On the same note, here is a surreal 22 min drive through Pyongyang.<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4hLctBvojE" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4hLctBvojE</a><p>It pairs well with a few Aphex Twin songs:<p>Heliosphan: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z4cLmbw6q0" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Z4cLmbw6q0</a><p>Flim : <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhHkUg-QCwk" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhHkUg-QCwk</a><p>Ageispolis: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOf6ICP3WAg" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOf6ICP3WAg</a><p>It is surreal because it almost makes it possible to forget how may people that regime has starving, worked to death and tortured.
South Korean and United States foreign policy is now reunification with North Korea, a switch from decades of "Sunshine Policy" under which relationships with NK did improve.<p>This is contextualized by a number of current events including the rise of China and revisionism of Russia, the fight over the Arctic, America's huge losses in cyberwarfare, the US's push for an Asian NATO, and Japan's reinterpretation of their Constitution to allow for anticipatory military strikes (even on behalf of allies) - basically the US's Pivot to Asia.<p>Policy and strategy thinktanks are discussing with NGOs and CSOs how to develop insurgencies in NK and how to inform and convince the youth and unengaged in SK to care about reunification. The US and international allies plan to target specific people (guards, officials) on human rights violations, rather than engaging the country diplomatically, in the hopes that an international criminal court approach can get officials and government employees to resist or be reluctant to take orders from higher up the chain. The US will be discussing the evolution of NK with Russia, who they believe will now be assisting NK at a faster clip with missile development.<p>An interesting note here is that every year has seen increasing activities from the US inside of NK. This past year CIA and State Department involvement in the development of The Interview (as leaked by the SONY emails, both by the SONY hackers #GOP and by Wikileaks) reveal how tensions are building between the countries, and how cyberwarfare is a highly asymmetric type of warfare.<p>We can expect to see a great deal more about North Korea, and need to hope that, as larger powers attempt to conquer NK and strip its government, that this can be done as peacefully as possible and without triggering all of the Cold War tripwires breeding in the world today.
I recognize a Soviet car: <a href="http://www.mapillary.com/map/im/-74CU7C3XYKmnkAtpVwiQA" rel="nofollow">http://www.mapillary.com/map/im/-74CU7C3XYKmnkAtpVwiQA</a> and <a href="http://mapillary.com/map/im/StWpR2MuX2z3Xhd1LWd9QQ" rel="nofollow">http://mapillary.com/map/im/StWpR2MuX2z3Xhd1LWd9QQ</a>, that's a 1979+ ВАЗ-2105 <a href="https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%90%D0%97-2105" rel="nofollow">https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%90%D0%97-2105</a> It looks (and is) dated, but actually was produced until recently and a common sight in Russia.<p>I wonder how they get there.
This site's usage of browser is ridiculous. Every time you move forward or backwards it adds another history entry, making your back button pretty much useless.<p>If they want to provide deep linking to a particular map location they should change the URL without writing to the history.
I'm waiting for camp 14 street map : <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0...</a><p>This is real north korea :-)
I can't help but notice great the condition of the roads are (probably due to the very few cars there). This road in particular looks well looked after. For a country that has a lot of starving citizens, it is quite surprising. Take a drive through most streets in Los Angeles and you will experience what a poorly maintained road feels like in a supposedly first-world country. Same goes for some roads in my city here in Australia, poorly constructed to the point where heavy rain is enough to put massive potholes into a main road.
OK, so North Korea is showing off a part of Kaeson Street, which I guess is the main avenue in Pyongyang. It looks OK, but I am pretty sure it's just the facade of the country NK wants to show to the outside; I am not sure the rest looks so nice. Also, there are almost no cars.