You've probably already seen our first episode, 50 insane facts about North Korea.
Did you think we were done?
Not even remotely, this is after all the number one mass producer of crazy in the world we're
talking about, there's always something new and most likely insane to learn about the
hermit kingdom.
And with Dear Leader Kim and President Twitter Fingers potentially at each other's throats
again, we might as well learn as much as we can about North Korea before the nukes get
us all.
Hello and welcome to another episode of The Infographics Show- today we're taking a look
at 50 even more insane facts about North Korea.
50.
North Korea is the world's only necrocracy: a nation that is still governed by the rules
of a former, now dead leader.
Not to be confused with necromancy- that's when you bring dead dinosaurs back to life
with science to open a theme park for children.
49.
North Korea has conducted 5 nuclear tests since 2006, despite western intelligence agencies
doubting they would be able to achieve a nuclear breakthrough for another decade.
48.
Their last test in 2017 was of a device thought to be 100 kilotons and collapsed the mountain
under which it was tested.
47.
North Korea's nuclear tests have caused fear of radiation leaks being carried by the wind
to Chinese border cities and towns, which lie as close as just 60 miles from the North
Korean test site.
46.
Further underground tests are feared to cause a volcanic eruption at Mount Paektu, which
could be devastating for the North Korean and Chinese countryside.
45.
The largest stadium in the world is in Pyongyang.
The Rungrado 1st of May stadium occupies an area of 51 acres and can seat 114,000 people,
though has held as many as 150,000 in the past.
It is also known as the May Day stadium.
44.
In the late 1990s several North Korean generals implicated in a plot to assassinate Kim Jong-il
were executed in the stadium by burning to death.
43.
In 1995 the Japanese New Japan Pro-Wrestling and American World Championship Wrestling
leagues held the Collision in Korea pay per view event in the May Day stadium, though
its official title was the Pyongyang International Sports and Culture Festival For Peace.
42.
When not executing traitorous generals or hosting beefcakes fighting each other in their
underwear, the May Day stadium is best known for the annual Arirang Festival, or as it
is known in North Korea, the Grand Mass Gymnastics and Artistic Performance Arirang- because
North Korea loves being extremely specific about everything.
41.
Taking place annually between 2002 and 2013- with the exception of 2006- the games were
cancelled in 2014 but returned in 2018 under the name The Glorious Country.
Not enough adjectives if you ask us.
40.
North Koreans are handpicked to be a part of the Arirang as young as 5 years old, and
expected to serve in this fashion until retirement age.
39.
In August 2007 the Arirang mass games were recognized by Guinness World Records as the
largest gymnastic display with 100,090 gymnasts performing at once.
38.
Besides not starving to death, other popular sports in North Korea include football (soccer
for American viewers), basketball, speed skating, hockey, and of course gymnastics.
North Korea even has a small domestic football league that plays all its game in the Kim
Jong-Il stadium.
37.
June 25th is the start of North Korea's Struggle Against US Imperialism Month.
We bet you can't guess what the central theme is.
36.
North Korean propaganda routinely features fictional scenes from the Korean War of Americans
committing atrocities.
The Sinchon Museum of American War Atrocities commemorates the deaths of more than 35,000
people North Korea claims Americans slaughtered at the start of the Korean War.
A completely fabricated event, or fake news, it's unknown if the death toll of 35,000 is
greater than the US's Bowling Green Massacre.
35.
In 2014 Kim Jong-un described Americans as “cannibals and homicides seeking pleasure
in slaughter.”
34.
In 2017 US President Trump took to the most hallowed of international diplomatic tools
known as Twitter and called Kim Jong-un “Little Rocket Man” and alluded that he was short
and fat.
In response Kim called President Trump a “mentally deranged US dotard” on a televised broadcast.
And that's how the world works now.
33.
Despite this exchange of nuclear insults, Kim invited President Trump to a face-to-face
meeting and removed a great deal of anti-American propaganda from their prominent displays all
over Pyongyang.
32.
After an initial bromance for the ages, things however seem to have cooled down considerably
and Kim Jong Un is widely reported to be secretly resuming his nuclear program while lying about
his intentions.
Foreign policy experts around the world were in shock at the revelation that a murderous
dictator who maintains his grip on power through fear and violence was not being honest about
his intentions.
31.
A key feature of North Korean propaganda is “on-the-spot guidance”, a tool meant to
further the image of a caring, omniscient and great leader offering benevolent guidance
to ordinary workers and citizens.
Typically these take the form of highly choreographed visits to factories and farms around the nation
and serve to further build a cult of personality built around the Kim family.
30.
Every year state-owned publishing houses release several cartoons called geurim-chaek, which
mostly feature scheming capitalists from the US or Japan creating dilemmas for naïve North
Korean characters.
29.
In 2004-2005, North Korea aired a television program entitled Let’s Trim Our Hair in
Accordance With The Socialist Lifestyle.
The show featured acceptable and proper hair styles and claimed that hair can affect human
intelligence because it deprives the rest of the body of nutrients as it grows.
28.
Another television program featured a hidden camera in Pyongyang which would catch citizens
with improper hair styles.
Those caught would be interviewed by the presenter and asked to explain themselves.
Their name, address, and workplace would then be announced to deter others.
27.
The North Korean village of Kijong-dong is situated along the Korean DMZ, and North Korea
claims it houses 200 families who work collective farms in the area.
However closer inspection with telescopic devices has shown that the brightly colored
buildings are empty, and don't have window glass or even an interior.
26.
The village, also known as Propaganda Village, is meant to entice South Korean defectors.
To date only a few dozen have tried to defect to North Korea, while many thousands have
fled to South Korea.
25.
In 2013 six men and one woman defected to North Korea after one of them posted a series
of pro-North Korea messages online which were shared by the country's main newspaper.
Thinking he would be welcome into the country, he and six others made the trek into the north.
24.
Upon entering the country, all seven defectors were thrown into prison for up to 45 months.
One man claimed he was kept in solitary confinement the entire time, and another of the men strangled
his wife and then tried to kill himself in a suicide pact.
North Korean officials claimed the woman died because of a “quarrel” with her husband.
23.
After being returned to South Korea, the survivors faced up to 10 years imprisonment for their
attempt to defect to the North.
22.
North Korea maintains a secret network of informants that spy on their fellow citizens
and reports criminal or subversive behavior, such as listening to non-state radio or tv
broadcasts or watching foreign films.
21.
North Korea's most popular tourist attraction is visiting Kim Jong-il's preserved body.
20.
It is a widely known fact in North Korea that Kim Jong-un learned how to drive at the age
of 3 and is a skilled composer and musician.
19.
Kim Jong-il's birth was prophesied by a swallow and signaled by a double rainbow over Mount
Paektu and the appearance of a new star in the sky.
18.
Kim Jong-il started walking at 3 weeks old and began speaking at 8 weeks.
17.
While attending Kim Il-Sung university, Kim Jong-il authored 1,500 books in three years
and composed six full operas.
The operas are naturally widely recognized as the greatest in the history of music- both
past, present, and future.
16.
Kim Jong-il also invented completely on his own a delicacy called Gogigeyopbbang', which
is described as 'double bread with meat'.
In the rest of the world it's called a hamburger.
15.
It is well documented that Kim Jong-il could control the weather with his mood, and that
he had magical abilities that helped him control the weather.
14.
Kim Jong-il holds the record for the best round in the history of the game, having shot
38 under par (25 shots better than the world record) and scoring 11 holes-in-one.
13.
Imperialist capitalist psychologists around the world claim that Kim Jong-il actually
suffered from the “big six” group of personality disorders, making him- paranoid, antisocial,
narcissistic, sadistic, schizoid, and schizotypal.
It's believed Hitler, Hussein, and Stalin also suffered from these disorders.
12.
Kim Jong-il was completely obsessed with his rice.
He made female staff inspect each grain individually to ensure they had the right length, weight,
and color, and insisted it only be cooked over a fire made with wood taken from trees
that only grew on a particular Chinese mountain.
11.
Recuperating from injuries after falling off his horse, Kim became so terrified of becoming
addicted to painkillers that he forced others around him to take the same dosage he did
so he wouldn't get hooked alone.
10.
In 2016 North Korea claimed to have produced a miracle drug made of rare earth elements
which could cure AIDS, most cancers, and destroy the Ebola virus.
Unfortunately for us North Korean scientists declined to share details about the ingredients
or how to manufacture the drug.
9.
For years North Korean propaganda claimed that the Dear Leaders didn't poop.
The poop-less image of the current Dear Leader, Kim Jong-un was shattered however when it
was revealed that he had a mobile toilet built into one of the vehicles of his personal convoy
for when he traveled around the country.
8.
Any other North Korean official found using the Dear Toilet would face severe punishment,
to include death.
7.
In 2012 the Korean Central News Agency informed the world that North Korean researchers from
the Academy of Social Sciences had discovered a unicorn lair.
The lair must not have been particularly difficult to spot as it was only 200 meters away from
a temple and featured a rectangular rock with the words “Unicorn Lair” written on it.
6.
Just days before the Unicorn story hit the international news, China's Communist party
newspaper ran a story hailing a report by The Onion naming Kim Jong-Un as the sexiest
man alive- not realising it was satire.
This is really why you need a free and independent press, guys.
5.
North Korea claims it has no citizens with disabilities, but defectors claim that officials
kill babies with disabilities and that men with dwarfism are castrated and forced to
live in an isolated village.
4.
When Kim Jong-il passed away, the Korean Central News Agency reported that ice formed over
a holy lake cracked, lights lit up the top of a sacred mountain, and snowstorms hit parts
of the country at the moment he died.
They also reported that flocks of magpies grieved in front of a statue of Kim Jong-il
and his father Kim Il-sung.
3.
In 2016 North Korea invented a new type of beer that wouldn't lead to hangovers despite
an alcohol content of 40%.
Sadly for frat bros around the world North Korea to date hasn't shared the recipe with
the world or given any hint it actually exists.
2.
In 2010 articles in North Korea claimed that Kim Jong-il had set a global fashion trend
with his modest gray suits, which “leave a deep impression on people's minds in the
world”.
1.
A total of four US soldiers defected to North Korea during or after the Korean War, the
most famous of which was James Joseph Dresnok.
He became a national celebrity portraying American villains in various anti-American
feature films and television shows.
He died in November 2016 of a stroke, and told his sons to remain loyal to Kim Jong-un
and that they would destroy the US if it launched an attack against North Korea.
What other insane facts about North Korea have you heard of?
Did North Korea really discover unicorns, or is the Capitalist Imperialist New World
Order simply trying to diminish North Korea's glorious scientific advancements?
Also, be sure to check out our other show A Day In The Life of Kim Jong Un!
Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time.