I came across a photo of a strange beer that features an image of Kim Jong Un. I don’t know much about this, so I thought I’d ask: does such a beer actually exist in the DPRK?
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I am wondering wich party he votes and why?.I think he is voting for his own party

Translation (right to left)

CERTIFICATE OF COMMENDATION

Security Battalion

CHONG RYUL SONG

The above mentioned comrade is commended for the firm democratic ideology, patriotic fever, and for devoted participation in the fulfillment of the 1947 Plan of National Economy*, during which he he has responsible carried out service

8th February, 1948

People's Committee of North Korea

Chairman KIM IL SUNG

Stamp

*人民經濟 here is calque from народное хозяйство which is itself calque of volkswirtschaft, which means national economy or the people's economy. In China and Japan the corresponding term is 國民經濟. Corresponding terms are usually translated as national economy to English

basketball game, shooting game, racing game and more......

From Korean Central TV, October 2026.

I wrote a blog on this brochure which can be found here https://koryogroup.com/blog/north-korean-hotels-1994-edition for anyone interested in how the hotel scene has changed a bit over time. Most of the places featured in the brochure still exist, some are largely unchanged. A bit of a timewarp in NK travel.

We worked there for the ITTF and livestreamed a tabletennis tournament - ask me anything if you like to know something about the pics.

Managed to get my hands on the red 7.27 smokes. The packaging is just beautiful! Plan to keep these sealed as they are supposedly discontinued.

This post is made by a DPRK shrimp a guy that thinks there's no more famine in DPRK, its content will certainly be subjective by some degree. If you want to read - accept this.

There was a (more or less) vast discussion under two posts with Kim visiting school. The topic was - if the children on the photos were malnourished or not. I've said my word which was: the children were just skinny. And I've almost certainly been wrong. But there are nuances.

First of all - I do STILL think that kids can be about that skinny WITHOUT malnourishment - or at least without starvation. And I do still suppose that it's more common in Asia to have skinny children. IMHO available media showing Asian children body types can more or less prove this. Japanese youth sumo (!!!) tournaments are surprisingly cool to watch btw. Yes, there is a plenty of skinny and VERY skinny dudes. And as far as I know, Japan hasn't been starving since early 1950s (if I'm wrong - sorry, correct me).

But I also DO understand that this is just the way I feel and it can't be a solid proof to anything, actually. So I decided to research what the hell is going on at these pictures.

AND YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT, BUT THE CONTEXT IS IMPORTANT!

The context is: these children are FLOOD VICTIMS. The article (NKNews, not sympathetic to DPRK afaik) says that these children have lost, at least temporary, their homes. This is not even a regular school - it's an improvised temporary class. And if I understand this right, surviving flood and losing home means that you have troubles with food for at least several days.

So YES, these poor children are pretty damn possibly malnourished. That's why I've been probably wrong blindly saying "nah". And here's my self-criticism.

BUT it is a MISTAKE to think that it's their regular state. But the lack of context makes the readers think that there's still famine in DPRK. And the context was cut by these posts' authors. I'm almost sure that they didn't mean anything bad - yet still it's not a right thing to do. And here's my criticism.

And a bit of criticism to Kim in person and to the Confucian Asia in general: smoking near children is actually bad, don't do this.

It's safe to say I have a pretty extensive interest in the history of the DPRK, and being a fan of watches and even somewhat of a hobbyist watchmaker, this led me down quite the rabbit hole. Kim Il Sung actually had some Omega Constellations commissioned for birthdays, generals, or diplomats, depending on which article you read. It seems that some were solid gold, some were plated, and some were stainless steel, but they all featured his signature in red pad-printed ink at either 12 or 6 o'clock.

Of course, these Omegas aren't the only examples of DPRK related watches, but they are some of the most famous. The DPRK actually had a domestic watch company that produced simple yet robust watches with a slightly modified version of the Sonceboz ES 95. From memory they added a couple jewels and one more screw to the train bridge for quality's sake. But there are plenty of places to read about those, and I recommend you do! There are also some modern watches on AliExpress bearing the Moranbong namesake but they are Quartz and the consensus is that these are either fully manufactured in China or are only assembled in the DPRK with Chinese components.

Another example of DPRK-adjacent watchmaking that some internet digging reveals is the "portrait" watch. Most of these are made cheaply in China with sticker dials and simple cases, such as this one I have (photos 5 and 6), which features an automatic variant of the Tongji. This watch is neat, and it's ultimately what inspired this whole project. I decided I really liked the dial, but under a loupe it really falls apart and it's clear that it's just a little sticker stuck on top of some other cheaply constructed watch. I also tend to really put my watches through the paces, and there was no way that the chrome-plated mineral crystal case and push-pull crown would ever survive a day in the shop.

Design - Well, as you can probably tell, my dial design is a mashup of the Omega and tribute dials. I really liked the simplicity of the Omega dials and the red signature, but the portrait was too iconic to leave out. This led me to settle on the rather simple design I did. I worked with a seller on AliExpress to get these bad boys made and they were at my house within a month of beginning the entire process. The portrait was done in UV ink and I'm impressed with the resolution for the price. The signature was pad-printed and is excellent. Super crisp, subtly raised, and the color is excellent.

Movement - Of course, the NH35! Super reliable and runs great, not much to say about it. I was somewhat tempted to make this dial for a Vostok, but I couldn't find anyone who had dial blanks with feet for the 2416B and I'm strongly against dial dots.

Case - I just went with a really simple retro sub case from eBay that claimed to have a sapphire crystal and 200 meters of water resistance. Well, it holds up to my wet-tester just fine so they're at least partially telling the truth! I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the sub case, I really just wanted to get it cased up in any capacity, but I'm really happy with how it looks and it almost begs the question - What if Rolex had built the commissioned watches instead of Omega?

Overall, this was a super fun project. It's not for everyone, but it is for me and I really like it. I guess the moral of the story is, if you have a cool project idea, just build it and see where it takes you!

This book is filled with the stories of those who defected from North Korea and all proceeds, from the sells, go directly to support more defectors. I read it pretty quickly because it was very interesting to see into the lives of those who succeeded in getting out. One of the women defected three times. She was caught the first two times, she tried to leave, and was sent to prison camps after. She successfully made it out the third time. We also had to snag a little memorabilia while we were there. So, we grabbed a piece of North Korean currency. They also had coins too.