#formatting was a nightmare
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heritageposts · 8 months ago
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What does life in North Korea look like outside of Pyongyang? 🇰🇵
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Hey, I'm back again with a very scary "tankie" post that asks you to think of North Koreans as people, and to consider their country not as a cartoonish dystopia, but as a nation that, like any other place on earth, has culture, traditions, and history.
Below is a collection of pictures from various cities and places in North Korea, along with a brief dive into some of the historical events that informs life in the so-called "hermit kingdom."
Warning: very long post
Kaesong, the historic city
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Beginning this post with Kaesong, one of the oldest cities in Korea. It's also one of the few major cities in the DPRK (i.e. "North Korea") that was not completely destroyed during the Korean war.
Every single city you'll see from this point on were victims of intense aerial bombardments from the U.S. and its allies, and had to be either partially or completely rebuilt after the war.
From 1951 to 1953, during what has now become known as the "forgotten war" in the West, the U.S. dropped 635,000 tons of bombs over Korea — most of it in the North, and on civilian population centers. An additional 32,000 tons of napalm was also deployed, engulfing whole cities in fire and inflicting people with horrific burns:
For such a simple thing to make, napalm had horrific human consequences. A bit of liquid fire, a sort of jellied gasoline, napalm clung to human skin on contact and melted off the flesh. Witnesses to napalm's impact described eyelids so burned they could not be shut and flesh that looked like "swollen, raw meat." - PBS
Ever wondered why North Koreans seem to hate the U.S so much? Well...
Keep in mind that only a few years prior to this, the U.S. had, as the first and only country in the world, used the atomic bomb as a weapon of war. Consider, too, the proximity between Japan and Korea — both geographically and as an "Other" in the Western imagination.
As the war dragged on, and it became clear the U.S. and its allies would not "win" in any conventional sense, the fear that the U.S. would resort to nuclear weapons again loomed large, adding another frightening dimension to the war that can probably go a long way in explaining the DPRK's later obsession with acquiring their own nuclear bomb.
But even without the use of nuclear weapons, the indiscriminate attack on civilians, particularly from U.S. saturation bombings, was still horrific:
"The number of Korean dead, injured or missing by war’s end approached three million, ten percent of the overall population. The majority of those killed were in the North, which had half of the population of the South; although the DPRK does not have official figures, possibly twelve to fifteen percent of the population was killed in the war, a figure close to or surpassing the proportion of Soviet citizens killed in World War II" - Charles K. Armstrong
On top of the loss of life, there's also the material damage. By the end of the war, the U.S. Air Force had, by its own estimations, destroyed somewhere around 85% of all buildings in the DPRK, leaving most cities in complete ruin. There are even stories of U.S. bombers dropping their loads into the ocean because they couldn't find any visible targets to bomb.
What you'll see below of Kaesong, then, provides both a rare glimpse of what life in North Korea looked like before the war, and a reminder of what was destroyed.
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Kaesong's main street, pictured below.
Due the stifling sanctions imposed on the DPRK—which has, in various forms and intensities, been in effect since the 1950s—car ownership is still low throughout the country, with most people getting around either by walking or biking, or by bus or train for longer distances.
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Kaesong, which is regarded as an educational center, is also notable for its many Koryŏ-era monuments. A group of twelve such sites were granted UNESCO world heritage status in 2013.
Included is the Hyonjongnung Royal Tomb, a 14th-century mausoleum located just outside the city of Kaesong.
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One of the statues guarding the tomb.
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Before moving on the other cities, I also wanted to showcase one more of the DPRK's historical sites: Pohyonsa, a thousand-year-old Buddhist temple complex located in the Myohyang Mountains.
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Like many of DPRK's historic sites, the temple complex suffered extensive damage during the Korean war, with the U.S. led bombings destroying over half of its 24 pre-war buildings.
The complex has since been restored and is in use today both as a residence for Buddhist monks, and as a historic site open to visitors.
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Hamhung, the second largest city in the DPRK.
A coastal city located in the South Hamgyŏng Province. It has long served as a major industrial hub in the DPRK, and has one of the largest and busiest ports in the country.
Hamhung, like most of the coastal cities in the DPRK, was hit particularly hard during the war. Through relentless aerial bombardments, the US and its allies destroyed somewhere around 80-90% percent of all buildings, roads, and other infrastructure in the city.
Now, more than seventy years later, unexploded bombs, mortars and pieces of live ammunition are still being unearthed by the thousands in the area. As recently as 2016, one of North Korea's bomb squads—there's one in every province, faced with the same cleanup task—retrieved 370 unexploded mortar rounds... from an elementary school playground.
Experts in the DPRK estimate it will probably take over a hundred years to clean up all the unexploded ordnance—and that's just in and around Hamhung.
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Hamhung's fertilizer plant, the biggest in North Korea.
When the war broke out, Hamhung was home to the largest nitrogen fertilizer plant in Asia. Since its product could be used in the creation of explosives, the existence of the plant is considered to have made Hamhung a target for U.S. aggression (though it's worth repeating that the U.S. carried out saturation bombings of most population centers in the country, irrespective of any so-called 'military value').
The plant was immediately rebuilt after the war, and—beyond its practical use—serves now as a monument of resistance to U.S. imperialism, and as a functional and symbolic site of self-reliance.
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Chongjin, the third largest city in the DPRK.
Another coastal city and industrial hub. It underwent a massive development prior to the Korean war, housing around 300,000 people by the time the war broke out.
By 1953, the U.S. had destroyed most of Chongjin's industry, bombed its harbors, and killed one third of the population.
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Wonsan, a rebuilt seaside city.
The city of Wonsan is a vital link between the DPRK's east and west coasts, and acts today as both a popular holiday destination for North Koreans, and as a central location for the country's growing tourism industry.
Considered a strategically important location during the war, Wonsan is notable for having endured one of the longest naval blockades in modern history, lasting a total of 861 days.
By the end of the war, the U.S. estimated that they had destroyed around 80% of the city.
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Masikryong Ski Resort, located close to Wonsan. It opened to the public in 2014 and is the first, I believe, that was built with foreign tourists in mind.
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Sariwon, another rebuilt city
One of the worst hit cities during the Korean War, with an estimated destruction level of 95%.
I've written about its Wikipedia page here before, which used to mockingly describe its 'folk customs street'—a project built to preserve old Korean traditions and customs—as an "inaccurate romanticized recreation of an ancient Korean street."
No mention, of course, of the destruction caused by the US-led aerial bombings, or any historical context at all that could possibly even hint at why the preservation of old traditions might be particularly important for the city.
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Life outside of the towns and cities
In the rural parts of the DPRK, life primarily revolves around agriculture. As the sanctions they're under make it difficult to acquire fuel, farming in the DPRK relies heavily on manual labour, which again, to avoid food shortages, requires that a large portion of the labour force resides in the countryside.
Unlike what many may think, the reliance on manual labour in farming is a relatively "new" development. Up until the crisis of the 1990s, the DPRK was a highly industrialized nation, with a modernized agricultural system and a high urbanization rate. But, as the access to cheap fuel from the USSR and China disappeared, and the sanctions placed upon them by Western nations heavily restricted their ability to import fuel from other sources, having a fuel-dependent agricultural industry became a recipe for disaster, and required an immediate and brutal restructuring.
For a more detailed breakdown of what lead to the crisis in the 90s, and how it reshaped the DPRKs approach to agriculture, check out this article by Zhun Xu.
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Some typical newly built rural housing, surrounded by farmland.
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Tumblr only allows 20 pictures per post, but if you want to see more pictures of life outside Pyongyang, check out this imgur album.
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shittyutmv · 19 days ago
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Why hasn't Nightmare showered in the last 500+ years?
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this ask might be over a year old sorry lmao cross by jakei95 horror by sour-apple-studios dust by ask-dusttale killer by rahafwabas nightmare by jokublog
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therubberducklad · 10 months ago
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When the tentacles r implied to be tree roots >>>>>>>
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all-my-ocs-are-evil · 1 year ago
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Fair Lady Claire
Don't you just hate it when the person you dread the thought of becoming the most visits you and goes on about how similar you two are?
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darqx · 6 months ago
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On the plus side, nothing has replied to me yet, which I am taking as a win.
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justtrashperson · 1 year ago
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Doodle dump but it’s the spankoffski bros + tinky
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annaveralin · 4 months ago
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Queer Little Creatures And Gay To Be Certain Too
...
I love these silly boys so much
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windwenn · 6 months ago
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“Oh, my love, don’t forsake me
Take what the water gave me”
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willczek-art · 1 year ago
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The real nightmare of Nightmare Time is that there's so little of it
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ghostface-knight · 1 year ago
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haha i'm feeling so normal about killer track today
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swingingthehatchetnow · 1 year ago
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r/AITA
u/WigglyWigg • 3y
AITA for nuking Moscow?
This past Friday, I (M, ̶̨̡̢̧̨̘̫̫̻͙̣͕̺̟̽̃̀͋́̚̚͜ ̷̡̭̜̩͕̠̦̗̟̟̫̖͇͎̽̌̾̿̌̈́̓̄̏̌̇̚͜͜ ) was at home when the President of the United States (M, >35) deployed a nuclear bomby-wom with the intent to destroy me. I redirected the nuke for my own self preservation, and in the process, pushed it through a dimensional gateway into Moscow, obliterating it in the process. AITA?
⬆️ 1.4k | ⬇️ | 💬384
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TheBastardsBack • 3y
NTA. Your house, your rules, man.
… ↩️ Reply ⬆️ 1.1k ⬇️
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SingAlongPokotho • 3y
NTA. It was self defense. Also didn’t the President enter your home without a warrant? That’s mega sus. Def NTA
… ↩️ Reply ⬆️ 974 ⬇️
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WileySnake • 3y
NTA. See folks, this is what America has come to. What the world has come to. Ain’t it a shame.
… ↩️ Reply ⬆️ 950 ⬇️
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QueenB_itch • 3y
NTA. Good.
… ↩️ Reply ⬆️ 925 ⬇️
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Blink1nceBlink2wice • 3y
NTA. u/SingAlongPokey literally sent a meteor to a small town. Can’t be worse than that lmao
… ↩️ Reply ⬆️ 899 ⬇️
| SingAlongPokotho • 3y
| Didnt you literally try to tear a family apart
| at your personal amusement park?
… ↩️ ⬆️ -2 ⬇️
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Jaegerbomb • 3y
Ha ha ha NTA
… ↩️ Reply ⬆️ 782 ⬇️
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Mouthface • 3y
NTA it was really funny.
… ↩️ Reply ⬆️ 670 ⬇️
| Mouthface • 3y
| Tasty too tbh. Yum yum.
 … ↩️ ⬆️ 130⬇️
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MoreBadder • 3y
r/MURICA
… ↩️ Reply ⬆️ 669 ⬇️
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Idontlikemusicals • 3y
NTA. Fuck Moscow. Fuck ‘em straight to hell
… ↩️ Reply ⬆️ 602 ⬇️
| Shitlips • 3y
| Hey, at least they aren’t Cl*vesdale.
| Assholes
… ↩️ ⬆️ 1.9k ⬇️
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SpotlightOnMe • 3y
Wtf I literally predicted this exact scenario 20 years ago????
… ↩️ Reply ⬆️ 592 ⬇️
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X_Lee • 3y
u/notaPEIP are you seeing this?
… ↩️ Reply ⬆️ 577 ⬇️
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WitchlessWeb • 3y
YTA! That kills people!!
… ↩️ Reply ⬆️ -1.5k ⬇️
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crystallizsch · 23 days ago
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🐍: —?! Prefect, is everything alrigh-
💜: Don’t- say anything. Please.
(oh lore? below the cut?)
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(cw: nightmares, implied death/suicide <- ONLY AT THE END) — 800+ words — I DIDNT REALIZE IT WAS THIS LONG???
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the vice housewarden of scarabia, jamil viper, didn't think he'd be bringing the ramshackle prefect to stay over at his room, and much to his roommate's confusion. then again, the roommate knew better than to question his choices.
it was the end of the day and the vice housewarden was on his way back to his dorm after a late-night errand.
what he didn’t expect was the ramshackle prefect coming out of the shadows and tackling him in a hug.
jamil almost threw down the unassuming prefect out of instinctual self-defense.
but the prefect gripped his back as if she was holding on for dear life— quivering, her head buried in his shoulders, holding back sobs, profusely apologizing over and over and over-
“sorry, sorry, sorry—“
the prefect said she had a nightmare.
jamil just froze, entirely confused.
all this because of a dream? what is the prefect even apologizing for other than whatever this is.
━━━━━━✦
jamil didn’t really know what to make of all of this, but it was hard not to pity the state the prefect was in.
pity. that’s the right word.
he only clarified to himself because the word, concern, briefly passed his mind.
it was not concern. why would he be concerned?
and if it weren’t for pity, jamil would have been annoyed instead. he had to admit, he didn’t know which would have been the worse approach, even though he opted for the former.
plus, this was a side to the prefect that the vice housewarden had not seen before.
vulnerable.
very vulnerable.
as if her walls finally fell. and jamil was able to bear witness behind it.
to choose whether or not to step inside those walls is up for debate in his mind.
no, stop it. not again. there was no point in involving himself more with the prefect this time.
jamil could have walked her back to ramshackle. but they were already in the mirror room, and he didn’t feel like making that trek.
or he might have been too tired and too dumbfounded to think.
yeah, those were jamil's excuses.
━━━━━━✦
it’s not like the ramshackle prefect, yuusha tala, understood either. how this all went down.
why the first person she beelined towards was the one who played a part in her nightmare.
why she felt comfort at his mere presence despite recoiling the moment she looks into his eyes.
either because of fear, disgust, or… guilt?
━━━━━━✦
this phenomenon had happened before.
yuusha and ace got off on a horrible foot at the start, deuce was just another guy that got involved with them by chance, and grim was an annoying cat.
and yet, it felt like she’d known them forever despite having only known them a few months.
there was no way they were all that compatible of a friend group to end up that way.
but the soft spot she felt for all three of them was like they were longtime friends in another life.
and now it’s this… bastard. the one yuusha fell head over heels at first only to feel used and betrayed.
why she keeps giving pretty guys a chance like this is beyond her. yuusha knows she won’t learn her lesson for the foreseeable future, however.
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in any case, the prefect finds herself resting on the scarabia vice housewarden’s bed when she could have suggested resting in one of the empty rooms instead. to not trouble him any further.
oh wait. jamil could have brought her to another empty room instead. there’s no way that didn’t cross his mind.
did he assume that would bring up memories?
if so, why would he even care?
the scarabia lounge would have been an alternate choice as well. but would it have been considered rude to put a guest there? even though yuusha wouldn’t have mind?
well. that’ll be a topic for another day.
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so the night was pretty uneventful. other than the awkwardness.
wait, actually— jamil wanted to bring up how the prefect had the habit of hugging things in her sleep.
namely him.
even when unconscious, the prefect can’t respect personal space.
but then that would bring up the obvious fact that jamil could have easily woken her up and quietly tell her off. and that he didn’t.
because for some strange reason, jamil felt an odd sense of comfort in her warm yet crushing embrace. and thus pretended not to have known instead.
━━━━━━✦
what was the nightmare, so to speak?
yuusha barely remembered all the details.
except for the feeling of the cold wind tearing through her skin, gravity violently pulling her down—
—and the final, haunting vision of a desperate hand reaching out to her, with an intensely horrified look flashing from charcoal grey eyes.
eyes that belong to none other than jamil viper.
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shittyutmv · 1 year ago
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I don't want a lot for Christmas There is just one thing I need
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merry november first. guy who goes stage three when he hears mariah carey killer by rahafwabas nightmare by jokublog
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krisalyce · 2 months ago
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bsd but make it scott pilgrim au where dazai is ramona and when poor kunikida starts dating him he has to fight dazai’s 7 evil exes (just chuuya)
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sleepgarden · 5 months ago
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Tender I’m not sure what to say about this one at the moment. Here’s what the poem reads: Remnants Naively thrive, Constricting every thought Tied to the atlas of my brain And heart.
Tender, All bruised, seeking To heal whilst they decay; I’ll keep patiently as they slip Away
There are prints available in my shop too 💗
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14dayswithyou · 1 month ago
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Ren's favorite letter is b!
I really enjoyed playing 14 days with you! But as I was going through the masterlist, the curious cat links wouldn't load for me. What is your username on curious cat so I can try and find them myself?
Don't forget to take care of yourself! 14 days with you and its fans will always be here 💙
⌞♥⌝ From what I've seen, CuriousCat has been shut down! But I've already archived all previous CC posts on Tumblr though, which you can find via this tag!!
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