You know something is firmly entrenched in the zeitgeist of the age when North Korea gets onto it. Backwards, reclusive, hostile and erratic, North Korea is not exactly renowned for its mastery of new technologies and trends (of the non-nuclear variety at any rate). You’ll be pleased to know, though, that by this measure, hereafter known as the North Korean Nuttiness Benchmark, Twitter is well and truly part of the zeitgeist. I present to you, the official Twitter feed of the Korean Central News Agency for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Or KCNA DPRK. They may hate the imperialists, but boy howdy do they love their laboured acronyms.
It’s really just an RSS feed of the KCNA’s actual website (stunningly rendered in utilitarian Microsoft Word HTML templates), but nonetheless it patches you right into the heart of the North Korean empire. Witness, for example, such stories as:
Goat Milk Products Available: Kefir and other goat milk products are available in roast goat-meat restaurants in different parts of Pyongyang.
Kefir stands come into being in streets of the capital to present a new scene this summer.
The goat milk products are good especially for the children as they are tasty, highly nutritive and rich in phosphorus.
The kefir stands set up under the popular policy of the government are conducive to the improvement of working people’s dietary life.
and
Popular Carbonated Fruit Juice Powder: The Taedonggang Foodstuff Processing Factory of Pyongyang is producing quality carbonated fruit juice powder of various kinds.
The percentage of carbonic acid gas contained in the carbonated fruit juice powder is more than three times that of the preceding one. The new one emits gas continuously so that it can keep fresh taste for hours.
The juice powder is winning great popularity among the drinkers as its aroma and color are equal to those of bottled carbonated fruit juice.
That’s page one stuff right there. It does make for quite fascinating reading though, especially when they ramp up the anti-West rhetoric a bit. It would actually be pretty funny, if they: a) weren’t causing the deaths of such a massive proportion of their population; b) didn’t have access to nuclear weapons; and c) weren’t being led by a man who seems roughly as stable as a pogo stick being hurled down a mountainside. Kim Jong-”Mother Fucker I’m”-Il, you have a lot to answer for.
/Luke
EDIT: Also see this fabulous list of Kim Jong-Il’s 11 Craziest Moments. What an interesting fellow.
4 responses so far ↓
1 dc // Sep 15, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Haha, highly entertaining political commentary Luke. Laurie Oakes could never pull off ‘Kim Jong – Mother Fucker I’m – Il’.
2 luke // Sep 15, 2009 at 9:11 pm
cheers dude – also, thanks for putting me on to the middle east (the band, not the region). so very, very lovely!
3 Taylor // Sep 15, 2009 at 11:40 pm
The Middle East is cool (again, the band). But you gotta love anything that continuously emits gas to keep itself fresh for hours.
If only humans did that….
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