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The post never mentions a date, but this must have been around 2000-2004, since that is when the UK embassy was established. [1] Some things have probably chan
by the_duke 2y ago
The post never mentions a date, but this must have been around 2000-2004, since that is when the UK embassy was established. [1]
Some things have probably changed since then.
A fascinating read regardless.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_the_United_Kingdom,_Pyongyang https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_the_United_Kingdom,...
- dheera 2y agoI wonder who works in those embassies. Are there some British dudes just living there that go to the embassy every day for work? Where do they buy food? What do their residences look like? Do have spouses and children? Where do they work and go to school? Do they enjoy life there?
- thriftwy 2y agoThey likely go to specialized shops for foreigners where you may only pay with US$-backed coupons, and can purchase most of stuff you can commonly buy in Japan.
- __s 2y ago> There were a handful of shops that catered for foreigners. All transactions had to be in Euros as possession of local currency by foreigners was forbidden. A lot of the items were imported from China and from time to time, local fresh produce would make a rare appearance. Meat was always in short supply.
- lutoma 2y agoHere's a video of what one of those shops looks like by an Indonesian diplomat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRYJ9u0sEE4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRYJ9u0sEE4
- thriftwy 2y agoLankov has described the coupon system in some detail. I believe Cuba has a similar system with CUC or had it until recently. I'm not sure at which point NK ditched coupons for Euros.
- netsharc 2y agoSome of your questions are answered in the actual article... no mention of spouses or kids, so most probably they don't come along.
- H8crilA 2y agoIntelligence officers. Even your average friendly embassy is full of them. In this case it was probably more to handle secure channels of high level communication rather that recruiting agents. He even mentioned at the beginning that this was the official purpose for the mission. If you want to arrange something quickly between nations you go through their respective three letter agencies.
- shiroiushi 2y agoWhy would anyone in their right mind accept a job like this? It's a lot like taking a job that requires you to live in a prison for several years.
- simonjgreen 2y agoIn most cases it’s accepting orders
- shiroiushi 2y agoOrders? Diplomatic service (in the UK and other democratic nations) isn't part of the military; it's a civilian job. The guards might be soldiers, but the rest of the jobs aren't to my knowledge.
- implements 2y agoIf someone is offered a particular posting but chooses not to accept it without good reason then I expect they won’t be offered anything better (more important, prestigious or more enjoyable). (Saying that, I remember reading once that high-flying UK diplomats might be offered something less desirable as a ‘test of nerve’ - to see whether they had enough confidence and self belief to hold out for something better. It’s a never-ending test of character and ability to know which way the wind is blowing, I suppose)
- shiroiushi 2y agoSounds like a good way of keeping young people from being interested in a career in that field.
- cardanome 2y agoIf you read the article, they were allowed to travel freely. Personally I would have loved the job. Seems like they had lots of free time. Very secure country without much crime. Really not much to worry about, just a bit isolating. Plus some cool stories to tell when you are back home. Sure, not the type of job for people with family.
- rad_gruchalski 2y agoYou’d wonder less if you had read the article.
- sva_ 2y agoA clue about the time might be > The World Food Programme (whose Head at the time was an American called Reagan!) But I can't find him here or elsewhere: https://www.wfp.org/previous-executive-directors https://www.wfp.org/previous-executive-directors
- jkaptur 2y agoSounds like this person: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ragan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ragan
- wongarsu 2y agoThat must be a misspelling of Richard Ragan. He headed the North Korean World Food Programme from 2003 to 2005 according to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ragan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ragan
- OliveMate 2y agoMeanwhile instead of some fancy building, their embassy over here is... Well, a little more domestic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_North_Korea,_London https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_North_Korea,_London
- qingcharles 2y agoAmazing! Still a bloody expensive property, even 20 years ago. Is that a flagpole in the front garden?
- chgs 2y ago£1.3m. You’d struggle to get a 3 bed semi for that nowadays.
- qingcharles 2y agoAmen. That's a studio flat. And by studio flat, I mean a room in an attic with no windows.
- londons_explore 2y agoJust outside the embassy is another pole, but with lots of cameras and radio gear looking into the embassy. Clearly the days of spycraft aren't over.
- yazzku 2y agoIt's like the mom and pop shop around the corner.
- UberFly 2y agoExcept it's a house of horrors.
- lordnacho 2y agoThe impression I got, from attending a school with a lot of diplomat kids, is that a lot of countries have embassies as a sort of foreign holiday for their ruling classes. Now NK being a bit antagonistic and paranoid might be an exception, but I distinctly got the impression that there were a lot of countries that didn't really do a lot of diplomatic work with the host countries, but the embassy meant they could send some families to go live in the west and have their school paid for by the state. Those kinds of embassies don't need to be in the fancy embassy district.
- why_at 2y agoCurious if anyone knows of any more recent descriptions about what life is like in North Korea, like in the last 5-10 years. Most things I've read including this article are decades old. How much have things changed there in terms of technology, food security etc?
- odysseus 2y agoCheck out the 2023 documentary Beyond Utopia for a glimpse. It’s currently on Hulu.
- gre 2y agohttps://youtu.be/2BO83Ig-E8E?si=WK1Gp62Hbx0624Wx https://youtu.be/2BO83Ig-E8E?si=WK1Gp62Hbx0624Wx Documentary about getting s haircut in North Korea
- hereme888 2y agoYou mean a shameless North Korean propaganda video with a ridiculously twisted version of history and reality?
- Taek 2y agoWorth keeping in mind that NK has one of the most active / visible cyber teams on the planet, presumably including astro-turfing and propaganda. Which means any conversation on the internet about NK is likely to be polluted with propaganda, even if none of the participants themselves are operatives - all it takes is someone unwittingly ingesting a bad fact once for that bad fact to get circulated.
- Garvi 2y agoWould you care to elaborate with any source for this claim? Otherwise I have to crown this the dumbest thing that I've read on the internet this week. I see the HN moderation is doing a great job at keeping the triple digit IQs away.
- rob74 2y agoThe German Wikipedia article (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Botschaft_Pj%C3%B6ngjang https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Botschaft_Pj%C3%B6ngj...) has some more details. Most interesting: unified Germany initially wasn't interested in diplomatic relations with North Korea, so between 1991 and 2001, the only country actually using the building as an embassy was Sweden (although Germany had a "Schutzmachtvertretung" during this time - not sure what that means, but at least the lonely Swede had some company).
- tuennesje 2y agoIn case someone cares, the term 'Schutzmachtvertretung' contains three words, Schutz = protection, Macht = Power/Might and Vertretung = Representation.
- rob74 2y agoYeah, apparently this refers to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protecting_power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protecting_power - Sweden is currently (or rather, I guess, was before the Covid pandemic) the protecting power for no less than 10 Western states (Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Italy, Norway, Spain, USA) in North Korea. And between 1991 and 2001 they were apparently also the protecting power for Germany.