This is Panmunjon, North Korea, also known as 'Propaganda Village'. It's a modern little town, but it's uninhabited.
City lights are on timers. North Korea is a dump, but they built this 'modern'
town across the border to try and fool the western world into thinking
they were developed.
North Korea built this 525 foot (160 meter) flag pole with a 98.5 feet (30 meter) flag in 1953 to top the huge flag pole across the border in South Korea. It's listed as the tallest flag pole in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records, although Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia claims their 100-meter flag pole is the tallest. You be the judge. I've seen both :=)
And here is 'Freedom Village' (left) on the South Korean border with
that tower and that huge flag.
During the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea displayed the Olympic
flag on this pole just to remind North Korea that they were not invited to the party. I visited Seoul then too :=b
So it looks like North Korea beat South Korea and probably Malaysia in the contest of 'who has the biggest pole' but South Korea and Malaysia's people don't have to eat grass to survive and live under the rule of a pathetic 'leader' who gets rich and fat while his people starve.
The pic of
the bridge is the bridge crossing the border where many prisoners from
the Korean War were exchanged, and the trees on the South Korean side
are the scene of the ax murders of late 1976 where a group of North
Koreans crossed the border and axed to death some Americans because the Americans
wanted to cut limbs off a tree which was obscuring a guard post on the
border.
Following the massacre, and after the U.S. put their nuclear
bomber force and their Navy on standby, the North finally let them cut
down the tree.
Right photo, courtesy of globalsecurity.org shows a photo popular among intelligence, one that shows the two Koreas--same people, same heritage, the North--Communists/totalitarian, the South, Capitalist Democracy. Notice the lack of lights in the North. Which do you think looks most prosperous?
The picture below is of North Korea and a huge sign they have on
their hills which basically says they are self-sufficient. Uh...right...
And I was a Horsey in a strange land. We took our bus home...through Seoul...and I returned to my dormitory to play with my computer.>>>