Stealthy North Korean Photos: The Land Of No Smiles

domeepentary photographer Tomas van Houtryve entered North Korea posing as a businessman looking to open a chocolate factory. Despite surveillance by North Korean minders, he took arresting photographs of Pyongyang and its people.

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  • dae_su
  • Apr20 '09

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not that i doubt how awful it must be to live in nk, but given that i live about 30 miles south in seoul, i had to laugh at what a big deal this guy made about people not smiling or looking him in the eye, because its exactly the same here. in fact, when people bump into each other they don't say excuse me or even a 'meep off' for that matter.

  • vasudeva
  • Apr20 '09

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Is it because you eat each other and so you're afraid to show weakness?

clearly this guy has never been on the london underground. you could get trampled before someone realizes youre there.

creepy article nonetheless. good find JL

In these high density cultures you probably expect to make contact with other humans on a regular basis. Whereas here in the US, if you bump into someone it's like, 'WTF! Are you drunk?!'

  • nocal
  • Apr21 '09

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other marvels of cross-cultural psychology:

other cultures think that the amount of smiling that americans do means we are stupid

arabic and latin american countries have smaller areas of personal space, while asians have the largest

the irish share less than other cultures about their personal lives, and are more even tempered

asians be all like ching chong bing bong

  • MstrLance
  • Apr21 '09

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You are what you eat!

  • dae_su
  • Apr21 '09

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'Is it because you eat each other and so you're afraid to show weakness?'

no, its because we eat dogs and everyone is too ashamed to look each other in the face.

  • gork
  • Apr22 '09

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North Koreans should cheer up, at least none of them were heavily invested in the stock market.

  • wolfer
  • Apr22 '09

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Kim's gonna kill about that pic getting out.

  • Doob
  • Apr25 '09

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that shopkeeper is hot

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I wonder if Asian people put smileys like this )
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