Monday, July 18, 2005

Here’s one we missed: North Korean official visits Chinese brewery.

Profuse thanks to our jetsetting pilot pal Tim Eads for providing a web link to NK News: Database of North Korean Propaganda, a breathtaking compendium of priceless North Korean Communist gobbledygook:

"NK News is a searchable database of North Korean propaganda. This site contains nearly every article published on the KCNA's website, in English and Spanish, since Dec. 2, 1996 -- over 50 MB of hard-core Stalinist propaganda! And each article is written in that unique and indelible style that only the KCNA can do."

Not since the halcyon days of Eastern Europe socialism have I been entertained this thoroughly – certainly not by the darker and more dastardly implications of Stalinist societal oppression, which I join the civilized world in abhorring, but by the strictly observed totalitarian style of writing and composition.

Here’s a prime example:

Pak Pong Ju Visits Different Parts of Beijing

"Beijing, March 23 (KCNA Correspondent) -- Premier of the DPRK Cabinet Pak Pong Ju on an official goodwill visit to China today visited the Yanqing Beer Factory on the outskirts of Beijing.

"He was accompanied by Vice-Premier Ro Tu Chol and other members of his party and suite members.

"He was also accompanied by Chinese Ambassador to the DPRK Wu Donghe and officials concerned.

"After being briefed on the history of the factory, the premier and his party went round the raw material, fermenting and packing processes with keen interest.

"At the end of the visit Pak wrote in the visitor's book that he hoped the factory would register signal success and progress to greatly contribute to the improvement of the standard of people's living and the prosperity of China.

“Keen interest,” indeed.

If you’ve ever consumed North Korean beer (and I have, once, but with luck never again), or watched a visiting delegation of North Korean officials race excitedly through the available stocks of Pilsner Urquell at the brewery’s former tap room in Plzen, Czechoslovakia (and I did, in 1987), then you’d know that this North Korean official’s visit to the suburban Beijing brewery might well be remembered as the undisputed highlight of his diplomatic career.

No comments: