Did I say "southeast Asia"? I meant northeast Asia. Sorry about that!

How about a video about the reconstruction of Lisbon after the 1755 earthquake?? 1700's city planning sounds interesting! 😁

Not only is the May Day Stadium one of Asia's largest, it's actually the SECOND world's largest stadium. It used to be the largest but India stole our thunder in 2020. We will get them back

Painting the soviet housing was a really good idea actually. Definitely helps fix that monotone depressing look.

I would still really love to see a video on Soviet Mass transit. Not just in the Soviet Union itself but also the role that Soviet planning played in mass transit in the Warsaw Pact.

That Los Angeles feeling when Pyongyang has better public transit than you...

0:53 "the world's most [...] dangerous national capital" Mogadishu: Am I a joke to you?

Honestly doesn't seem like a bad city, at another time of the year when the trees are in bloom I can imagine it looking quite nice!

Hi, a long time Korean fan here, thanks for a great video. I am usually very against the 'nationalistic' ideas, but I really need to point something out. The idea that the Japanese Occupation of Korea industrialized it is a common argument that the Japanese Imperialists say when they try to justify the harsh conditions that the Koreans had to go through. Straight to the point, it is simply not fair for Koreans, if not downright offensive. IF there were any infrastructure left behind, it got torn up by the Korean war that happened right after. The war lasted literally more than 3 years. The picture at 4:44 was the general state of what was left of korea post korean war. They needed to be rebuilt because there were literally none left standing. If anything, South Korea was way more influenced by the US subsidies economically. Why do we say so? Because Korea's GDP growth didn't skyrocket till mid 1970s, long after the Japanese influence has worn off. Before that it was still a strictly agricultural industry with very little industry, people were literally starving back then. Frankly it can be more sensibly attributed to the industrialization efforts by then millitary dictator, Park Jung Hee, who took power in, well, 1970s. Another point is, Southern Korea was exploited for its agricultural resources, while the Northern Korea for its industry (although still mostly primary sector). Lets not forget that the Imperial Japan was starving of supplies, and rice was a very valuable resource that Southern plains in Korea was plentiful of. To be fair, North Korea had some industry left by the Japanese, which was why they had an head start on economy. It wasn't till, again, mid 1970s, where the booming Korean economy overtook North Korean GDP. The economic difference wasn't that big before 1970s anyways, and attributing South Korean growth to the Japanese Occupation, when North Korea is still struggling to this day, despite them having the same "glorious industrialization of Korea by the thankful Imperial Japanese- advantage" as South Koreans, cannot be explained by that theory. Please remember that Japan is still denying the atrocities that happened in all of Asia, to this day, despite murdering easily 2-4 times that of the Nazis, and that this is a very sensitive topic that should not be taken lightly. Again, thanks for the great video as always. Regards,

10:54 The footage is actually a Korean bank in mainland China, it says Hana Bank Tianjin Binhai Branch

Worth mentioning that wasn’t mentioned in this video: Pyongyang is designed along axes set by major boulevards, for the purpose of creating “favorable” street views. If you look through the arch of triumph towards Kim Il Sung square to the south, you see what looks like the Statue of Kim Il Sung on Mansudae leading soldiers to victory through the arch. This is almost 3 Km away from the viewpoint. That’s how carefully planned the city is. Park space is supposed to be equally distributed among each neighborhood, so I wouldn’t have trouble believing that park space is abundant. Though behind the apartment buildings that line the boulevards of North Korea cities you’ll find industrial buildings, shops and other amenities. You’ll also find a lot of one story houses similar to the ones you find in the rural areas. There may or may not be park space in those areas, which are pretty crowded. The Left bank is more historic and where the original footprint of the city is, as well as Kim Il Sung Square, whereas the right bank is newer, has more organized blocks and WAY more of those informal rural houses bundled together. The main monument on the Right bank would be the Juche Tower and the Worker’s Party Monument. The city was originally planned for 1 Million people, and the original layout was designed by (I think) planners from both Hungary and East Germany. There are multiple parts of the city that do not have a density gradient between the rural and urban areas. Specifically near tongil street and the Reunification Arch. When you pass the arch, which is just outside the city the first buildings you will see are hi-rises, and city streets at similar densities and activity to the streets found near the center of the city. There is no suburban in-between. There are other parts of the city that do this too. I would go into details about how the Districts are divided into micro districts, and how there are Union-like organizations that carefully monitor the individuals in each section, but I can’t quite remember. If you want know what life is like in the rest of the country, I would look into a report called “Pyongyang Republic” by the committee for human rights in North Korea. Another good source is the 2 Volume series “Architectural and Cultural Guide to Pyongyang.” In those books you get to see the city in details that even the tourists often don’t get to see, including the _floor plans of the apartment buildings!_

If you ever do another Korean-related video, just a small pronunciation tip: J almost never has a "zh" sound. It's often a relatively hard J, like in "jog" or "Joe." So "Juche" sounds like "joo-chay" (rather than "zhoo-chay").

yes daddy tell me more about masterplanned new cities

Previously thought "Kim Jong Il" was read as "Kim Jong 2" (mistaking 'Il' for 'II', the Roman numeral for '2')

Americans: socialist buildings are so boring. American suburbs: 🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️🏘️

Great video! But I do think you could have mentioned the re-emergence of Korean architecture in Pyongyang. The government endorsed a "Korean National Style" which is essentially a mixture of traditional and modern Soviet-style architecture. A good example is the Grand People's Study House. It is an interesting philosophy toward traditional architecture, especially when compared to the South Korean approach, which is essentially more purist and less aggressive in mixing traditional and Western styles.

At 8:12 you said that North Korean plans for reunification would imply reunification under Kim rule. Instead, North Korea now (since '93) mostly focuses on reunification under a pan-national system, where both countries maintain current governments. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Point_Programme_for_Reunification_of_the_Country

Pyongyang is super interesting! Walking through the city is super surreal. It's interesting that you mention changes in NK, I think Kim Jong Un is looking at China for inspiration. He's portrayed in official propaganda as a bearer of change and It looks like he's implementing similar measures to the ones Deng Xiaoping implemented in China. For starters, having a free market zone, investing on rural areas, decentralizing power (focusing on the provinces governments), importing cultural elements (now, for example, you see pizza places inspired in Naples), etc. I get the feel they're aiming for market socialism and that's why Kim Jong Un is much more focused on stopping the US block than Kim Jong Il ever was. The Kim-Trump reunion was supposed to be the breaking point. Btw, there are no monuments dedicated to Kim Jong Un! Just like there were almost no monuments dedicated to Kim Jong Il until he died. And the reunification monument is NOT about reunification under Kim's rule! Kim Jong Il has a bunch of speeches where he states that "The country's reunification is not a matter of settling any class contradictions within our nation or antagonism between social systems. It is the national cause of establishing the nation's sovereignty all over the country. We maintain that the north and the south join their efforts to promote co-existence, co-prosperity and common interests." as in: Two systems, one country. The monument represents the idea of a dual country coexisting as a confederation.

I love that American cognitive dissidence when he says “ppl go to the park to get a break from the surveillance”, when not only do we barely have any public spaces but the unconscious requirement of those public spaces are that you’d spend money which advertisers use to track you. Americans are great.

Pyongyang was building a third metro line in the 1970's across the river when suddenly, a part of the tunnel collapsed.

"one ticket costs 1/2 cent" That's INSANE!

Actually looks a lot nicer than cities in Brazil and India.

It's mind boggling that something can be so inexpensive that the US doesn't have a unit of currency small enough. A penny is double the cost. Wow.

I mean to be fair, we have a statue of various slave owners carved into a mountain haha Lots of American public squares have dead leaders too. The one closet to me in LA has a huge stature of Abraham Lincoln in a park that bares his name.

I gotta say, those 6 floor housing blocks that are so "Soviet"? You'll find them all over Sweden, Norway & Germany too. Also France. It's just your standard "We gotta throw something up fast that people can live in" structure. Here's the thing though: high rise towers tend to become places of urban social decay, whereas 6 floors or fewer, you can look out of your window, see what's going on outside, and you're about within range of being able to shout a greeting to a neighbour. I'd sooner be in a 5 or 6 floor block than a high rise tower - unless we're talking *serious* luxury, concierge-guarded kinda place with a gym and a swimming pool.

An idea for a video: Saigon Specifically the traffic in Saigon. The city has people mostly moving on motorbikes. But currently, they are building a subway system, and the new neighborhoods are spaced to be car-friendly. I would like to hear your opinion and predictions on how these changes might affect the traffic and the society in Saigon. Thanks for the great videos BTW

3:45 Kim Jong Un really looks like his grandfather Kim Il Sung but a less handsome version

Once you explained how many times they'd been invaded it kind of makes sense as to how alone "they" want to be.

you can walk around Pyongyang without realising you're in a southeast asian city, because its not a southeast asian city.

6:02 Correction: Every day of Kim Il-sung's life until 1982, which was when the monument was completed. Built for his 70th birthday An interesting fact about Pyongyang is that during the early 20th century it was known as the "Jerusalem of the East" due to the big Christian (more specifically Protestant) presence within the city at the time. Yes, the churches they have there now you may find laughable because of the regime's actions, but historically on the contrary, Pyongyang was very much a Christian city Honestly I prefer Pyongyang's Arch of Triumph over the one in Paris. It's taller than the Arc de Triomphe, and not to mention there's no traffic jams

I think that if Pyongyang keeps growing, it will start to look like a city from mainland China

Maaan does every single piece of media about the DPRK have to start with like 5 minutes of propaganda, cmon.

you know what's bleaker than soviet architecture? being homeless.

I'm happy you mentioned the US bombed most of their population out of existence. I'm not pro NK but I love when accurate history is told objectively. This country is one of the major reasons NK is the way it is today and history should reflect such. War wasn't born in the west but it was perfected and capitalized

I would actually love to visit Pyongyang. It just really fascinates me.

4:56 "You can walk through many parts of Pyongyang and barely realize you're in a South-East Asian city". That's because you're not, you're in an East Asian city. SE Asia is Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, and Bhutan. East Asia is China, Korea (both), Japan, and Taiwan

I actually think going to North Korea, and Pyongyang in particular, would be quite an interesting experience and I'd like to go someday

« The tallest unoccupied building in the world » isn’t in North Korea. Marina 101 in Dubai Marina is nearly 100m taller.

I hope that you can make a video about Beijing, where historical Chinese building, Soviet-style monuments and complexes, and modern skyscrapers all come together.

7:28 is actually quite elegant looking. It felt like an south East Asian capital for a second 7:34 also quite pretty

Tight sanctions really making them adapt really well with so small budget. Like really, with that much pressure, i cant even think to be able to strive that much.

So, does this mean no one is homeless in Pyongyang??

I'm mostly surprised that Kim Jong Un finished what his father started with the Ryugyong Hotel (well, on the facade lol) instead of getting rid of it all together. It looks like the headquarters of a James Bond Villain and is a very painful reminder of the great famine of the 90s. So sorry for everyone who has to live there.

My skepticism is always raised when someone says "look how all this architecture in the capital city is indoctrinating people" when you can't walk down the street in a major US city without being deluged in billboards, bench ads, ads on the sides of trucks, ads on taxis, etc. before we even get to the various statues, plaques, monuments, and monumental government buildings. American imperialist capitalism is advertised to us everywhere we go, we just don't realise how blatant it is because the advertising is more diverse than just the same three dudes over and over again (and because we're inured to it, much as I suspect Koreans are inured to monumental pictures of the same three dudes). Overall I thought the video was great, it just annoys me how much we tend to get suckered by stereotypes about communist propaganda that don't hold up when you account for how common propaganda is everywhere. The best parts of the video were the parts where that was set aside in favour of how the city actually works as a place to inhabit.

Also Pyongyang isn't dangerous. It's super safe. Pick one: 1. It's an all-powerful police state where everything is monitored and controlled 2. it's the most dangerous capital in the world It obviously can't be both. There is basically no crime in Pyongyang because the state is so watchful there.

Can you do a video on what happened to East Asian architecture and traditional architecture in general?

Fascinating! An even handed and thoughtful look. I find "new cities" that were rebuilt following the destruction of war very interesting.

Great video! I'm an urban researcher from Brazil and I love the channel!

It's more like the economy is sanctioned, with most countries restricted to trade with North Korea.

Most dangerous capital Caracas, Bogota, Mexico city: yes, the most, the most in the world

A video on Ashgabat would be interesting.

As wary as I am of the authenticity of anything the North Korean government says, I am even more wary of what US-aligned governments and media say about North Korea. I have found most coverage of them to be incredibly skewed. A perfect example was that "Unicorn Lair" story -- even though the original North Korean report was dripping with self-serving political propaganda in itself, the Western coverage turned it into straight up whimsical insanity.

"Rapidly growing city" Population in 2008: 3.2 Million Population in 2021: 2.9 Million

Honestly, NK's recent 'monumental architecture' isn't bad, I'd even take it over a lot of contemporary western designs, or lack thereof.

You missed one bizarre thing for westerners in Pyongyang - there are no almost no product/services ads/billboards - check 0:49. Just clean facades. We usually don't realize how much our brain is bombarded by ads.

3:45 It was the US who proposed trusteeship as a prerequisite to independence, not the Soviet Union. After the surrender of Japan, Korea was already in the process of forming a government. The US Military Government refused to recognize this government, and declared it to be an illegal organization.

this isnt an analysis about the architecture of a city but a history briefing with some sightseeing highlights around the city everyone can see on wikipedia. the only interesting information out of 13 minutes about the architecture was that the housing quarters are heavily influenced by the soviet city-style..

Pyongyang - the only city in the world with 24/7 traffic flow of 100%

Loved this mix of history and city planning. I hope you can make more about other cities.

Extremely informative, thank you for producing this!

It would be really handy if there always just a link to the video on Nebula in the description. Maybe set to start at the timestamp that the ad begins in KZfaq? I'm a subscriber already and it's super annoying to have to go search for the video on Nebula if I want to watch the end of it when I've started watching on KZfaq.

@10:00 Fun Fact: These metro trains used to run in Berlin (called U-Bahn there, U for underground), painted bright yellow. North Korea bought them for cheap money by the late 1990s and sold their old ones to China. I can tell you, as a Berliner this sight is quite a bizarre one to me!

It's so fascinating to see how the competing ideologies of the twentieth century produced such incredibly different urban environments. The obvious comparison being Single Family Housing (Sprawl) vs. Multi-Family Social Housing Blocks. Now, all around the world, we push to undo the mistakes of the last century and build New Urbanism!

4:05 Wow! That is something they don’t tell us about the Korean War in the U.S. We know of this war, however, not to this extent

The origin myth of Dangun extends to all of Korea. His mother, the female bear, wished to become human. The sky God granted her the wish after she ate garlic (lol) for a whole month.. after which they made a baby who is the first King of Korea

What is so weird about pictures of the Kim's? Have you seen Mount Rushmore? On a sacred native mountain no less. Plus public parks with statues of George Washington or paintings of him would be, while less prevalent, still not out of place. When you consider the immense trauma of having 20% of your population wiped out a bit of a cult of personality around the man defending it is pretty logical even if not ideal imo.

You got to hand it to the Kims, they were determined to not let North Korea become another generic satellite, soviet, american or whatever, so they spared no expense preserving traditional Korean culture while cultivating their Juche society.

Would love to see a video about Detroit it has so many contrasts modern buildings and bridges with historical sites falling apart. As someone from Michigan it’s amazing how much the city has changed in the last ten years. Also Detroit’s green space Belle Isle is actually bigger then Central Park in NYC until it became a State Park a few years ago it was largest city park in the US

4:59 girl North Korea is far from South East Asia

That's a really good explanation, but there is one problem I don't agree with. Did Japan build factories in Korea and modernize Korea? This is the same logic as some Europeans claim that Europeans taught human languages ​​to African black people and helped them to establish a nation. Black people have no language and no country, so Europeans enlightened them... I disagree with that. Moreover, Korea's military power was low until the Japanese occupation of Korea in 1910, but its industry had reached an early stage of modernization. Thank you so much☺️☺️

its weird how quick people are at describing monument squares for peoples enjoyment in the DPRK as meant for indoctrination when westerners would describe monuments like Mt. Rushmore or the numerous statues and parks dedicated to their old statesmen as simply "celebrating history/heritage."

This video is needlessly political. Yet never more than superficial. I intend my comment here as constructive and truly hope I succeed in coming over as such. The parts of the video that covered city design and plaza design were great! Both the information presented and the technical side. However, too often these bits were disrupted by political comments, often just generalizations or confusing descriptions of phenomena common in the USA. (for simplicity sake I will make comparisons just to the USA) To be blunt, you are not needed to educate people on the politics of the DPRK, there are many videos, articles, books, etc on this. To be even more blunt, you don't do a good job of educating on the politics of the DPRK. I fully believe an edit with most these political comments cut, would be more clear, succinct, educational, and relevant to the channel. Following is a timestamped list of political comments that I found distracted me and my opinion on them. Many it's just a term commonly used in the USA for the phenomenon described. 0:25 "May have the worst human rights (...) control of the populace" (-Human Rights Watch) This is valid as it is part of the introduction, sourced and what is said paraphrases what the source says. 0:50 "No property rights" This is called renting. According to Pew renting one's residence is done by 36.6% of households in the USA. The video goes into this topic no further. 0:55 most "dangerous national capital" The video gives no metrics or source for this claim. This is the first source I found: www.numbeo.com/crime/country_result.jsp?country=North+Korea 5:30 "dedicated to [Kims]" While many of them are, not all of them are, including some shown in the video. USA has many things dedicated to it's first 3 leaders too. The video doesn't quantify the share of monuments dedicated to leaders. 6:10 "project state power" + 8:00 "indoctrinate citizens better" This is called things like 'encourage civic virtue' when in the USA. The video does not go deeper into this topic. 8:15 "reunified under Kim rule" Their official principles don't mention this. I am sure that North Korea wants reunification with North Korean ideals and South Korea wants reunification with South Korean ideals none of that is surprising. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Principles_of_National_Reunification en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Unification 9:20 "Parks (...) most free (...) solace and privacy away from the constant surveillance" No source is given, nor does the mention of the perceived surveillance state add to the conversation about parks. While park activities are a fascinating part of North Korean life. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/adJgitCaytOvY4U.html 11:10 "Nearly every other aspect of their lives is still under government control including the environment they live in." As the government, employer and landlord are often the same body, this is true. Yet in the USA these three combined also have a lot of influence over the life of the citizens. Examining the differences between these places would take a lot of time and likely not fit the subject of the video, which leaves it a topic brought up without substance. 11:20 "Public spaces are designed to exert control and indoctrinate citizens, no other city on earth attempts to do this as explicitly as Pyongyang" The difference between explicitly and implicitly exerting 'encouraging civic virtue' 11:30 "society as draconian" I get you don't like the DPRK, that's okay. I want to restate that I understand not going deep into subjects. My critique is towards the way comments are made that I perceive as having no educational value and greatly took away from my viewing pleasure. I also want to make clear that I have no objections to critiques of the DPRK's government or system, all I ask for is these to contain substance. Thank you for making the videos you have over the years. I am a big fan.

"Kim Jong Un rules over a nation that may have the worst human rights record in the world" Britain, Mongolia, Germany, and Turkey: phew that was a close one

Thank you for this video! Combining two of my personal interests :)

Thanks

funny fact: the Pyongyang Metro uses old Subway cars from Berlin. The same cars were also still in use in Berlin a few years ago.

3:40 wow I've never seen kim Il sung when he was younger ! He looks a lot more fit than kim jong un .

I think that Mogadishu is a more dangerous capital

what you're "seeing" in the public square like kids roller-blading, is a choreography like the truman show

Urbanisation of Rio on Brazil and the reconstruction of Lisbon after the great earthquake would be a awesome

lmao a nearly fourteen minute video on development in the DPRK that doesn't include a single instance of the word "sanctions" are you having a laugh my dude

"with no property rights" - with no *private* property rights. Private property ≠ personal property

This is the last city on my mind I would’ve expected you to be talking about haha.

Pyongyang is actually pretty safe xD.

"Most Dangerous Capital" I'd wager my House that you have a better chance of survival to be a lost tourist at night in Pyongang than in DC

The tone and phrasing is very propagandist. I haven’t watched a lot of your videos but speaking as if the Japanese occupation in a neutral/positive way combined with treating more grand architectural structures as indoctrination devices tints the information. Most older Koreans I know still hold resentment from the occupation and they’re South Korean. Junche is an ideology that focuses on militarism and isolation because of imperialist occupation and the rampant bombing. I was curious to learn facts about the city... facts that aren’t seasoned with statements like how the DPRK are the worst violators of human rights (which whitewashes the severity of western colonial occupations, war, etc).

just want to say a big thank you about this video! I'm at the university and I'm doing a presentation about the north Korean architecture and i haven't found information about this in google and then i entered to youtube to this video and it helped me so much and gave me all the information i need. so really, thank you! it's not obvious that you do it and it's really interesting and helps university.

I'd love to see a video about underground space and how to properly utilize it. Keep up the good work!

Consistently great content. Thank you.

The Ice ring looks like the Metropolitan Cathedral in Brasilia

Those who sympathize with political organizations that are not approved by the US government are under some level of government surveilance in the US. The same happens in Canada, But you do not preface your videos on US or Canadian cities by calling out the government on that. Lay off the name calling and focus on the design.

Oh my god he actually did it

I have to admit, they do have interesting architecture......but I'd never ever want to live there

government: so what should we do next? : hmmm, have you ever heard about Egypt

Great video bro. Keep up the good work

At least they aren’t homeless

i feel like there's a lot of misinformation about north korea, heck, this video taught me a lot more than i ever learned in school about the secretive country. a long history of occupation, it suddenly makes sense why they're so tight lipped. still, i do have concerns about how some people might be treated there. i hope our countries can come to an understanding some day.

I’d like to just point out that your comment that Japan “made” Korea an industrialized nation after itself is somewhat inaccurate historically, and may even sound offensive and hurtful to the Korean ear. It’s true that Japan first introduced modern industry to Korea during occupation but much of the industrial growth was achieved on its own initiative after Korea was liberated with the end of WW2. Japan’s occupation was not only harsh for the Koreans psychologically but it was also extremely exploitative in an economic sense as Korea’s resources and labor were exploited for the Japanese war efforts rather than Korea’s own prosperity.

0:57 - world's most secret and dangerous national capital...after Bagdad, Kabul, Mogadishu, Tripoli

Interesting video, thanks!