Saturday, December 27, 2014

You can’t do that in North Korea

You can’t do that in North Korea
Here are some things that the average person can’t do in North Korea.
  1. Beat Kim Jon il at bowling or golf (when he was alive). According to state propaganda, the first time he went bowling Kim Jon il bowled a perfect 300. The first time he went golfing he had 11 holes-in-one. According to the National Hole in one Registry, the chances of scoring 2 holes-in-one during a single round of golf is 67 million to one. One would assume 11 would be in the realm of billions if not trillions-to-one. This doesn’t factor in the average person  making a hole-in-one has 24 years of golfing experience. So, either North Korean propaganda is a lie (shocker!) or those 11 holes-in-one were from about 6 inches out.
  2. Criticize the government.  There is no freedom of speech in North Korea and the worst prison camps in the country are reserved for political dissidents. According to Amnesty International, as many as 40 percent of prison camp inmates die from malnutrition. Since there are as many as 400,000 people in those camps, that’s a big number.
  3. Own a vehicle or drive. In North Korea, only government and military officials can own motor vehicles. This makes North Korea even more restrictive than Saudi Arabia where women are forbidden to drive. Of course, in North Korea the average monthly salary is equivalent to $3 so that car payment would be quite out of reach.
  4. Use electricity at night. I North Korea, homes that have electricity only receive it a few hours a day and the power is generally turned off completely at night. Of course, this doesn’t apply to the small group of elites that are the “more equal than others” in this communist nation.
  5. Own private property. Almost all property in North Korea belongs to the state.
  6. Practice your own faith. Religious freedom doesn’t exist in North Korea. Many of the people in North Korea’s prison camps are Christians. Christianity is outlawed and anyone found with a Bible is sent to prison along with 3 generations of their family.
  7. Receive a fair trial. North Korea does not have a modern judicial system. There are probably a lot of innocent people the prison camp population of 400,000.
  8. Use the Internet. At the moment the Internet is down in North Korea. Even when its up, many people don’t know it exists and its existence is intentionally kept from students. Because of this, any professional North Korean hacking group would have to either be outside of the country or an organization sanctioned and provided for by the government.
  9. Use a cell phone. Cell phone use is restricted to foreign visitors on North Korea’s 3G network.
  10. Grow your hair out. North Koreans are restricted to a government approved 28 haircut styles. Unmarried women and young men have to have short hair. Older men are allowed to grow their hair out as much as 2 3/4 inches.

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