Holy shit!

I knew things were bad there but that just takes the cake.



Of course that doesn't include God knows how many $$$ in military expenditures....

www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/05/front2453655.050694444.html

Alternative energy: N. Korea opens first bicycle plant

Special to World Tribune.com
EAST-ASIA-INTEL.COM
Tuesday, October 11, 2005

North Korea, which has boasted ballistic missiles and nuclear arms, has begun producing the country's first home-built bicycles, China's Xinhua news agency said in a dispatch from Pyongyang.

The factory, a joint venture with China, opened in Pyongyang on Oct. 7 with a number of senior officials from the two countries attending. They included Paek Hyun-Bong, chairman of the North's Committee for the Promotion of External Economic Cooperation, and Wu Donghe, Chinese ambassador to Pyongyang.

Energy-starved North Korea needs some 7 million bicycles, officials said. "The bicycle was the most important thing, because the buses and trams stopped running due to energy shortages," said one North Korean who recently defected to the South. "But bicycles are a luxury, so most people walk," he said.

Under an agreement made last November, Chinese investors provide materials, equipment and cash to have a 51-percent stake in the $650,000 Pyongjin Bicycle Joint Venture, with North Korea holding the remaining with its labor force. The two sides would jointly run the factory for 20 years.

The plant will produce up to 300,000 "moran [peony] peak" units a year, reducing its reliance on second-hand imports from neighbors Japan and China, the report said. The joint-venture company has more than 50 models including one that it said would become the new workhorse for the North's postal service.

The construction of the bicycle plant was a main economic project in North Korea, according to sources in Seoul. Premier Pak Bong-Ju has visited the factory several times while it was under construction. North Korea also displayed bicycle parts at the Pyongyang International Products Expo last May.

In an apparent indication of its political implications, the bicycle factory opened just three days before North Korea marked the 60th anniversary of the ruling Workers' Party.

what do you ecpect of a country that has missles as its #1 export

New bicycles are a "luxury", and most citizens have to make do with used bikes imported from China and Japan...

Yep, North Korea makes most third-world shitholes look like Beverly Hills –

If we nuke them it will be a favor.

I caught an interesting interview on the radio a couple weeks ago. The interviewee was a guy who had just returned from North Korea, he and his South Korean wife being 2 of about 20 non-citizens who were allowed to cross the DMZ and travel about 20 miles incountry. They were escorted by "handlers" at all times, of course, only allowed limited photographs, and could not vary from a straight line to their destination (a Yosemite-like national park). The guy mentioned a couple things worth noting:

1. North & South are in the process of laying a rail line on their respective sides, the intent being to someday join the two. In the South, they're using the type of equipment you'd expect; dozers, excavators, moles, cranes, dump trucks, etc. In the North they're using soldiers (in full uniform), oxen, pick axes and wheelbarrows. No motor vehicles. None.

2. They were not allowed to take photographs of a what their handler proudly referred to as a "major industrial port" which lay across the lake from their hotel. Said "major industrial port" consisted of 2 very small, unimpressive port cranes and 6 or 7 wood shacks. The guy also noted that when the sun went down, the lights went out on that side of the lake.

3. The guy's wife, who spoke the language, was able to have a short conversation with their chief handler. One would assume this handler, having risen to such a respected & trusted position within The State, was highly educated, right? Not exactly. At least no educated in anything outside the borders of North Korea. Among the things she'd never heard of were Christianity, the Pope, Disneyland, Microsoft  and (no surprise here) ABC, NBC, CNN, etc.

Communism is the shit!

here are my bikes. they are USA made bikes.

How is it that they can Build a bomb but they can't Build anything else? I'm starting to think that it'a easy to build a bomb and it's only a matter of time before Iran and those other shitheel countries get one.