I read an essay from Theodore Dalrymple about his trip to No Ko. It’s bizarre. Brutal and bizarre.

He also went to Cuba, Albania, Romania, etc on a sort of world tour of soon to be defunct communist regimes. They all have traits in common. He was touring a shop in Albania for example. All the labels on all the leaking rusty lidded jelly jars were crooked. He posited it was impossible that none were even accidentally straight. That would never have happened in No Ko. He tried to buy a fountain pen in a foreigners only department store in Pyongyang. It was a Potemkin store with Potemkin merchandise and even Potemkin customers. All the Koreans were browsing but nobody bought anything. He watched as they’d leave the store, regroup and return to browsing duty. When he tried to purchase the bad replica of a fountain pen they didn’t know how to handle it. The whole place went silent and everyone stared at him. He politely thanked them and withdrew his offer to purchase, to the vast relief of the counter help. It was all kabuki. It’s a kooky kabuki kountry. No thanx.