13-09-2003 20:24									#61
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quote: Originally posted by mindseye What scared me even more were the accounts of how the SOUTH Koreans went wild over the "Northern Beauties". According to the press report, South Koreans were utterly captivated by these amazing, bewitching women. Makes me suspect that life in South Korea, despite its modernity, is a little on the slow side. Not unlike China.

For quite a while, due to the cultural preference for boys over girls, the South Koreans had a fad of selectively aborting fetuses that showed as female by ultrasound. This has led to a disparity of males to females at birth of around ten percent, and this is even a bit worse up into the teens (when the ultrasound/selective abortion fashion started up).

That leads to some pretty intense competition for marryable Korean women, and a lot of Korean parents are concerned that *gasp* their sons will have to marry a foreign girl, or not marry at all. Obviously, outside the traditional conservative "marry a nice (Korean) girl and make grandbabies" imperative, the dating pool presumably sucks too. (Gee, think that artificial reduction in the number of daughters was worth it? ). So a bunch of hot-blooded juicy young DPRK women would be real popular.

	13-09-2003 20:39									#62
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quote: What scared me even more were the accounts of how the SOUTH Koreans went wild over the "Northern Beauties". According to the press report, South Koreans were utterly captivated by these amazing, bewitching women.

Well, familiarity breeds contempt.

I hope!

	13-09-2003 20:59									#63
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quote: The DPRK population is also conditioned to believe that their situation is better than that of the rest of the world, so they have to have any contrary experience carefully exorcised.

While I was attending one of China's best-known universities here in Shangai (I was just studying Mandarin for a year), some North Koreans joined one of my classes.

These guys were all older than the other Asian students (some were in their 30s), and were clearly from the ultra-priveleged set (e.g. one was a doctor). They all wore a badge of Kim every day, and referred to him as "Our Sun". They wore nice clothing, and were always rather formally dressed (as opposed to South Korean kids with their crazy hair, who often literally rolled out of bed and into the classroom).

They were carefully monitored by a man somewhat older than the others. Whenever one of us Americans spoke to them in a hallway or outside of class, the "handler" quicky appeared to hover nearby and listen in on the conversation. Not that he had much to worry about, these guys were model North Koreans (must have been, to be allowed to study in capitalist China).

You never saw one of them alone, They were always in groups of two or more. They did not mingle with any of the other students (Chinese or foreigner). I never saw a South Korean and North Korean speak to each other (this was 2001).

I chatted with one of them a couple of times. The university was out in the relatively undeveloped part of the city. It was months before this fellow visited downtown, which must have looked like fvcking Oz to him (downtown Shanghai is pretty impressive).

They always sat in the front, center of the classroom. When the class was reciting, they invariably (and irritatingly) spoke much more loudly than everyone else. Much more quickly, too (their Chinese was very good), which threw everyone else off. One of them would always erase the chalkboard for the teacher at the end of class. One time, the teacher tried to do it himself, and one North Korean dashed up and literally struggled with the teacher to wrench the eraser from his hand.

My favorite episode came near the end of the semester. The dean of the Foreign Student College had asked that one representative from each nationality join a meeting in which we were supposed to give our advice on how the college could be improved. The teacher asked them which one would be the representative for the North Koreans. They were clearly very, very nervous (the handler wasn't there). When the teacher told them that the administration wanted to hear about their ideas for improvements, they became visibly rattled and insisted that there was NOTHING wrong, that they had NO problems with ANYTHING. There was NO reason for them to attend such a meeting. The befuddled teacher finally gave up.

I wish I knew what these guys thought of Shanghai, or what they (secretly) told their wives and friends back home after they returned. Did they ever think about Shanghai's ultra-modern light rail and subway systems as they trudged along the railroad tracks to work everyday?

	13-09-2003 21:07									#64
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quote: One time, the teacher tried to do it himself, and one North Korean dashed up and literally struggled with the teacher to wrench the eraser from his hand.

I bet that teacher dude was spooked out. At first, I'm sure it's amusing, then it becomes downright bizarre.

What if the class they were taking had an American teacher?

	13-09-2003 21:10									#65
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quote: I never saw a South Korean and North Korean speak to each other (this was 2001).

I'm surprised at this, but I'm not sure why.

	13-09-2003 21:11									#66
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	13-09-2003 21:14									#67
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quote: I bet that teacher dude was spooked out. At first, I'm sure it's amusing, then it becomes downright bizarre.

The teacher kept saying "No, it's okay! It's okay!" as he tried to erase the board, until the NK student finally managed to get the erase out of his hand. It was bizarre.

quote: I'm surprised at this, but I'm not sure why.

I suppose the (usually lazy, carousing) SK students I encountered weren't of the unification-mad type we often read about. That, or they were just put off by the weirdness of their northern brethren.

	13-09-2003 21:17									#68
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quote: This has led to a disparity of males to females at birth of around ten percent

WOW, I didn't know that! I thought China had the worst disparity (somethign like 48% - 52%). TEN percent means a very large number of unhappy males!

	14-09-2003 01:33									#69
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I wonder...do North Koreans actually believie their propaganda? Obviously Mr. Huk in that story to North Korea is one, however....What amount of the population isn't under Kims mind control? 10? 20? 80? 90?

	14-09-2003 02:03									#70
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Let's put it this way...if there were no competing ideas from outside, from the day you were born onward, why wouldn't you believe?

	14-09-2003 02:06									#71
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But people who have defected or gone to North Korea sometimes report crude radios in the DMZ, or a secret stash of papers from across the border, or whatnot.
But...What if Kim boy, in fifty years, finally achieves a completly brainwashed (read: braindead) "socialist" state?