Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Spanish Speaking North Koreans?

So I'm doing some research, putting together articles and stuff for our website and I come across "News from the Korean Central News Agency of DPRK," the national North Korean newspaper. Its website is based in Japan and it's published in Korean and English - with a special section for Spanish speaking people. The language used is kinda funny - feels like lots of SAT words are thrown in. Of course, it contains the expected propaganda and definitely shouts a "We are the best in the world and our enemies will fall because they don't have Kim Jong Il" theme.

It's actually pretty interesting to see what they think of what's going on though. They condemn the passing of an act in Congress on North Korean Human Rights, they blame the Bush administration for any delays in the nuclear issue talks - they insist that they are the ones urging them to continue, and have various articles on who supports them and their cause and who gave them praise. One of their articles ends with "The U.S. should retract the act at once. Otherwise, it would face a stern judgment by the Korean nation that opposes war and loves peace." They appear to have some valid points, like wanting to conduct talks only when both parties agree to treat each other with the same level of respect and the US must drop its double standards. They call the United States' lying a criminal act which they must be reprimanded for. Not that I'm sympathizing with the regime or thinking that they're good by any means...

In exercise news - I killed myself at the gym yesterday, but in a good way. Sort of by accident, since a) I couldn't figure out how to work the machines til I'd already been on them for a while and b) the guy who runs the place decided to basically be my trainer for the evening, but this was just as I was about to go. He took me through a whole other cycle of stuff to do for another hour and after he seemed to be satisfied, I could go. Then this lady in the locker room goes, "You're not from our country, but you can speak Korean. Why?" Keep in mind I go to a ghetto gym with incredibly cramped quarters making things like this unavoidable. And they're usually only being curious and want to know who I am, where I'm from, what I'm doing, etc so I don't want to be rude and not answer, but answering that question is like opening a can of worms...1/2 an hour later, nearly 3 hours after I first got to the gym, I got to go home...If these extra long sessions continue, I should be extra buff by the time I get home. Score for me...

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