North Korea and strange things that are unbelievable but true!

The world is becoming more and more interested in North Korea and its way of life.

You know North Korea is a strange country with the presence of the army everywhere and does not allow any tourists to come here to take pictures. North Korea is also known as an isolated country and is almost completely isolated from the rest of the world. However, there are still many interesting things about this country that you did not know.

How do North Koreans go abroad?

An article published in the News York Times recounted the story of a North Korean woman who tried to contact her father who had fled to South Korea named Ju Chan-yang. Through a middleman from China who was asked by her father and the signs were set up by the two of them, she was informed and went to the border area near China to make a phone call to her father.

In the summer of 2010, her father asked her to go to the border area and there, she was picked up by a North Korean soldier (a soldier in a smuggling ring). This soldier quietly helped her swim across the river bordering China and North Korea. After she reached the other side, another Chinese came to pick her up and help Mr. Ju Chan-yang pay the soldier's wages. In 2011, she arrived in Korea.

She also told the News York Times that when the North Korean soldier brought her across the river, he used a sealed plastic bag containing a cellphone and held it in his mouth.

That's the way a North Korean once did to be able to "travel" abroad.

However, this secret bridge is increasingly being controlled by the Kim Jong-un regime. In 2014, Kim Jong-un ordered to tighten control, minimize the flow of information from abroad, strictly forbid North Koreans to contact outsiders to flee, especially to strengthen border control. with China, jamming the phone signal or through the signal to trace the phone user's whereabouts. The number of people who successfully escaped to Korea in 2009 was 2,914 people, in 2015 there were 1,276 people.

Koreans are practically hungry for outside information. They want to know how the people who escaped to Korea live, how much mone.y Koreans earn each month, is it true that many Korean women have so many excess clothes that they cannot wear them all?

North Korea has its own cell phone network, but does not allow international calls. Most ordinary people can only make phone calls within the country.

Internet connection is limited to senior leaders and foreign guests. North Koreans are also prohibited from communicating with South Koreans in any form.

The only country that captured the US Navy ship

In early January 1968, the US Navy's intelligence-gathering ship USS Pueblo, carrying communications equipment and 80 crew members, left its base in Japan and headed to the waters of the Korean peninsula to conduct interception and interception missions. Decrypting North Korean military communications. At that time, the ship was operating in international waters, so the soldiers on the ship did not anticipate that they would be attacked as a precaution.

On January 23, 1968, the USS Pueblo was operating in international waters and away from Wonsan port - the largest and busiest seaport of North Korea, when suddenly a local patrol boat approached and soldiers North Korea demanded that the American ship let them on deck for inspection. When the American sailors refused, the North Korean ship immediately opened fire.

According to Captain Skip Schumacher - a 24-year-old sailor on the USS Pueblo, although the captain directed the ship to steer towards the sea, the maximum speed of the USS Pueblo at that time was only 24 km / h, unable to comparable to the speed of the Korean fleet. Moreover, the US Navy did not have any weapons to fight back, so it decided to destroy all confidential and sensitive documents on the ship by burning fire (at that time, there were no modern paper cutters like today). now). As if guessing the intention, the North Korean soldiers from the outer encirclement continuously opened fire when they saw the smoke rising.

Officials in Washington under President Lyndon B. Johnson were shocked to hear that the USS Pueblo was captured by North Korea. An international law expert at the time commented that the USS Pueblo incident was "the most embarrassing thing for a navy that has a tradition of more than 150 years of not losing a ship", according to the Los Angeles Times.

The negotiation process between the two sides lasted 11 months. Finally, after a formal apology from the crew of the USS Pueblo, a statement confirming that they had been spying, and a concession that the US would not repeat its spying activities in order for Pyongyang to accept its release. for 82 sailors alive.

Currently, North Korea still holds the USS Pueblo and has converted it into a tourist attraction. The ship anchored in the Botong River in Pyongyang is seen as a pride of North Korea's victory over the United States. Over the years, the US has been working to negotiate with North Korean officials to get the ship back.

And what other "weird" things about North Korea?

1. It is completely legal to use marijuana in North Korea. However, distributing pornographic pictures, possessing bibles, or watching Korean movies can carry the deat.h penalty.

2. In 1962, an American soldier ran to the North Korean border but was captured by the Korean army and ended up living in North Korea for the rest of his life without being able to return home.

3. Subject ideology is the official ideology of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and is the brainchild of late President Kim Il Sung. This theory holds that man is the central subject and decides everything in this world. Applying this idea to the context of the Korean revolution, the Koreans are the subjects of that revolution.

4. May Day Stadium (May 1 Stadium) with a capacity of 150,000 seats is located in the capital Pyongyang and is also the largest stadium in the world. May Day was built in 1989 and was completely remodeled in 2014. May Day is considered the pride of the Korean people because it is often chosen to hold important national events.

5. Ryugyong Hotel is a 105-storey pyramid-shaped building in the capital Pyongyang, once the tallest hotel in the world for about 20 years. The name Ryugyong means "Capital of the Willow" because this is a tree associated with the culture and history of the Korean nation. Ryugyong Hotel is built with a combination of uses including restaurants, conference rooms, hotels with a total of 7,665 rooms. The building has 3 protruding wings, each wing is 100m long, 18m wide with an angle of 75 degrees, converging at the top of the tower. This spire was amputated, replaced by a rotatable 8-stage block.

6. North Korea divides its citizens into 51 different classes and has used that classification system as a tool to discriminate socially and politically against these citizens since their birth. According to the 131-page report by the North Korean Human Rights Commission, all North Koreans will be classified according to criteria such as "loyal", "wavering" or "hostile" from the moment they are born based on according to their perceived loyalty to the government. Among the 51 classes are poor peasants and "patriotic families" considered loyalists. Those identified as hostile include US supporters, civil servants and Muslims. This policy makes it possible for the Kim government to prioritize or not prioritize all social, occupational, housing and food programs depending on the status assigned to the person.

7. In the 1950s after the Korean War, North Korea built Kijong-Dong (Peace Village), a city visible from the border to attract South Koreans. This city is still cleaned and repaired regularly to keep it clean and new, but no one is allowed to come here. It is also known as the "ghost city".

8. North Korea is the only country that standardizes hairstyles for its people with 28 styles. In which, there are 18 hairstyles for women and 10 hairstyles for men. Men in North Korea are forced to follow a long list of related regulations. Specifically, men's hair should not be more than 5 cm long. Every 15 days, they have to go for a haircut once. Older men in North Korea can grow their hair a little longer, but it must not exceed 7 centimeters.

9. The late leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Kim Il Sung was born on the day the Titanic sank (April 15, 1912).

10. In 1970, North Korea agreed to buy 1,000 Volvo 144s from Sweden, a neutral country. Many rumors suggest that Pyongyang did not pay for this shipment. These Volvos are now used as taxis for the few people who have the mone.y to get around the city.

11. In many parts of North Korea, football matches in the 2014 World Cup are shown to the public even though it is about 24-36 hours later than the ball rolling time.

12. Computers in North Korea use their own operating system called Red Star OS, developed by Korea Computer Center located in the capital Pyongyang and based on the open source Linux operating system . Red Star uses a browser called Naenara, a modified version of Firefox, and other customizations like Wine that allow users to run Windows 3.1 applications.

13. In North Korea, only the military and government employees are allowed to own private cars.

14. North Korea's National Space Development Agency is called NADA. This word, in Spanish, means "nothing".

15. The late President Kim Nhat Thanh once said: "Pants are men's clothing". To pay homage to their leader, North Korean women are all loyal to dresses, from modern skirts to traditional dresses that have the body in the form of a long skirt. The law banning women from wearing long pants has existed since the 1970s, and the North Korean leader also ratified the law: "It is forbidden for women to wear pants in public or in the office", especially jeans because it typical of American culture.

16. Elections to the North Korean parliament are held every 5 years. North Korea's National Assembly meets 1-2 times a year to approve budgets proposed by the government or review important policies. Each constituency in North Korea has only one state-chosen candidate, and voters are only allowed to mark "yes" on their ballots.

17. North Korea hires its workforce to work in Siberia in an effort to earn foreign currency, and its military also uses a lot of Soviet-era goods and equipment.

18. North Koreans do not celebrate their birthdays on July 8 and December 17 because these are the two days that Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il died respectively.

19. North Korea has the largest army in the world (including active-duty, reserve and paramilitary forces) with 7.7 million people. The US has about 1.5 million active-duty troops.

20. The Korean calendar is calculated from the date of birth of the late leader Kim Il-sung, on April 15, 1912. According to this calendar, this year in North Korea is 108, not 2020.

21. During the 1990s, all teachers were required to learn the accordion.

23. Visitors are not allowed to use won. Countries often prioritize tourists using their own currency for expenses, but North Korea does not. Although won is the local currency, foreign visitors still have to use one of three types of euro, USD or yuan. They prioritize euros above all else. It is worth noting that it is illegal to bring won out of North Korea.

24. Only two countries can go to North Korea. Visitors to North Korea can only go from Russia or China. These are the countries where you can get a North Korean visa. Some cities in China have flights to North Korea, but the fastest is still from Beijing. In Russia, travelers can only fly from Vladivostok, a rather isolated city. In addition, if you want to see the beautiful scenery along the way, you can choose to take the train from Beijing.

25. Private time zone. Since August 15, North Korea has a separate time zone named Pyongyang (Pyongyang Time), 30 minutes behind Japan's time, which is GMT 08:30.

26. Departure Visa: North Korea and Israel are two countries that do not stamp their own countries on the passports of tourists but replace with a separate issued paper. Visas for Mar Pages and his companions were processed through a travel agency in Beijing. After the trip, you get your passport back and there will be no stamp in North Korea.

27. Don't make phone calls abroad: Cell phones aren't exactly uncommon in North Korea. However, local citizens are not allowed to make calls abroad or even to a foreigner in North Korea. All local SIM cards only allow domestic calls.

28. Cannot take a ho.t bath at home: There is no supply of ho.t water in the homes of North Koreans, so they often visit public bathhouses. In addition, there is no central heating for the house in winter and people have to burn wood stoves to keep warm.

29. Foreigners are not allowed to take pictures or even talk to locals without permission: A local citizen will not be jailed or executed for a conversation with a foreigner. If you try to talk to someone or take pictures of people, they will probably run away. Visitors are also prohibited from taking pictures of anything around. The accompanying tour guide will prevent you from photographing anything, especially military-related things.

Daughter is rumored to succeed the North Korean president: Using branded clothes, strange hobbies, breaking family rules Minh Lợi09:30:36 22/06/2023The Kim family has ruled North Korea for three generations and before coming to power, these people were very secretive, rarely appearing in public. However, the daughter of Chairman Kim Jong-un is the complete opposite, causing many speculations.