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China-Japan-Koreas
DPRK to build "apartheid fence" to keep Norks in:
2004-06-01
In a telephone conversation with this reporter, an officer in a North Korean border guard unit said, "In accordance with an order from the National Defense Commission calling for us to completely seal the border, border guard units and all the citizens of the border regions were mobilized and have been building a 2 meter high wooden fence since last month." Construction is first being done in those hard-to-patrol areas used by defectors to escape; wide-open, easily patrolled areas are being saved for later, he said.
Let’s think about this. A Nork Officer MAKES A TELEPHONE CALL to the south, and shoots the breeze with a reporter. How likely is that?
The officer added, "The North Korea-China border is more that 1,000 li (about 400 km) long, and the reality is that it’s impossible to block all of it. I can’t understand who would present such an absurd idea."
Oh, Comrade... A message for you from the Great Leader: Could you come to the Death Camp, and bring everything in your desk?
Posted by:mojo

#14  Bom, I had never heard that one. My kids will love it.
Posted by: Super Hose   2004-06-01 10:14:52 PM  

#13  Visions of NYT headline:

NKORS KNAW WAY SOUTH
Sharp Teeth an Asset.
Posted by: john   2004-06-01 9:52:57 PM  

#12  My point was the Chinese should build the great wall of Korea since they get tourism dollars for the current wall and they want to keep the wave of North Korean peasants out.

People died in boxcar lots to build the original great wall and it took a generation. But they also built the wall 10 times longer than the Korean wall would need to be and they built it 15 meters high when three or four meters would be all that is required to keep North Korean peasants out.

The ancient Chinese also failed to use trains, cranes and earth moving equipment to get the job done.
Posted by: Yank   2004-06-01 5:26:39 PM  

#11  But given that unfinished ziggarat in Pyongyang..

"The searchin' general has determined that smoking ziggurats are hazardous to your stealth."

(a punch line to an old, stupid joke..hehe)
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-06-01 5:24:33 PM  

#10  "2 meter high wooden fence" wont they just eat their way through this?
Posted by: flash91   2004-06-01 4:59:46 PM  

#9  a 2 meter high wooden fence

I would say to use a match to escape, but they probably needed it to build the damn thing in the first place.
Posted by: Charles   2004-06-01 4:55:27 PM  

#8  Jon Shep, no bomb required. We could shoot it with a flaming arrow. Maybe they will invent chicken wire in this next century, thus eliminating the need for varnish - a vital food staple.
Posted by: Super Hose   2004-06-01 4:51:26 PM  

#7  more targets for us to bomb,keep on buildin Kimmy!
Posted by: Shep UK   2004-06-01 4:31:04 PM  

#6  juche capacity for pointless acts of inscrutable engineering

9.4 Huzzah!
Posted by: Shipman   2004-06-01 3:37:36 PM  

#5  You need protein to feed to the workers to build a wall. Even the Chicoms know that. The NORKS need to realize that you cannot feed workers grass and expect them build much of a wall. OTOH, maybe daily shots of wheat grass juice will help.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2004-06-01 3:18:54 PM  

#4  But given that unfinished ziggarat in Pyongyang the NorKs call "Ryugyong Hotel", I wouldn't underestimate the juche capacity for pointless acts of inscrutable engineering.
Posted by: Mitch H.   2004-06-01 3:05:26 PM  

#3  People died in boxcar lots to build the Great Wall, it took the better part of a generation, it was designed to keep nomads from raiding, not to hold peasants in, and North Korea doesn't know what to do with the tourists it gets already.

This would presumably be to keep the border from leaking peasants westward, as it has ever since the early Nineties. I wouldn't be surprised if this is an installment on some sort of promise from that Beijing meeting of Kim's the other month, to stop leaking economic refugees into Manchuria or something like that.
Posted by: Mitch H.   2004-06-01 3:02:04 PM  

#2  "The North Korea-China border is more that 1,000 li (about 400 km) long, and the reality is that it’s impossible to block all of it"

The main line of the Great Wall of China is 3480 kilometres. It would be far quicker to build with modern equipment and its good for tourism. Perhaps China should be building a second wall. Clearly the North Koreans aren't up to the task.
Posted by: Yank   2004-06-01 2:39:10 PM  

#1  Corrupted by CHINA? The mother or all Commies
become decadent? What's the world coming to?!?!?!?
Posted by: BigEd   2004-06-01 2:24:46 PM  

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