What the Heck?! Thread (Closed)

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plawolf

Lieutenant General
A truly WTF worthy story

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The department pretending to run North Korea
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A section of the Berlin Wall on display in Seoul acts as a reminder of South Korea's fractured relationship with the North. But thoughts of reunification are never far away and there's a whole government department dedicated to the idea, although its staff don't seem very busy, writes Stephen Evans.

There is now a bit of the Berlin Wall in the middle of the South Korean capital. A concrete section of three slabs stands outside one of the museums as part of an exhibition comparing divided Korea with divided Germany.

Schoolchildren gaze attentively. They touch the rough concrete and take selfies in front of it. They are entranced by it - as they would be.

"If reunification could happen in Germany, why not in Korea?" is the question hanging over them and their country.

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Under the South Korean constitution, the five provinces of North Korea remain part of the united Korea (which last existed 70 years ago) that South Korea continues to pretend to administer. I say pretend because in Seoul there is a whole building full of civil servants who technically oversee North Korea. There are departments for each of the provinces.


Except that they can't administer it from Seoul because it's in North Korea. There is the small matter of the inaptly named demilitarized zone in the way - Korea's version of the Berlin Wall.

I went to visit the ministry the other day and it has to be said that the Southern administrators of North Korea do not seem to be overburdened. There seemed to be a bit of online shopping occurring on some of the computer screens. And who can blame them? The imminent collapse of the North Korean regime has been predicted since 1990. And today it seems no nearer.

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Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption The demilitarized zone is an area of land about 250km (155 miles) long and 4km (2.5 miles) wide
The shadow government is in a gloomy building, with a staff of 44 people preparing for something not likely to happen soon and perhaps not ever. The corridors are long and empty and quiet.

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I met one of North Korea's putative rulers who told me that one of their main roles is to keep North Korean culture alive until the great day of reunification comes. That means organising folk-dancing displays in the South.

On their way into work, these theoretical administrators of North Korea pass a light blue postbox by the main entrance. On it is written in English: "Homesickness Post Box". This is for people from the North living in the South to post letters home - except that the letters will never get there because there is no postal service between the two Koreas. The postbox is a gesture, the administrator told me.

So is the ministry, if you ask me. There was a time, back in the 1950s and 60s, when the department was seen as a real government-in-exile, ready to take over. Nowadays, it is not. The bureaucrats there do not imagine that they will soon be sitting in similar seats in Pyongyang running the place instead of Kim Jong-un.

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The talk in the South these days is not so much about the imminence of the collapse of the North, but more about the consequences whenever - if ever - it happens.

The exhibition in Seoul with the chunk of the Berlin Wall makes clear how different the Korean and the German situations are. There are charts showing how, even during the last years of divided Germany six million people were reunited with their families from the other side of the wall.

In Korea, in the past 14 years, the number has been less than 2,000. People in North Korea have virtually no contact with outsiders. All of East Germany, apart from the most eastern part around Dresden, could watch West German TV every night - they saw the outside world. North Koreans do not.

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Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption In October some families were reunited in North Korea
Incomes in South Korea are 10 to 20 times higher than they are in North Korea - a much bigger gap than that between East and West Germany. That means that if reunification happened, the economic jolt would be much, much greater.

Already, North Koreans who defect find that their skills aren't adequate for South Korea. Doctors who defect from the North often fail to pass standard South Korean medical exams.

This all indicates that the immense effort and money required for reunification would dwarf the scale of the task in Germany. But the bureaucrats in the shadow ministry in Seoul have some time yet to ponder the problem.

Kim Jong-un does not fear their imminent arrival to take his job in Pyongyang. In the meantime there is much to do - like a spot of online shopping and organising folk dances.
 

plawolf

Lieutenant General
Bet there is a similar office in the North.

I am having a hard time deciding which is worse for those employees of this department to put on their CVs - that they were responsible to administrating XYZ province/department in North Korea, or that they pretended to be to administrating XYZ province/department in North Korea...
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
President Reagan once Said that the Closest thing to immortality in true existence is Bureaucracy.
Remember the Original plan was reunification of Korea under a single nation the offices were likely once meant to fill that Role, but Reality has remained reality So They have "Pretended" because No one bothered to remove the function. Look hard in any Government I bet you will find such posts and offices, Anachronisms, Real life Ministries of Silly Walks.
 

AssassinsMace

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I'll have to admit I saw that video myself or something similar. The video I saw was said to have taken place on top of a parking structure where a woman from an adjacent building called the police. When police arrived these men were questioned and it was reported that they were Israeli soldiers in the US on some exercise. It was said they weren't cheering for the terrorist attack. They were cheering that Americans finally now know how Israel feels. When this was reported on the internet, supposedly these soldiers were put on a plane immediately and flew back to Israel. Were they Israeli or Muslim? I don't know. Was that story true? I don't know but I remember seeing a video.
 
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plawolf

Lieutenant General
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I'll have to admit I saw that video myself or something similar. The video I saw was said to have taken place on top of a parking structure where a woman from an adjacent building called the police. When police arrived these men were questioned and it was reported that they were Israeli soldiers in the US on some exercise. It was said they weren't cheering for the terrorist attack. They were cheering that Americans finally now know how Israel feels. When this was reported on the internet, supposedly these soldiers were put on a plane immediately and flew back to Israel. Were they Israeli or Muslim? I don't know. Was that story true? I don't know but I remember seeing a video.

There were also a lot of wild claims or downright lies at the time.

I remember very clearly that there was a story making the rounds that Chinese tourists were seen cheering as the towers fell at some airport.

Never saw any video or heard much about it afterwards, so assumed it was made up as China was Public Enemy No 1 right up to the point the terrorists struck, and I think some spin doctors were still operating under their original mandate of daemonising China at every turn and opportunity before they got the memo WMD is the new catchphrase and Muslims the new boogyman.
 

Miragedriver

Brigadier
Airplane passenger 'takes picture of UFO that was giving off bright lights and orbs' on ground near top-secret Area 51 military base
An airline passenger claims to have captured images of a UFO giving off 'bright lights and orbs' on the ground near the top-secret Area 51 military base.

The witness was on an American Airlines flight from San Jose, California to Houston, Texas, when he took a series of pictures of a giant metallic disc in the Nevada desert.

He said the plane was flying near Luning and Gabbs on October 30 when he noticed 'blinding bright light' in the desert below.


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The unnamed man reported his sighting to the Mutual UFO Network which investigates UFO sightings in the US

He told the organisation: ‘I was on an American Airlines flight from San Jose, Ca to Houston, TX on October 30, 2015 when I noticed a blinding bright light in the desert near Luning and Gabbs, NV.

‘I saw a large silver disc that appeared to be in the middle of the desert. This disc was shooting orb like lights into the air.

'The disc itself had multiple lights that were blinding to the eyes. I pulled out my phone and took pictures until my phone died.

‘No other passengers seem to notice the disc or comment on it. Upon my return home; I asked multiple Air Force employees if they have ever seen anything like this and all replied never. Initially I thought it was a satellite but now leave it up to your interpretation. What the hell did I witness?’

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He said neither the captain nor fellow passengers said anything and the plane carried on until the disc was out of sight.

The United States government only acknowledged the existence of the off-limits military base in the southern Nevada desert for the first time in 2013.

Scott C Waring, editor of UFO Sightings Daily is quoted by the
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as saying: 'This disc formation on the ground does have the appearance of a landed UFO on the ground.

'Gabby is about 140 miles south west of Area 51. The person caught a cloaked (hidden) UFO in the area. The metallic of the UFO is partly exposed and I'm sure it wasn't for long.

'This UFO is partly cloaked to look like the surrounding area. Some cloaks make UFOs appear as clouds, others invisible, this one...is trying to blend in with the surroundings.'

The Mutual UFO Network has reportedly classified the sighting as 'unresolved'.

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Back to bottling my Grenache
 
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