Oct 04
Following last week’s coming out party for heir-apparent Kim Jong-Un, a massive military parade is being planned for October 10, the 65th anniversary of the Korean Worker’s Party founding. A large scale military exercise is also planned for around the same time, and leader Kim Jong-Il is expected to be in attendance to watch.
Source: Yahoo! News via AFP
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Sep 14
Source: AFP via Yahoo! News / Reuters via Yahoo! News / DailyNK
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Sep 09
Popularly dubbed as the “Hotel of Doom” or “The Worst Building in the World” this famous eyesore is the most distinguishing feature of the Pyongyang skyline. This building is the Ryugyong Hotel, or “105 Building”. Standing at 330 metres in height, the hotel was anticipated to be the largest in the world (for it’s time) and construction was supposed to be completed in June 1989 for the World Festival of Youth and Students. Construction halted in 1992 due to equipment shortages and North Korea’s worst famine that prevailed through much of the 1990s. 
In 2008, Egyptian company Orascom had a contract to construct a 3G mobile network in Pyongyang. However, that work seems to have extended to refurbishing the derelict hotel. Work is well underway adding glass surfaces to the exterior of the building, and telecommunication antennas. Interior renovations are said to follow. The banner to this website features the Pyongyang skyline in February 2009, and you can note the “purple” looking glass panels and green scaffolding around the cone. Here is a picture of a picture of a render of the building upon its completion (rumoured to be around 2012):
The video below shows a unique close-up view of the shoddy construction.
What’s next for this debacle of soviet-style engineering? Will it ever be completed, or will it remain empty and unused, only appearing fancy on the outside? In North Korea, you can only expect the unexpected…
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Sep 04
The wildly speculated upon meeting of the ruling party of North Korea, the Worker’s Party of Korea, is beginning its rare meeting to reshuffle high ranking officers and possibly set the stage for leadership succession by Kim Jong-Il’s son, Kim Jong-Un. This is the first of such meetings since 1980, when the Dear Leader himself was put into a high ranking post by father-leader Kim Il-Sung. News outlets, the blogosphere and the twitterverse are abuzz with rumours and interpretations as this long anticipated meeting begins.
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Sep 04
I’ve been busy with vacations and work lately, unfortunately not able to update as much as I’d like. Things should be normal now. Here’s what was missed:
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Aug 27
Early friday morning, former US President Jimmy Carter got on a plane with a healthy and smiling Aijalon Gomes. Gomes was sentenced to 8 years in a labour camp and $700000 for illegally trespassing into North Korea from the Chinese border. Gomes appears to be in good health, however Robert Park, who was friends with Gomes, and trespassed into the North one month earlier, required psychiatric assistance after his release from the DPRK. It might be some time before we see any sort of interview from Gomes, but time will tell. Carter likely did not get an opportunity to meet leader Kim Jong-Il, who departed for China suddenly (possibly with heir apparent son, Kim Jong-Un) with speculations abound on his intentions.
Source: CNN
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Aug 26
Yonhap reports that former US president Jimmy Carter has decided to stay an extra day in Pyongyang, after travelling to the North Korea capital to secure the release of Aijalon Gomes. While nothing official states that Carter is waiting around for Kim Jong-Il to return from his sudden trip to China, it’s certainly the only logical reason he could have for sticking around. More head games from Kim?
Source: Yonhap News
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Aug 23
Former US president Jimmy Carter will be departing for North Korea “within days”, on a mission to free Aijalon Gomes who was sentenced to 8 years prison for illegally crossing into the North with a Christian message of peace. Carter is performing this task as a private citizen and not in an official government capacity. This is similar to the scenario where Bill Clinton retrieved Laura Ling and Euna Lee around this time last year.
Source: Yahoo! News
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Aug 19
The DPRK is just full of Web 2.0 surprises this month: First Youtube, then Twitter, and now it seems they have started a Facebook account as well. No word on how official this is yet, but all indications point to it being the Facebook page for the state-run Uriminzokkiri website. I got a chuckle out of the “Interested In: Men”.
Source: Free North Korea on Twitter (@freenorthkorea)
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Edit: It seems they (or someone else) closed their account and a new one started up… click here to visit the new one.
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Aug 19
Yonhap News reports that the DPRK has finally spoken on the issue of the seized Daesung fishing craft. They announced that four South Korean and three Chinese fishermen have “confessed” to trespassing in waters claimed by the North. The fates and health of the captured men are unknown, but state-run KCNA news have stated that the issue is still under investigation.
Source: Yonhap News / The New York Times
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