North Korea

[James]

Seemed to provoke a good discussion on the picture thread so fire away on here.

Point of order: you can't strictly speaking call it a hotel as it's never been opened. And obviously although information is sketchy regarding what you can get out of North Korea, what they are completing now is not going to be a hotel either. One because it would never be used and two because it's not structurally sound enough to be used for that purpose.

So, in reality, it's just some shit, oversized, pointless, monument?

It is utterly hideous, isn't it?

It's a monument to famine, if you like. It sat just rusting away for the best part of 20 years while the country starved.

They used to airbrush it out of official photos of Pyongyang.

They still should airbrush it out, as Langers said, it's fucking hideous.

I just read a quick bit about it, apparently the main structure was finished over 20 years ago but then the Country was broke so, as you say, they just left it for years doing nothing but have now got around to applying some horrible glass skin to it, hopefully it'll flop and they'll just tear it down.

North Korea fascinates me. It's the mind control thing I think, the way they've got an entire nation to almost universally accept absolutely wholesale everything they say or do. Plus of course the batshit mental stories that they used to make up about Kim Jong-Il, like him completing a round of golf scoring a hole in one on all 18 holes. On his first ever go.

You'd think there'd be some people out there questioning it, like how hard would it be for a couple of lads to get some golf clubs, realise it's fucking difficult and then have their doubts? I suppose after generations of that sort of shit that it just becomes engrained in their minds though, they'll have been educated that way through school, they'll come home to parents thinking that way, all the controlled media and whatever else is feeding them the same bullshit, still mental to think that they've seemingly managed to wipe all independant thought from an entire nation though, millions of people just nodding in agreement.

As you were.

 

[Kenny]

How much is a Room and does it have a golf course where I can score 36 Under par, despite never playing before?

 

[James]

How much is a Room and does it have a golf course where I can score 36 Under par, despite never playing before?

Only the dear leader can play like that and buy a room in the hotel...

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/9826125/Google-Earth-exposes-North-Koreas-secret-prison-camps.html

This may explain the willingness of the population to believe anything uttered by their glorious leader.

By the way the Hotel is a brilliant example of Soviet architecture, its such an oversized monolith of concrete, intended to dominate the surrounding area and be as imposing as possible, I mean look at it, its as if they've got the scales wrong.

The design is like a 12 year old has been asked to draw a baddies base, and he's come up with that! its very Gerry Anderson'esque

 

[James]

North Korea is a disgusting place and when they open up for tourism this will show how bad the conditions are over there.

 

[Langers]

Is that one of Mark's match verdicts?

 

[James]

I'm talking about North Korea not the Hillsborough away end.

 

[Sniffer]

North Korea is a disgusting place and when they open up for tourism this will show how bad the conditions are over there.

I can't see that happening any time soon unless his nuclear experiment goes wrong and he wipes out his population.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

North Korea is a disgusting place and when they open up for tourism this will show how bad the conditions are over there.

James, you are a bit wet behind the ears, they're not opening up to tourism with anyone

Langers was that aimed at me, I balsed up the insert image I'm afraid, if you want ace baddy looking architecture have a look at this link, theres some awesome stuff on there

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/soviet%20architecture?language=en_US

 

[Langers]

That top one is like something from a Bond film.

I'd go for the lair build into the side of a Volcano type base myself. When I achieve world domination, I'll do that.

It would need a shark pool too.

 

[James]

Langers you need to stop watching Austin Powers

 

[Paddingtonwolf]

I think Ernst Stavro Blofeld had shark pools a long time before Austin Powers encountered them. Plus there is one in Live and Let Die and also in The Spy Who Loved Me.

 

[Kenny]

TWF - Home of geeking up a thread.

Anyway I am looking forward to booking my 14 night all inclusive trip to North Korea soon with Thomas Cook.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

That top one is like something from a Bond film.

I'd go for the lair build into the side of a Volcano type base myself. When I achieve world domination, I'll do that.

It would need a shark pool too.

You mean something like this?

 

[Haggstone]

North Korea is a disgusting place and when they open up for tourism this will show how bad the conditions are over there.

Haha. genius post.

Why do you think its disgusting by the way? I bet a lot of North Koreans would think the same about our society.

 

[James]

TWF - Home of geeking up a thread.

Anyway I am looking forward to booking my 14 night all inclusive trip to North Korea soon with Thomas Cook.

I know your kidding kenn but you can actually visit North Korea you will have an approved tour guide who will tell you what your allowed to picture and your not allowed to leave any area with out your tour guide.

I wonder if Jamie Redknapp will go to North Korea to promote Holidays for Thomas Cook

 

[James]

Haha. genius post.

Why do you think its disgusting by the way? I bet a lot of North Koreans would think the same about our society.

A government so power hungry it is willing to build a 305m hotel that will never be full over making sure it's population isn't starving and I'm sure North Koreans know nothing about our society with all the propaganda that happens.

 

[Newbridge Wolf]

A government so power hungry it is willing to build a 305m hotel that will never be full over making sure it's population isn't starving and I'm sure North Koreans know nothing about our society with all the propaganda that happens.

James, why are they starving though, and why do they perceive the west as a threat?

We know next to nothing about their regime too, so we're on an equal footing there.

The Hotel was built 20 years ago, its just started to have the interior fitted out after being mothballed - Batersea Power station has been neglected for a fair amount of time, that looks like a giant foley at the moment in central London

 

[Haggstone]

A government so power hungry it is willing to build a 305m hotel that will never be full over making sure it's population isn't starving and I'm sure North Koreans know nothing about our society with all the propaganda that happens.

Well they hear what the government want them to hear and think what they want them to think. They have a lot more in common with us than you perhaps realise.

 

[James]

James, why are they starving though, and why do they perceive the west as a threat?

We know next to nothing about their regime too, so we're on an equal footing there.

The Hotel was built 20 years ago, its just started to have the interior fitted out after being mothballed - Batersea Power station has been neglected for a fair amount of time, that looks like a giant foley at the moment in central London

It's been well documented when the tower was originally being built, that there was a famine in North Korea which halted it's build. I think possibly Haggstone is right that we aren't far apart. Power Hungry government and a lot of propaganda but not as much as the North Koreans.