Important news of the day thread

[kokodoko 67]

 

 

North Korea’s elite has McDonald’s burgers flown in daily, South charges

 

Marlboro cigarettes, Hennessy Cognac, beef, whiskey and Japanese beer are among the luxury items being brought into the country, the South Korean Ministry of Unification says.

 

North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong Il and his cronies have McDonald’s hamburgers flown in daily even as the country’s people endure repeated food shortages, news reports say.

 

The totalitarian country’s appetite for luxury clothing, cigarettes, watches and cognac from China has doubled in a year, a sign of a non-stop shopping spree by the country’s elites, the Korea Herald reports.

 

International sanctions after two nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009 banned North Korea from trading in luxury goods and weapons.

 

Meanwhile, it has again asked the world to help it feed its 24 million people, blaming lower crop yields as it has since the mid-1990s.

 

While the European Union plans to send $14.5 million in food aid, the U.S. and South Korea have been reluctant to join the drive, the Los Angeles Times reports.

 

Now, officials in the South Korean Ministry of Unification have told the Herald that some of Pyongyang’s power elites have McDonald’s hamburgers delivered to their homes from China through North Korea’s Air Koryo.

 

North Korean trade firms are increasing imports of luxury brand items from Gucci, Armani and Rolex, the unification ministry was quoted as saying.

 

The North spent about $7.5 million (U.S.) to buy cigarettes, including Marlboro and Mild Seven, up 117 per cent from last year. The country also imported $2.4 million worth of Hennessy Cognac, whiskey and Japanese beer, up 94 per cent, it said.

 

Some $550,000 worth of class A beef was also brought in, apparently for parties among the elite, the unification ministry said.

 

Meanwhile, imports of basic food such as corn and rice stood at only 4 per cent of total imports, or $46 million.

 

According to Beijing customs, quoted by Seoul officials, the total volume of trade between Pyongyang and its last-remaining ally and economic benefactor surged by almost two times in the first five months this year, compared with the same period of the previous year.

 

Some scholars believe North Korea has exaggerated its need for food, alleging that the aid is turned over to the military or stored for future use, such as a planned celebration next year to mark the anniversary of the regime, the Times said.

 

A recent photo released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, for example, is believed to have been manipulated to show people wading in floodwaters that did not exist.

 

“I do not believe these claims about mass starvation,” Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul and the author of several books on North Korean history and politics, told the Times.

 

He called the move by Pyongyang “a deliberate campaign to get free food which will then be distributed to the privileged groups as government gifts. This will allow them to increase their legitimacy and win some popular support at the expense of the Western and South Korean taxpayers.”

 

 

By: Thestar.com Published on Fri Jul 22 2011

[Tubby Beaver 209]

 

 

 

Some $550,000 worth of class A's were also brought in, apparently for parties among the elite, the Rave ministry said.

 

 

 

 

By: Thestar.com Published on Fri Jul 22 2011

 

[Alexander L 80]

But that was 2011. By now they would've all starved.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

But that was 2011. By now they would've all starved.

 

 

they are all coked up to their eye balls......coke suppresses hunger and gives energy

[Alexander L 80]

Koreans wit coke?

[kokodoko 67]

if they had ganja, they would get the munchies. so coke is more appropriate..

[Saitaman 1]

I prefer Pepsi

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Pepsi high is the choice of a new generation

[sanjo 2]

Saudi Arabia may stop public beheadings... due to a shortage of swordsmen

The Gulf kingdom beheaded 69 people in 2012, says Human Rights Watch

Rape, murder, armed robbery and drug trafficking all punishable by death

[pie-eater 207]

Wonder what they do with the heads.

[pie-eater 207]

Or the bodies for that matter.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

The heads are stuffed then mounted on the King's wall

[Alexander L 80]

I thought the rapists only had their dicks cut off at public dick-cut occasions at the town square.

[JA2340 16]

The heads are stuffed then mounted on the King's wall

The bodies are a but stuffed too, after that!

[Alexander L 80]

you mean butt?

[JA2340 16]

Nah, actually meant to type bit, but the fat finger syndrome hit the wrong key!

[Alexander L 80]

but you could be right with butt. They like that sorta thing.

[JA2340 16]

Wasn't going to touch that line ... so glad you decided to go there, butt!

[Alexander L 80]

no no. I no touch a corpses butt

[Alexander L 80]

what's the difference between incest and necrophilia

 

 

one is relatively boring, the other is dead boring

 

[JA2340 16]

[Alexander L 80]

got more from whee that came from. But need to wait 'til Friday.

[grungy-gonads 54]

The days of casually crossing a creek are over if you live in the Gölçük district of Kocaeli province in western Turkey. Which maybe you don't. But the point is that someone stole a 22-ton, 82-foot-long bridge from there. It's just gone.

Police suspect that the bridge was cut into sections and removed on a truck for scrap metal. Its estimated value is about $11,000. Villagers use the bridge to access their orchards, and a resident, Mustafa Karakaş told Today's Zaman that, "Now we have to take our socks off and cross the creek."

[JA2340 16]

The bridge trolls are getting their money's worth?

[kokodoko 67]

Why do they take their socks off?