Random Weird North Korea Stories That Are 100% Tru (16 items)

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  (#1) They Attacked South Korea with Poop Balloons

  The 2016 "hydrogen bomb" test by North Korea prompted a salvo of propaganda balloons floated over the DMZ by the South. The North responded with their own fusillade of balloons, but these weren't filled with just propaganda, but with garbage. As in actual garbage, including cigarette butts and used toilet paper.

  When they popped over South Korea, their human waste-covered messaged floated down to earth. South Korean authorities were concerned it was some sort of biomedical attack, but it turned out to just be crappy propaganda.
  
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  (#2) They Published a Letter From "Abraham Lincoln" to Obama

  It's common for the North to throw operatic insults at the military and diplomatic skill of both South Korea and the US. In April 2016, they went one step further, conjuring a letter from deceased 16th president Abraham Lincoln to President Obama. The "Lincoln letter" was published on the internal state-run website DPRK Today, and was titled "Advice from Lincoln to Obama."

  Concern trolling Obama by saying that it looks like he has "a lot on his mind," the letter scolds him and the US for not reducing their nuclear weapons stockpile, while simultaneously demanding the DPRK reduce theirs. "Lincoln" even throws himself under the bus, saying the American people won't stand to be deceived the way he did back in the day.
  
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  (#3) They Built a Fake City to Intimidate South Korea

  The North Korean border village Kijong-dong sports rows of new houses and offices, a school, a massive radio tower, farm fields bursting with crops, maintenance works, and even a hospital. What it doesn't have, though, is people. It's entirely fake, likely built as a carrot to entice South Koreans to defect.

  Up until 2004, the North used it as a massive base for loudspeakers to blast propaganda at the South. Then both sides agreed to stop propaganda broadcasts, and the village simply sits there, empty.
  
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  (#4) Schools Are Filled with Incredibly Violent Propaganda

  North Korean tourists tell of the omnipresence of propaganda. From giant statutes to tiny red pins worn by Pyongyang residents, images of the Kim family and their glory are everywhere. The propaganda is especially virulent in schools, which are tasked with molding young minds to the North Korean philosophy of self-reliance.

  How do they do this? Through murals on the walls, some of which are of the standard scenes of the Dear Leader frolicking with his happy people. But others show insanely graphic war scenes, painting everything from adorable cartoon children killing US soldiers to fully realized adults standing victorious over heaps of bloody bodies.
  
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  (#5) They Once Nearly Went to War Over a Tree Stump

  The "Axe Murder Incident" of 1976 started as a simple operation and nearly turned into a shooting war. UN Checkpoint 3 had been the site of numerous North Korean attempts to kidnap US troops. But the view of it was partially blocked by a tree, so US troop went out to cut it down. They were ambushed by North Korean troops, who claimed the tree had been personally planted by Kim Il Sung. They attacked the lightly armed US troops with axes, killing two.

  The US responded by mobilizing massive force to remove the tree, sending hundreds of soldiers armed with machine guns and rocket launchers, moving tanks and attack helicopters into attack positions, and putting every American soldier in South Korea on alert. The tree was cut down without incident, but two North Korean observation posts were vandalized and the stump was left as a reminder of UN power.
  
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  (#6) They Hired Actors to Cheer for Their World Cup Team

  North Korea has draconian restrictions on who can leave the country - yet they had thousands of fans on hand in South Africa to watch the team play, including in a hard-fought loss to Brazil. Did the Kim family relax their travel restrictions? Nope, they sent thousands of paid Chinese actors instead.

  ESPN commentator Martin Tyler summed up his bafflement perfectly on the broadcast of the Brazil/North Korea match, saying, "We are told that the supporters of North Korea aren't North Koreans - they're handpicked actors from China who have been sent here to act out the part of North Korean fans. I haven't found one I can speak to, who can speak back to me to tell me whether that's the case - I doubt he'd tell me the truth if that is the case."
  
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  (#7) They Kidnapped a South Korean Director to Make a North Korean Godzilla

  Shin Sang-ok was a major name in the South Korean film industry, directing dozens of films. He was lured to Hong Kong in 1976 and kidnapped by North Korean agents. Over the next five years he was held in relative comfort while being brainwashed. In 1983, he was finally brought to meet Kim-Jong Il - and learned his ex-wife had been kidnapped as well.

  The couple was remarried, and Shin went on to direct the "socialist Godzilla" monster movie Pulgasari. Shin and Choi escaped North Korean control in 1986, and he emigrated to Hollywood soon after. Shin is one of countless South Koreans and Japanese kidnapped by the Kim family over the past few decades.
  
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  (#8) Tourists Have Minders - And Tourist Minders Have Minders

  If you do go to North Korea as a tourist, be prepared to have two state-appointed minders shadow you the entire time. They'll tell you who you can talk to, where you can go, what to do and - more importantly - what to never, ever do.

  Why two minders? So the minders can watch each other, naturally. The DMZ works the same way, where one border guard actually faces inward - to watch the other border guards.
  
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  (#9) They Make You Fill Out a REALLY Creepy Customs Form

  While North Korea is sealed off for its actual residents, it's surprisingly possible (though not easy) to enter as a tourist. When you fly into Pyongyang, be prepared to fill out an ominous customs form that asks you to declare if you have everything from "killing devices" to seeds to publishing works of any kind to drugs. And any kind of electronic device you have must be logged. None of these can be brought into the country.
  
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  (#10) They Built a Giant Luxury Hotel and Never Opened It

  North Korea is all about appearances. How do you make it appear your country is way more prosperous than it really is? Build a huge luxury hotel in your capital that nobody can miss. Shaped like a giant rocket, the Ryugyong Hotel has 105 stories, is the 49th tallest building in the world, would have anywhere between three to seven thousand rooms, and five revolving restaurants.

  But it's never had a guest stay in it, because it was never finished. Economic problems caused by the fall of the Soviet Union, combined with a complete lack of funds, left the tower unfinished. It sat as a concrete shell for over a decade, and rumors abounded of the concrete being shoddy and the elevators crooked. Construction has started and stopped several times, and it's currently being re-purposed into a "mixed-use" building.
  
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  (#11) If You Take a Picture of Kim Il Sung, You Have to Capture His Whole Body

  The regime has insanely specific and detailed rules for how to capture and protect the image of Kim Il Sung, his son Kim Jong Il, and his grandson, current ruler Kim Jong Un.

  Among the rules that one North Korean tourist was given are:

  -If you take pictures of any of Kim, you have to capture their whole figure, head to toe. No cropping is allowed.

  -Printed materials depicting the Kims can't be creased, damaged, thrown away, or used as wrapping paper.

  -Whenever you visit a Dear Leader statue (and they're everywhere) your group must line up single-file in front of it, and bow, with hands at your side. Your hands can't be anywhere else.
  
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  (#12) They Take American Tourists to a Museum Extoling the Virtues of Dead Americans

  The "Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum" is a hub of North Korean tourism, and numerous American tourists have been taken there. This is ironic, given that it's essentially a celebration of killing US troops.

  A gigantic Pyongyang monument to the DPRK "victory" over the corrupt UN in 1953 (which never actually happened), the museum bursts at the seams with war ephemera, including captured American guns, pieces of shot down planes and knocked out tanks, statues, and a captured US ship.

  A DPRK soldier acts as a guide, pumping out regime propaganda about evil westerners. Most disturbingly, it's full of rooms of life-size murals and dioramas showing heaps of dead Americans being eaten by vultures. Again, all of this is gleefully shown to Americans, without a thought to hurt feelings.
  
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  (#13) They Built Another Museum Dedicated to American Attrocities

  Located in southwest North Korea, the Sinchon Museum of American War Atrocities was re-opened in 2014 to pay tribute to the DPRK citizens brutally killed during the Sinchon Massacre, where up to 35,000 people were systematically massacred over a three month period.

  Except historians can't agree on what actually happened, what role Americans had in the killing (as opposed to vengeful South Korean troops), and even if the massacre took place at all. It's likely that the US officer the North blamed for organizing the killings never existed, and many scholars have said the killings were actually committed by communists eliminating less ideologically reliable communists.

  Whatever really happened at Sinchon, the North clearly blames the US for it. As such, the Museum contains dozens of gory exhibits showing Americans torturing, mutilating, and slaughtering innocent DPRK citizens. The displays are unbelievably graphic.
  
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  (#14) They Do Have Elections - But Not to Elect Anyone

  While it's a corrupt and repressive dictatorship, North Korea does actually have elections... which, of course, are corrupt and repressive, existing almost entirely for public show. Parliamentary elections are held every five years to elect the Supreme People's Assembly - but each district has only one candidate, who is personally selected by Kim Jong Un. Voters who wish to dissent must do so in public, using a special ballot box. Needless to say, nobody does this.

  Beyond being for show, the elections serve as a form of census taking. Hence, voting is compulsory. Voting rolls are checked against village population lists, and citizens who don't appear on both are severely punished. The last election, in 2014, had 99.97% turnout - which was actually down from 99.98% in the 2009 election. That election was postponed for a year, for reasons that were never explained.
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  (#15) They Have an Official Website - And It's Not in Korean

  Keeping up the facade of being a shining beacon of freedom, North Korea's website has pictures of monuments, gleaming new construction, sections about tourism and business - and no Korean language anywhere. The site is clearly meant for foreigners, as North Korea does not have the Internet, only a crude intranet.

  Incidentally, the website is full of the standard North Korean propaganda the country boasts, including references to glorious victory in the Korean War (which ended in a draw), aggressive US ships, and the heroic soldiers of the country. Naturally, there are no references anywhere to "North Korea" - only Korea.
  
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  (#16) Kim Jong-un is Cracking Down on Western-Style Clothing

  In preparation for the May 2016 Party Congress, Kim Jong-Un dropped the hammer on North Koreans wearing western clothing. Among the items that will now be policed by "inspection units" are t-shirts, short skirts, jeans, along with piercings and long hair. Kim had already mandated that men use his high-and-tight haircut. The ban applies to all of North Korea, but will be especially enforced in villages near the Chinese border.
  

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