A friend once took the train from Beijing to Pyongyang, changing trains in Dandong, where the Yalu River Broken Bridge (half of an old bridge damaged during the

A friend once took the train from Beijing to Pyongyang, changing trains in Dandong, where the Yalu River Broken Bridge (half of an old bridge damaged during the Korean war, next to the new "Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge" [1,2]) serves as a reminder of that war. On the train, they met some North Koreans and talked to them (in North Korea it is pretty impossible to talk to people, thanks to the government minders. So, this was still in China, and they were guarded and circumspect, but talked.). They said that they had just come from a work assignment in Uganda, doing construction. The friend asked, what sort of construction, residential or commercial? The reply: "Museums and monuments!" Yep, that's one thing authoritarian regimes are good at, monumental architecture... (For example, the Arch of Triumph [3], which, it was pointed out, is 10 m higher than the one in Paris...) [1] https://goo.gl/maps/MZkFVC7v4sBTisqS7 https://goo.gl/maps/MZkFVC7v4sBTisqS7 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalu_River_Broken_Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yalu_River_Broken_Bridge [3] https://koryogroup.com/travel-guide/north-korea-guide-arch-of-triumph https://koryogroup.com/travel-guide/north-korea-guide-arch-o... More examples: https://thespaces.com/mapping-pyongyangs-monumental-landmarks/ https://thespaces.com/mapping-pyongyangs-monumental-landmark...