an inpromtpu game of volleyball taking place on the platform.
A new tile factory started production in North Korea some time ago, and now the regime keeps the people busy with tiling shops and restaurants all over Pyongyang. It doesn't seem to matter these restaurants and shops are empty because there is nothing to eat and nothing to buy – as long as they are decorated with shining new tiles the regime is satisfied.
View from the Juche tower. A playground in central Pyongyang. Murals and ping pong tables are obligatory.
All important places, buildings, monuments and statues are illuminated.
DPRK, Sept 2011 (scanned slide)
Pyongyang, DPRK.
While the picture is blurry, it reflects street life in residential areas at dusk pretty well. The kiosks on the sidewalks are a very common sight. They sell foodstuffs, flowers, and other daily consumption items.
humanitybesideus.net/2013/03/10/faces-of-pyongyang-part-2...
(c) humanitybesideus.net. All rights reserved. Do not reuse without explicit authorization.
Young Pioneer Tours 2013 Chinese National Day Tour.
For a video of the trip made by the DPRK tourists authority take a look at:
Huge depictions of Kimjongilia flowers and Paektu Mountain in public squares symbolize the Kim dynasty.
North Korea - Pyongyang - USS Pueblo.
On January 23, 1968, the USS Pueblo, a Navy intelligence vessel, is engaged in a routine surveillance of the North Korean coast when it is intercepted by North Korean patrol boats. According to U.S. reports, the Pueblo was in international waters almost 16 miles from shore, but the North Koreans turned their guns on the lightly armed vessel and demanded its surrender. The Americans attempted to escape, and the North Koreans opened fire, wounding the commander and two others. With capture inevitable, the Americans stalled for time, destroying the classified information aboard while taking further fire. Several more crew members were wounded.
Finally, the Pueblo was boarded and taken to Wonson. There, the 83-man crew was bound and blindfolded and transported to Pyongyang, where they were charged with spying within North Korea's 12-mile territorial limit and imprisoned. It was the biggest crisis in two years of increased tension and minor skirmishes between the United States and North Korea.
The United States maintained that the Pueblo had been in international waters and demanded the release of the captive sailors. With the Tet Offensive raging 2,000 miles to the south in Vietnam, President Lyndon Johnson ordered no direct retaliation, but the United States began a military buildup in the area. North Korean authorities, meanwhile, coerced a confession and apology out of Pueblo commander Bucher, in which he stated, "I will never again be a party to any disgraceful act of aggression of this type." The rest of the crew also signed a confession under threat of torture.
The prisoners were then taken to a second compound in the countryside near Pyongyang, where they were forced to study propaganda materials and beaten for straying from the compound's strict rules. In August, the North Koreans staged a phony news conference in which the prisoners were to praise their humane treatment, but the Americans thwarted the Koreans by inserting innuendoes and sarcastic language into their statements. Some prisoners also rebelled in photo shoots by casually sticking out their middle finger; a gesture that their captors didn't understand. Later, the North Koreans caught on and beat the Americans for a week.
On December 23, 1968, exactly 11 months after the Pueblo's capture, U.S. and North Korean negotiators reached a settlement to resolve the crisis. Under the settlement's terms, the United States admitted the ship's intrusion into North Korean territory, apologized for the action, and pledged to cease any future such action. That day, the surviving 82 crewmen walked one by one across the "Bridge of No Return" at Panmunjon to freedom in South Korea. They were hailed as heroes and returned home to the United States in time for Christmas. Incidents between North Korea and the United States continued in 1969, and in April 1969 a North Korean MiG fighter shot down a U.S. Navy intelligence aircraft, killing all 31 men aboard. In 1970, quiet returned to the demilitarized zone.
The first pizza joint in North Korea - Pyongyang, DPKR.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/499942...