North Korea: What's the Deal?

For almost 70 years, North Korea has been the bane of South Korea, Japan and the US or has stood as the sole defenders of the Korean homeland from the American hordes, depending on who you ask. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works
dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh
Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant with Jerry Rowland. Do
Do Do Do Do Do Do Do Do? And this
is breaking stuff you should Know, recorded two days before

(00:21):
it gets released. We're basically like pod Save America now. Yeah,
and uh, I think it's funny that the only reason
we are speeding this year was because of laziness, Because
I said that an email early is like, guys, if
we published this in two or three weeks, we're gonna
have to go back and rerecording dates. Yeah, and I
don't want to rerecord updates. I don't want to either.
We could have also been super duper lazy and released

(00:43):
it and not done updates, but then we would just
been like slobs. Would have been like Blue Do Brother
Blue Do in Animal House right, kind of like we
went back and updated the Obamacare episode so many times exactly.
I mean, I think about how much work we put
into that one. Man. Uh, So, Chuck, we're talking today

(01:05):
about North Korea. I've been wanting to do this one
for a while. I learned so much. Yeah, one of
the things that I learned is that a lot of
the bizarre rumors I've always heard about North Korea, a
lot of those are actually totally true. Yeah, and I
learned that just knowing, just having a basic understanding of
its history really just sort of helps frame everything it

(01:29):
does very much. So you definitely get a feel for
why it is the way it is, just a basic understanding. Yeah,
we do. You know, we're definitely not North Korea experts
by anything. But what's interesting to me is there are
actually people out there who are it's their job to

(01:49):
analyze reports that come out of pyeong Yang and um
like the way that that Kim Jong un might um
wave is using his left hand today, or that actually
means this, there's people whose job it is to know
that and to be able to say this is probably
what they're going to do next. How is he wearing

(02:10):
his hair today? Oh, the same easworn't every day of
his life. Well, here's a fact for you. The the
speaking of his hair, he has a very unique hairstyle
for his country. As a matter of fact, he may
be the only person in his country with that hairstyle. Yes,
because when he came to power, Right after he came
to power in two thousand and eleven, the North Korean government,

(02:32):
lad of course, by Kim Jong un um, issued a
decree that if you're a man, you can have hair
that is two inches long, and if you're an older man,
three inches long. That's it. If you're a woman, you
can have one of fourteen hairstyles. I haven't. Oh yeah,
they got the hairstyles for the men and women that

(02:52):
are allowed. That's why I that's why I thought like
that was just a rumor something. That's one of the
things that was confirmed for me. I never oh the poster,
although I probably would have been suspicious even after the
poster because you know, photoshop and all. But his hair
looks like one of the approved hair styles. It's long, well,
way longer than a couple of inches. It's hard to
tell because he's he's keeps it slick back. Yeah yeah, yeah,

(03:15):
I think that his hair is is totally unique in
North Korea, at least with length. So when he wakes
up in the morning and he's in shaggy dog mode,
it's all hanging down in his face. Yeah, it looks
like the new bass player from Metallica, who was who Oh,
he's like the guy from Metal Metal Apocalypse. Is he

(03:36):
the same guy that took over since the what, Sir Jason,
same guy? Yeah, but he it's like him, And that
does Zach Galifernakis, the guy who played guitar for Rozzy Osbourne.
Like the two most metal looking guys in the history
of metal. Probably the new bass player from Atallica. Oh yes, dude,

(03:58):
it's almost like, you know, they prayed to God to
craft a metal bass player. He's in. He's an archetype
for sure, but I'm pretty sure he's the guy from
Metal A, Metal Apocalypse, Metal Acalypse, you know what I'm
talking about. It's like about the metal band from Adult Swim.
There's like a cartoon about the Metal Bank. So I'm
pretty sure that's him at any rate, North Korea. If

(04:25):
if we're gonna have to talk about Dennis Rodman, then
we're going to talk about Metallica's bass player. So let's
start at the latest as it stands right now. Okay, Like,
what's going on now? Do you want to or do
you want to with that? That's fine? Okay. So there's
been some really surprising developments and a lot of people
are very much reserved and saying, do not be distracted
by this, do not be fooled. Um. But as it stands,

(04:49):
North Korea and South Korea just had a summit, which
they've had from time to time, but they had a
summit in the demilitarized zone where president the President's Korea
and the president of North Korea got together and said,
let's make this a de nuclearized peninsula. Let's end this war.
By the way, the Korean War has still been going

(05:10):
on since nineteen it never ended. Yeah, that's it's been
a long truce. Let's end it and let's just reunify.
And people are going nuts because this actually seems like
there's a possibility of it. And one of the reasons
why they think there's possibility is because this is such
an about face for the North compared to two weeks ago. Yeah,

(05:33):
I mean, all right, listen again. Because there is reason
for optimism, there is plenty of reason for skepticism. Uh.
And I don't think anyone really knows whether or not
to believe North Korea. No, but there are plenty of
people who do believe that that you should not believe it,

(05:54):
right because it could you know, some people say this
could be a a ruse to unify Rhea and UM
and get America out of there once and for all,
which could be scary. Um. There's people that thinks that,
you know, there's recent reports that this this whole notion
of shutting down their nuclear test site is um merely symbolic,

(06:16):
but for two reasons. A because they've got what they
needed and they don't need to test anymore. And be
because this geologist in China, did you see that report?
He just came out like yesterday saying, I think that
this site has has been destroyed. Oh I did see
that via earthquake, via setting off nuclear bombs, So like

(06:37):
it's not even there anymore anyway, right, they set off
a hydrogen bomb and blew their nuclear testing facility up. Yeah,
so so, but now it's a bargaining chip on the
table exactly. And the reason they can say that is
because it is such a closed off area. It's so
difficult to surveil that you have to rely on the
report of a Chinese geologist and and say, Okay, maybe

(07:00):
that's true, maybe it's not. You don't know, because it's
a hermit kingdom. Yeah, but there have been a few
olive branches in the past few days. Um. I didn't
even know this. In two thousand fifteen, Um, North Korea
set their clocks off by thirty minutes so they wouldn't
have the same time. Yeah, and so uh, North Korea said,

(07:23):
you know, we're gonna set these clocks back. We're gonna realign.
Uh and they I've also in recent days been dismantling
these propaganda loudspeakers at the border where they both sides pump,
Like on the south side they pumped K pop and like, hey,
this is what it's like to be free, and then
on the other side they pump out I don't know,
just North Korean propaganda, but they're taking down these loudspeakers.

(07:46):
So they're they're little signs that like, I don't know,
maybe this is for real. I was looking all over
for some some verbatim examples of the propaganda that comes
out of the North loud speakers. Should not find it anywhere.
Set that to an nice beach, a K pop pit
of your own. But yeah, dismantling this is is that's huge.

(08:06):
That's a big deal. And the steam militarized and we'll
talk more about it, but it is widely considered the
most dangerous I think two mile strip of land on
the planet um. And the reason why it's so dangerous.
So the reason why it's there is, again, as far
as Korea is concerned, and especially as far as North
Korea is concerned, the Korean War is still ongoing back

(08:28):
and I think nine fifty three they signed an armistice
a piece, not a peace treaty, a ceasefire, but there
hasn't been a peace treaty, so the war is still
going on, which is clue number one that I didn't realize.
But that's clue number one to the situation over there.
Once you understand that, you start to understand, oh, they've

(08:49):
been in a warlike stance this whole time, because they
consider themselves to have been at war still. Yeah, and
no one even knows what this early on as of
this recording, no one even knows what nuclearization, that word nuclear,
what that even means in this case. Does that means
we're not we're gonna stop our building programs, but we're

(09:11):
keeping those missiles or does this mean we're going to
destroy everything? Right? That is another reason why it's so surprising.
But the whole reason that this is such big news
is because and the reason that this this this summit
is is even on the world stage is because North
Korea has finally gotten to a point where they are

(09:34):
they have just come out of being strictly a regional
threat and a big regional threat to South Korea and
to Japan, but now they're actually a threat to the
United States because they've just shown through an intercontinental ballistic
missile test that had the trajectory been a certain way,
they could have hit Chicago. And that changes everything. And

(09:59):
then of course after that, we conducted a test of
our SAD system Terminal High Altitude Area Defense. I looked
into that. You know what that thing is? It is,
uh it basically shoots the rocket out of the sky
in orbit. But it doesn't like it doesn't have any

(10:19):
um explosives. It just it works through velocity. So just
punches right through. It punches right through it with the
idea that it won't detonate the nuclear warhead smart so
it'll just disable the rocket and uh, I guess it'll
just tumble back into the atmosphere in land where it
may right hopefully the ocean. It's probably gonna try to

(10:40):
shoot it down over the ocean. I think it's the idea, right,
So I saw that we have a about a fifty
fifty chance of shooting down any I c b M
coming out in North Korea. Yeah, which is as Mark
Bowden put it in this article that I read, it's good,
but at the other hand, it's actually really bad because
that's even that that I CBM will strike the United

(11:02):
States if they shoot it. So the point is North
Korea showed that they actually have this technology now and
it changed everything. So the idea that they just proved
that they could do this and are now saying, let's
d nuclear eyes. That's huge and crazy. And actually people
are talking about no bells over all this. Yeah, I

(11:23):
mean left leaning websites are are saying Donald Trump has
done what no other president has been able to do.
Potentially if this happens the way it looks like it
could happen, which was it's a shocking thing to read.
It's a shocking about face from North Korea. Yeah to
see c an nd go like I had to say it,

(11:47):
but he's really done something here the end, right. It
was written by Wolf Blitzer while he was applying like
hot paper clips to his inner thoughts. Is things are
getting strange. So it's gonna be really interesting to see
how this unfolds um and whether or not it is

(12:07):
a trick. Yeah. I mean, like it's it's really weird
for weeks and months ago for North Korea to be,
you know, saying like we will destroy you, we were,
we will crush you, we will blow you to pieces,
and like everything's good that they will strike a merciless
blow at the heart of the US with our powerful

(12:28):
nuclear hammer, honed and hardened over time. That was from July,
less than a year ago. Chuck, I don't know. I mean,
is it possible that he's seen the light? I mean,
these sanctions have put a serious hurt on a country
that was already in a bad way, right, but they've
lived in a bad way for like half a cent
well more than half a century. Now. It's so weird

(12:51):
that it that's it's if that's true, then we figured
out a sanction that no one had tried before and
it was exactly the right thing. It's just too bizarre
because they've lived with this stuff well. And but it's
it also could be a symbol of just the changing times.
And there are a lot of North Korean citizens now

(13:13):
that are saying, like, you know, we should reform now,
that now is the time to play with the rest
of the world and become part of the rest of
the world and not be a hermit kingdom. See it's
my understanding that if you would say that out loud
in the north, like you would be executed with an
anti aircraft gun. Well, I think a lot of these
have been defectors that have said, like, there's a lot

(13:35):
of quiet sentiment. You know, I don't think anyone yet
in the country is standing upon the rooftop side reform,
because that's what Kim Jong Ung's brother, um. I mean,
he was two women at assassins at an airport, sprayed
him in the face with a nerve agent and killed

(13:56):
him because well for a few reasons. One is because uh,
it was because he believed in reform. Potentially, Yeah, I
get that he was a little more Western oriented than
he's trying to get to Disneyland, Disneyland Japan, right, yeah,
on a on a Japanese or I'm sorry, Dominican Republic
passport that he had and he got killed, assassinated, and

(14:20):
you know, of course they haven't come out and said
so but it's it seems like a direct order from
the top from his half brother, who, unless I misread,
they have never met or had never met. That's possible
because I think the tradition is he raise potential successors
in isolation from one another. Oh, I had not heard that.
I just assumed that, like the first family was in exile.

(14:43):
Oh no, I mean they were half brothers, and that
makes sense, kind of like a little lab experiment, and
see which one grows the way you wanted to. You know,
one grew up and I was like, I kind of
want to go to Disneyland, and he got caught doing it. Yeah,
he was assassinated. I would guess. His name was Kim
Jong Kim Jong nah Um and he was assassinated in
two thousand seventeen. And Um, I would guess because Kim

(15:06):
Jong un was trying to consolidate his power to make
sure there was nobody who could be like, you know,
built up as a leader in exile and come and
take his bro was in line. You know, he was
the first born. Right, So let's let's take a break
and then we're gonna come back and talk about Korean
history and maybe things will get a little clearer. Huh. Alright, Chuck,

(15:51):
we're back. What an intro. It really was. Intrigue, assassination.
I felt passionate metallica. Yeah, at it all I forgot
we talked about in town. All right. So, um, let's
go back in time because understanding and this article is

(16:13):
actually really good on our site from Patrick Gold. He
does a good job. Um that. The section is titled
how North Korea came into existence, and it really just
kind of brings it all into focus once you know
how this all because I think a lot of people
these days don't educate themselves. They watched mash and that's
about the extent of it. That's about all I knew

(16:35):
about Korea, me too, sure. So Korea was actually a
for a very brief time in the twentieth century, actually
not too brief, but nineteen ten and nine it had
been invaded and annexed by the Japanese and it was
in the process of becoming a Japanese colony when Japan

(16:55):
lost World War Two. Yeah. Go look at Korea on
a map. Start there. It's pretty close to Japan. Yeah,
and it's also just it's a little little dongle peninsula
hanging down from China. It also has amazing food. By
the way, okay, so, um, Korea fell out of the
possession of the Japanese and into the possession of the Americans.

(17:19):
The allied forces that had invaded Japan and part and
parcel with that was invading Korea as well. Right, So,
because the United States and the uss are divided up
the world, basically one of the things that got divided
was the Korean Peninsula. And right at the thirty parallel,

(17:40):
above it was the North, and below it was the South,
and the South was controlled by the US supported Sorry
I just made scare quotes for those of you can't
see me. And the North was a puppet regime installed
by the USSR. Yeah, pretty simple, okay, uh, so to
to run the show up there in North Korea. Um,

(18:02):
this is really interesting how this dynasty started with the
with this family that's been in power for so long. Yes,
the Soviets said, all right, Kim Il sung, you were
born Kim Song jew In, you grew up in China mainly,
and we're gonna install you as a leader, and we're

(18:23):
gonna tell everybody at least that you were a very
brave leader and fighter in the resistance against the Japanese. However,
no one really knows if that's true or not. He
might have pulled the Don draper. In fact, there are
but the probably shouldn't eat while it's too late now. Uh.

(18:44):
There are some people believe that he is living under
or lived under an assumed identity from another guerrilla fighter
who who died in battle, who actually was like a
glorious resistance leader against the Japanese. Yes, so this family
that has been ruling since the mid forties may not
have even had any legitimate claim whatsoever. Right, so so amazing,

(19:07):
So Yes, it's it's entirely possible that the first president
of North Korea, who's known as the Eternal President Kim
Il sung, was an impostor. That's not widely widely confirm.
It's not confirmed at all, uh, and it's not necessarily
widely held. But there's at least one Korean analyst out
there who says is that the deal. Is it a

(19:28):
fringe like, uh, conspiracy theory? No? Is it a little
more like, Hey, this might be real. I think I
think the ladder of the two. I don't think it's
a conspiracy theory at all. I think it's entirely possible.
Either way, it doesn't matter because what happened was whether
this guy was the guy or whether this guy was
the guy posing as that guy. This person Kim il sung.

(19:50):
With the world knows that Kim Il sung was installed
as the leader of Soviet controlled North Korea right after
um the World War to also a similar haircut, yeah
to his grandson. Sure they all kind of had that look.
Oh yeah, well Kim Jong il had his own look.
He had the little mini fro going on. Yeah, but

(20:10):
correct short, you know, crops close on above the years
of fondness for coverall pants suits. Uh, all right, So
nineteen forty he joins the Soviet Red Army. This is
Kim illsong uh In forty six, Stalin makes him what
they called the head of North Korean Temporary People's Committee,
and then finally they appointed him North Korean. The Soviets

(20:34):
did pointed in North Korea's prime minister. And then you know,
the whole propaganda machine of communism and especially here in
Korea has always been massive, yes, huge, Right, So there
was this uh, this woman I cannot I wish I
could remember. Her name is Suki something, but she posed
as a an English teacher for a missionary group in

(20:56):
North Korea. She's actually a journalist planning to write a book.
But she went undercover, which ethically there's a lot of
things going on here. But she came back and reported
on this and said, seriously, honestly, this whole country has
suffered generations of psychological abuse and the propagandas everything to them, like, yes,

(21:16):
some of it is overdone and overblown, but ultimately at
their core, like they experienced happiness by thinking of of
sacrificing for the their dear leader and their country. It's
not about themselves, it's not about their friends. It's about
the country and dear leader in particular, because yes, the
propaganda machine works that combined with surveillance, right, Okay, so

(21:41):
uh so he's in power. Um, the regime is going strong,
the Soviets withdraw and there are a lot of little
skirmishes breaking out. Um along that. I guess it was
the thirty parallel back then. Even yeah, it's always been
all right, So they were they were fighting a little
bit back then, and I get the sense that he
was sort of not well maybe paranoid, but definitely I mean,

(22:05):
this article says he was uneasy, so he sort of
overcompensated by saying, you know what, if you if anyone
comes at me, you will be crushed completely. Um. He
had a lot of fear that he was going to
get overthrown from the South. Yeah, because I mean the
Soviets withdrew and they were like, we're still we're still bodies,
We're still supporting you, right. Our military is not going

(22:25):
to be there to back you up any longer, which
is a big deal. Right, But he said basically to
the Soviets, hey, listen, I'd like to preemptively take care
of this problem. Can I do this? And finally in
ninety the Soviets said, sure, right, go for it, which
was a huge surprise to South Korea and the U. S. Military. Yeah,
we didn't expect that all of a sudden, the North

(22:45):
Koreans overrun the thirty parallel and invade South Korea and
almost had the place. And it turned out it was
a small handful of UM Japanese regulars who had been
UM I guess, flipped to fight with the Americans and
the South Koreans, and they were the ones who actually

(23:07):
managed to repel the North Korean invasion long enough for
MacArthur to bring in American troops and push the North
Koreans back up over the thirty parallel. Yeah. Like, I
don't know a lot of military history, but from what
I did research wise on this, MacArthur is a renowned

(23:28):
figure for a very good reason. Like it seems like
he pulled off a near impossible feat here. He did.
He was famously fired in the middle of the Korean
War though by Harry Truman, at a time when people
had no idea the president could actually fire a five
star general, especially the nation's most prize general. But he did.

(23:48):
And the reason why I found was because MacArthur wanted
to keep going right into China, and Truman and actually
the Joint chiefs too, said, look, man, we are kind
of overextended as it is right now. If you invade China,
then we're at war with China. Don't forget North Korea
is a puppet stat or it was of the Soviet Union,

(24:09):
So you're gonna draw Russia into this war no way.
And actually had to fire MacArthur because he was not um.
He was publicly criticizing the fact that they weren't allowing
him to go into China right, So MacArthur, though, pushes
up into North Korea, staves off above the thirty parallel,
and then in the meantime, Kim Kim il sung is

(24:30):
going to the to Stalin saying, hey, I need them.
He's a back up here, he said, I could do this. Now,
this MacArthur guy is ruining my party. Can you help?
And out of nowhere, to everyone's surprise, China comes on board,
right because Russia said no, oh yeah, which is that's huge, right,
So they left their guy twisting in the wind well, which,

(24:52):
as we will later see, did a psychologically did a
little uh mind game. There's some people who say that
that that experience crafted the mindset of the Kim dynasty today. Okay,
I mean a bit of an overreaction, but it does
make sense a little bit. So the Soviets said, and

(25:14):
yet we're not going to help you. We're definitely not
about to get into a ground war with um, the
United States right after World War two, UM. And then
he turned to Beijing and Beijing said, let us think
about it. And apparently there were two days, two long
days before Beijing finally surprised everybody, like you said, and
came into the war and those two days where the

(25:36):
Soviets had said no and China was thinking about it,
North Korea was utterly and totally alone and they were
against the United States, and that helped create the mythos
that still to this day is the the point the
existence of North Korea. Yeah, isolationist nation that know that

(25:57):
they feel like they can't trust anybody. They can't trust anybody.
They are the defenders of the Korean race, which is
the purest, greatest race on the planet. As far as
the North Korean mythology is concerned, I didn't see whether
it was widely held in South Korea or not, but
the North Koreans definitely believed they are, and that the
North Koreans are actually still to this day the defenders

(26:18):
of the Korean peninsula. And if it weren't for the North,
the American hordes would have overrun the Korean peninsula by now,
and so South Korea should be thanking they're lucky stars
at North Korea is there to defend them, even though
the South is just a bunch of ingrades. That's that's
the mythology behind this, and all of it is finds
it's its place in the guys or in the persona

(26:40):
of the dear Leader, whichever member of the Kim family
that is at the time. Right, So after this happens,
after China saves their bacon, and fighting, you know, fighting
just continues for a couple of years before this this
truce is signed. Um, bad fighting, you know it was.
It was not pretty. Um, things got really serious, and

(27:02):
Kim Il sung within his country said you know what, Um,
I'm gonna go a little crazy here, and I'm gonna
purge the system and anyone who's a threat to whether
they're citizens or whether they're military leaders of my own. Um,
they're all They're all gonna be under the gun, like literally,
and I will kill them. I will assassinate them. I

(27:25):
will cleanse my country of anyone who doesn't worship me. Basically,
that's a kind of a good way to say it.
It is. Yeah, like it was, it's almost like worship.
He turned right, very much so, and it still is today. Right. Yeah,
So I guess he turned since he his his campaign
to retake the Korean peninsula was repelled, he turned inward

(27:49):
and focused at all inward, and it became very very
dark in North Korea. Yeah, he had fifty thousand statues
of himself erected. And this is with a money from
the Soviet Union in China that was meant to go
to UM. I don't know things like housing construction and
food and all that stuff. Yeah, so, I mean, if

(28:11):
there was a propaganda machine before, it's it like he
turns it to eleven at this point, right, And this
is how this is how the place is going for
years and years and years and years until the early
nineties when something really significant happened, and that was the
fall of the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union kept
North Korea as a client state, but not exactly as

(28:33):
a communist country. They had communist ideology, but you can
make a case, and a lot of people do that
North Korea is not actually a genuinely communist country because
part of that experience of Kim Il sung being left
a twist in the wind against the Americans by the
Chinese and the Soviets was a concept called juja. I

(28:56):
really tried and I could not find the right pronunciation,
but it's j u c H. What did you get? Well,
I mean, if you believe that that YouTube videos Emma
saying what is it called Emma saying Oh, I don't know.
Is that what it is where it does like the
crazy circle wipe? Yes, yeah, they said, jusia right. I

(29:17):
thought it was a little on the nose. Okay, I
saw I saw in like written out and I'm no linguist,
but um it didn't look anything like that. All right, Well,
either way, this was in early nineteen seventies. This is
the political philosophy, which is basically what they call here

(29:37):
being the master of revolution and reconstruction in one's own country.
In other words, self reliant, reject all outside influence. We're
the masters of our own domain, except for whatever financial
assistance you want to give us, right, but we're not
going to tell you about that. We're not gonna tell
you we're getting aid from the outside world because you're glorious,

(29:59):
dear leader, and eternal President is providing for you, So
don't you worry about that at all. Right, So it
isn't exactly a purely communist country. It is its own thing.
It's actually a unique country in that because of the
Jusha thing and the fact that it has communist ideology,
and then that it's actually what's considered to be a

(30:20):
um ah hereditary dictatorship. Very close to a monarchy, but
it's not exactly, although it is frequently called the Hermit Kingdom.
So that's the way it stayed for years under Kim
Il sung, and then the U. S s R. Fell.
And when the U. S s R. Fell, like most

(30:40):
of the aid to North Korea that kept things humming
went away, humming being a relative term. Right. They weren't
living large, no, but they certainly weren't engaged in famine,
which is what happened right after the Soviet Union stopped
being the Soviet Union. All right, So that's the Kim dynasty. Um,

(31:01):
like we said, it might as well be a monarchy,
but what you call it a hereditary dictatorship. And the
whole thing is that Kim dynasty. Yeah, that was just
Kim Il Song. Yeah yeah, Kim Il Well I was
setting up with the Kim dynasty to follow. So Kim
Il Song passes away. His eldest son, Kim Jong il,

(31:21):
who most people probably know because he was around until
pretty recently. He had a big part in UM Team
America World Police too. I never saw that. Oh you're
missing out. I know that one just got by me.
It just just watch it. It's yeah, these guys are
great and make sure you see the unedited cut version. Okay,

(31:43):
uh so he was selected, well, he was the first,
first born, the eldest son. However he was there seems
to be a lot of leeway because it's not a
monarchy under they select, and he seems to have been
selected because out of the five kids, he was the
biggest jerk. You know. This article says that he'd shown
his um, his talent at um propaganda. One of the

(32:06):
ways that he showed his talent and propaganda was by
kidnapping a famous director and his actress wife from South
Korea and forcing them to spark North Korean cinema. That
was one of the ways he was a propagandist. Have
you ever heard that story? It sounds familiar. But kidnapped
a film director and made him make propaganda movies for

(32:27):
the North for years, years and they finally escaped and
did the wife star in them? Yeah? Husband directed at
wife started him as hostages of the state of North Korea.
And was it like, hey, we'll take care of you
and they you know, gave them a nice place, or
was it like there's a gun at your head, go
make this movie. The first four years were spent in
a concentration camp. The rest of the time after that

(32:51):
was in the lap of luxury. But did a little
and then or give very little and then take care
of him right, sort of like a game, I think
very much. So, Yeah, but four years in a concentration
camp to start right, that's which means you'll do anything right.
But but they were in the lap of luxury. The
director later said that, you know, a lot of people
thought that I was living it up. He said, yes,

(33:13):
I had everything I wanted. But to live in comfort
like that while everyone around you is an agony is terrible. Yeah,
but that's something that the Kim dynasty doesn't seem to
mind so much because they very much live in the
lap of luxury. Obviously, so Kim Jong il he inherits
in North Korea that's not in good shape. The Soviets
are gone economically, like you said, they are uh, like

(33:37):
you mentioned, there was there was a brutal famine. Um,
there were floods, there were draughts. About two and a
half million people supposedly died of starvation. And so he said,
all right, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna maybe
try some small economic reform and in the early two
thousands he started sim allowing a semi private markets to

(33:59):
a merge. But it was not much, certainly, not the
kind of thing to turn the country's economy around. Not
enough for sure. Yeah. So, um, after the Soviet Union fell,
they were down to one state and they still received
outside aid unless somebody had a sanction du jour against them.
But the one country they could rely on was China

(34:23):
for for financial aid. So, but they were dead. They
used to be the Soviet Union and China, and then
all of a sudden, the Soviet Union went away and
then it was China. Well that's why the most recent, uh,
the most recent UM sanctions have packed such a punch,
because China got involved. Because you're saying earlier, like whatever sanctions,
it's because China, I think, Well that that was That

(34:45):
was part of Obama's UM what's it called the strategic
Patients was basically being like you, guys, when I act
like a bread that's fine. Check out our military over here.
And while you're just over here being like this, We're
gonna go to China put pressure on China, like China
was the key you get China further and further out
onto the world stage, more and more ameshed in global markets,

(35:08):
the less they're going to tolerate outbursts by North Korea.
And if you take China away from North Korea, north
Korea has done the strategic patients is has there ever
been a more like Obama esque term well and just
government crafted. Yeah, it's like, here's a good one to
try it out there. Strategic. But that was one thing

(35:30):
and one reason why a lot of people are crediting
Trump with with this about face. And we'll talk more
about this, but it's worth saying right now is because
he very much went against strategic patients and his whole
thing was a show of bluster and strength saying We're
not going to put up with your crap. Don't push me, fella,
and they it's a lot of people are saying that

(35:50):
this is this is why I actually got North Korea
at the table. Did he like actually scared that? To me, though,
is like, that's what makes it so unbelievable to me,
That's what makes me suspicious of the whole thing. That
that that that is what worked. Yeah, that the Kim
family scared that easily. I don't know, man, who knows. Uh, alright,

(36:13):
so semi private markets not working out too well, certainly
not turning the country around. Uh. Kim Jong ill died
in two thousand and eleven of a heart attack. And
we're skipping over a lot off like if you want
to if you want to know more about just how
bizarre North carea class right, but but also specifically look
at Kim Jong eels reign, like he was well known

(36:36):
for importing nearly a million dollars or the kagnac into
his country every year when the the average wage wass
like just crazy stuff, crazy stuff. But he was also
able to be bought off. That was a big one. Yeah,
what was um? I know, I think this was for
Kim il sung when when they first got the propaganda

(36:58):
machine going that they said things like he, uh, the
first time he went bowling, he scored a three hundred
and the first time he went golfing he got eleven
straight holes in one the first time ever. That's so
funny that like it just sounds like something like they're
got a third grader, so right, the his hit backstory, right, Oh,

(37:21):
I know, I got it. This is going to knock
their socks off. He grew full Beard when he was four, right,
just because he could. So you got Kim jong Kim
Kim Il song, and then Kim Jong il his son,
and then Kim Jong il dies and Kim Uh Kim
jong un takes over and he's the third in line.
I think he was like twenty seven when he took over,

(37:43):
and he was different for sure. He had been exucated
in Switzerland. He was a fan of um western music.
I love basketball. Basketball is huge in North Korea, but
they actually have slightly altered UM rules. Like there's such
a thing as a four pointer. Did you know? Really? Yeah?
What is that? Just a super long shot? I don't know,

(38:05):
but I do know that if you miss free throws
you actually lose points. Oh interesting, kind of a good idea. Yeah,
it really puts the puts the heat on you. That
sounds like something that whatever the XFL version of the
NBA would do, right, you know, but this is the
North Korean version of the NBA. Or like if you
shoot a three pointer or with your with your eyes
closed behind your back, over your head, so explains Dennis

(38:29):
Rodman at least right sort of talk about Dennis Rodman. Well,
I mean I don't have a whole lot on him,
other than he very famously made the news. Uh was
it a couple of years ago and then again within
the last year or so. Yeah, by going over there
and kind of being buddies with him and then coming
back and saying he's not such a bad guy. Yeah,

(38:50):
it was. He was super criticized for Robin was because
he didn't go under the premature of the State Department
or anything like, we did not send him. He was
a rogue envoy. But at the same time, some people
were saying, like, hey, man, a rogue envoy is an
unofficial ambassador to North Korea. Is better than the status quo.

(39:13):
Right now, let's see what he comes back with. Um.
One of the things he said was that Kim Jong
un lives basically on a bitha or Hawaii, except he's
the only one that lives there. Yeah, he lives on
an island off the coast, a gorgeous tropical island of
his own, right. Um. And there's lots of other stuff
that Robmin came back with. But the point was, there

(39:34):
is a period of time where Dennis Robin was the
unofficial ambassador to North Korea for the United States. Right,
I'm sure. I'm sure they showed him a great time.
Rodin was probably like, oh man, that dude knows how
to party, right. And so with Kim Jong ou coming
in like this being Western influenced in some ways, um,
there was a lot of hope that he was going

(39:55):
to open up the country. He was going to drop
the saber rattling and belicosity of his predecessors, his father
and his grandfather, and that maybe maybe the North Korea
problem was going to be solved now. And it looked
like that for a month, and then he started killing people.

(40:16):
Well yeah, but that's why I think it might be
real now, is that after he went through his his
kill people face that he he might have been like, well,
this isn't working. Sanctions are worse than ever. I've got
this new president in the United States that um, uh,
how should I put this? That that uh, that that

(40:39):
wants to prove a point. Oh wow, that was very
You should be the ambassador that wants to prove a
point with his bluster and his belicocity. So maybe like
it wouldn't be so bad to get get American movies
over here, and and kind of like I'm young, and
like he's totally watching all that stuff. Oh, sure he is,

(40:59):
you know, but the idea the like, am I really
threatened by my own citizens? I don't know if he's
threatened by it. And this probably isn't a huge factor,
but the the amount of psychic damage that that would
do if it wasn't properly handled by their propaganda machine,
would it would just supposedly mentally crumble or emotionally crumble

(41:21):
a significant portion of their population who are just so
dedicated to this that the idea of North Korea suddenly
laying down its arms when the whole purpose of North
Korea's existence was to be armed against an American invasion,
it would It doesn't fit it, So it doesn't make sense.
All right, Well here here, let's talk about is killing

(41:41):
people phase and then take a break. Sounds good because
I don't want to leave people hanging. Okay, So, like
you said, he comes in there, he's in his late twenties,
mid twenties, and in his first five years he's just
executing people left and right. Yeah, Like basically his father's contemporaries.
One of the guys was his uncle. Hundred and forty

(42:03):
senior members of the military government and the party elite,
his uncle. Like you said, how did you kill his uncle?
Tell him? Well, uh, if you believe reports, he was
literally torn apart by an anti aircraft gun in front
of his family. In front of his family, which that's

(42:23):
not a good look, like a four barreled gun used
to shoot down planes. They used on hean young Choi
who was also his defense minister, and his uncle and
and if you believe reports, which I mean they have
to be true, had his his half brother assassinated by

(42:44):
two female assassins sprang him in the face in an
airport because he's trying to go to Disneyland. I also
saw reports that he had um I think also by
anti aircraft gun, executed his mistress and there was um
suspicions that it was at his wife's behest. Yeah. Um,
so that happened like right after he came to power.

(43:06):
To that basically signaled like nope, this guy's this guy's
following in the family footsteps for sure. Well, there was
a very embarrassing video of his uncle um nodding off
at an event. Oh that's what got him killed. Huh,
he was the guy that was the guy who did that. Yeah,
I mean that may have been the tipping point, but

(43:27):
you know, he wanted him out of there for whatever reasons.
But he was caught on video napping at an event
where Kim Jong n was and that I think was
what seals fate. You know, Chuck, Like, if you listen
to us, we're both kind of hedging, like if these
reports were true, or reports say this or whatever. We
were raised in the Cold War, right, and once the
Cold War was over, we realized that a lot of

(43:48):
the stuff we were told about the Soviet Union was
just total b Yes, so I think we're we can't
help but approach. You know what We've been told about
North Korea with the same kind of suspicion, Right, but
from what I've seen, a lot of this stuff seems
to be totally true, like it doesn't need to be exaggerated,
which is really jarring. Yeah, you want to take a

(44:11):
break now, Yeah, let's do it, Okay, Okay. So North

(44:40):
Korea is known as the Hermit Kingdom, and for good,
good measure, right, for good reason, they have sealed themselves
off as much as is possible in today's modern age
of information, pretty successfully sealed himselves off from the rest
of the world. Yeah, Oh yeah, I'll bet other totalitarian

(45:01):
states are just like those guys do it, right, They
really do so. One of the ways that they do,
like they really keep outside influences to a very large
degree outside right, Um, the radios that you buy. And
again I can't help but see us in like fifteen
years being like, I can't believe we said that was

(45:23):
in fact. But what I've been told is that the
radios and televisions that you buy in North Korea are
pre set to the state channels so that they can't
tune in anything but the state approved media. Yeah. No,
no labor unions, no independent news media. They jam networks

(45:44):
foreign like broadcasts from coming in. Right, they still use
Yahoo netscape. Uh. People, there are public executions. It's very
grizzly scene, um to keep everyone um in line their
labor camps. I took issue with the public execution thing

(46:06):
because I think that that's like, that's pretty standard. It's
like something the state does any state. Oh you mean
to keep people in line our own executions of criminals. Yeah,
everybody does that. It's like to keep people in line. Yeah,
but I think when they say public it's probably broadcast
on television. See that kind of thing whereas we don't
do that yet. No, there was a moment do you

(46:28):
remember that that um TV special that almost aired in
like the late nineties early two thousands where they were
gonna they were going to broadcast in execution on like
Fox or something that's horrific. Uh So, Yeah, force labor camps,
um and and this is startling to supposedly sometimes like

(46:49):
you could be in a labor camp because of a
sin uh quote sin unquote that your grandfather committed. Yeah,
they have like a three generation rule in some cases
where if who did something, they would put you and
then two other generations of your family into a labor camp.
Forced labor camp, not fun labor camp. A forced labor

(47:10):
not a fun labor camp. We already talked about the hairstyles.
Go look up the posters what's approved. The women's hair
styles are not current to say the least. The men's
hair styles are kind of all the same version of
the Kim family, which is to say, high and tight. Yeah,
they look like a racist bugs bunny western propagandy cartoon.

(47:33):
I don't even know what that means. Look it up, okay, Um.
We talked about their military for the size of their country.
Their military is huge. They only have million people and
they have one point two million full time service members
that's just full time, and another almost eight million reservists.
That's insane. Yeah, compared to South Korea, they have twice

(47:55):
the population and only about six d and fifty five
thousand full time soldiers. And from what I understand, if
you just put North Korea against South Korea, South Korea
would whip North Korea just wallop them militarily, right, even
though they have half the soldiers. But that's not to
say that North Korea has some slouchy, sloppy military. They

(48:17):
spend almost all of their money on their military, and
it's actually pretty top notch. Plus it's it's peopled by
extraordinarily dedicated soldiers. Yeah that they parade through their every October.
Everyone's seeing those parades with the tanks and the I
c b ms and it's a big show. It's a

(48:38):
big show. Yeah, it's gonna follow that up, but that's
what it is. You just say it twice. It's just
a big show. It's the description. So nice, you said
it twice. Um, they're g d P is small. It's
just about forty billion. Um. They like we said, they
have a life. There isn't isn't fun. They don't produce
a lot um. They certain they can't produce enough for themselves,

(49:02):
so they're really reliant. That's why these sanctions are put
such a whopping on them because they really rely on
imports and exports to get by. Right. But one of
the things that workers have to do, no matter what
your industry is, almost all workers have to stay after work.
Part of part of your job is after you're done

(49:23):
laboring for the day. God, this is so bleak, you
have to stick around for mandatory government meetings. And there's
two varieties, right. There's one um where it's called the
community session where they talk about you know, production goals
and stuff like that. That's fine, I mean it's like
a work meeting basically. But then there's the learning session,

(49:45):
and that's just yeah, that's when you basically rap people out,
even yourself, wrap yourself out on if you break broke
any rules, if you saw someone breaking rules. Uh. And
apparently this is where the defectors have shed a little
light and said that that people aren't coming to these
as much as they used to because things are so

(50:07):
bad here. People need the spare time after work to
go in and hunt and scour the for food. Yeah,
you've got to look for food there. You might also
be just sick, not like you basically have to work,
but you're just too sick to stick around for the
learning session, right, Well, yeah, I mean it's amazing the

(50:29):
physical hole that life. And this is just since the
forties that it's taken. The life expectancy is UM sixty
seven for men and seventy four for women, and it's
all compared to South Korea, which by all accounts, you know,
it shouldn't be that different. No, No, there's literally divided
families that we're still divided from the Korean War. So

(50:51):
sixty seven years for men, seventy four for women UM
compared to seventy nine and eighty five to South Korea.
And then just their height and weight is different. North
Korean men are between about two and four point three
inches shorter in thirteen to twenty seven pounds lighter. That's
based on a study, a study of defectors from North

(51:13):
Korea compared to their South Korean counterparts. I don't know
how how robust that is, but it's actually literally taking
a physical toll on a population, and from all accounts,
life is extraordinarily hard there. It gets very cold in
North Korea, even though there's Pacific Um paradise island that
Um Kim Jong Hoon lives on, uh In. In the mainland,

(51:35):
it's actually it gets very cold in the winter. But
they don't have a lot of electricity brown o blackouts,
so there's a lot of lack of heat. There's a
lot there's a lot of yeah, blackouts and brown outs. Um.
It's a very hard existence, which makes it makes it
all the more remarkable that they've managed to keep the
population this devoted, not just in line, utterly devoted UM

(52:00):
for decades, for generations. Now are they yes, how do
we know that I'm basing mine on? I think from defectors,
uh and I think from the the woman who posed
as an English teacher, she's she came back saying like yes,
She's like, yes, there are glimmers here. They're like curiosity

(52:22):
about the outside world, about all this other stuff. Um.
But there's so much self censorship because everyone knows that
they are Um being surveilled at all times by their buddies,
by military soldiers, by everybody that for all intents and purposes.
They just the easiest. The path of least resistance is

(52:44):
to just be dedicated and devoted as much as they
expect you to be. Yeah, but my point is there's
a difference between really believing in that and doing it
out of fear for being killed. And like as soon
as that Berlin Wall falls, then it's then everyone awake.
But I don't know that that's necessarily true, because I
think about people who are institutionalized in prison. You spend

(53:06):
enough time in prison, the day you get out of
prison is not necessarily like you're right back into society.
And Red hangs himself in a halfway exactly. That's where
I learned about this. Does that make that means it
must feature so many lessons from shall shank Um? They
do things like control or the ways that people can

(53:27):
can get a little taste of the West. Is I
thought this was interesting, is that they will um, Now
who is making these DVD players with the USB China? Okay,
so China will make a DVD player with a sneaky
little USB port so you can have the state propaganda
disc digital versatile disc in the player but be sneakily

(53:48):
watching something else via usb port like whatever. Uh, welcome
back Cotter. Yeah. I literally couldn't think of a name
that's huge in North Korean Avengers Infinity War actually um.
From what I understand, the North Korean media and on
TV consists of three channels, two of which are available
only on the weekends. And so the North Koreans really

(54:12):
love bootleg smuggled South Korean soap operas love them. So
there are outside influences that do trickle in, especially along
the border between China and North Korea, but there's it's
just not widespread, and it's certainly not widespread enough that
there's there doesn't seem to be any internal threat to

(54:35):
the Kim dynasty, Okay none. And the whole reason for
this is because it's US against the rest of the world,
and they've been They've managed to keep that mentality going
for generations. So the idea that now now that the
the Kim Dynasty North Korea has the very thing that

(54:56):
they've sought for decades, U nuclear warhead that could pierce
into the United States, now that they're saying we'll give
that up, it's it boggles the mind. You know what's
mind boggling is to go to an image source online
and type in um daily life in North Korea and

(55:19):
Daily Life in South Korea and bring them up and
just to look at one modern society, uh, on one side,
and then one on the other side, and realize this,
there's just like an imaginary line drawn between these two things. Yeah, well,
really unbelievable. Yeah, it's actually a pretty serious, very real

(55:41):
line at DMZ. Well you know what I mean. I
do know what you mean. Although I will tell you this,
I was very surprised to hear this pot is not
at all illegal in North Korea. Pot so they use
it and smoke it. Yes, isn't that bizarre. I wonder
if they do that to keep everyone just sort of
but you think they'd be like, wait a minute, things
are really messed up here. Oh I got all reflective. Yeah,

(56:06):
look at Bob Marley or damn man, things aren't so bad.
It's possible. It depends on what strain you're smoking. But
look at Bob Marley. He was like get up and
uh you know the other thing, Uh stand up? Yeah,
but he was also like, let's go kick the soccer
ball around. Yeah. Um pod also made him invincible when

(56:27):
he was shot. Is Bob Marley shot. Oh yeah, he
saw that documentary. It was really good. I just forgot
that part. I don't remember why, but somebody tried to
assassinateh he got shot with and managed to live. Yeah, yeah,
would someone killed Bob Marley. I was just listening to uh,
Talking Blues this past weekend and Emily was like, why
is he talking so much in between the songs and

(56:50):
what language is that? And I went, he's talking because
these were studio sessions. It's called Talking Blues and he's
speaking English. Is just very heavily excent it. Yeah, you know,
like you need a subtitle almost we should do one
on Bob Marley. I think you're right man. Have you
ever heard his Dortmund Germany show from I think it's great.

(57:13):
It's not just one of the greatest Bob Marley shows,
not just one of the greatest reggae shows. It is
one of the greatest live shows of all time. Yeah,
check it out. Why that one? It just you know,
when you see a live show every once in a while,
everything they came together, just comes together. And it just
happened to converge on Bob Marley and the Whalers and Dortmund,
Germany in nineteen eighty. It was amazing. Yeah, I was

(57:35):
at a show like that about a month ago. Should show, No, No, No,
just Albert Hammond Jr. But it was just you catch
someone on the right Friday night and the crowd, everything
just kind of came together to where you could see
the band look at each other going like, what is
going on tonight? You know? It was just one of
those things. I'm sorry I missed that show. I would

(57:55):
like to see you. I interviewed him for movie Crush.
Oh when is that coming out in the next couple
of weeks. I can't wait to hear it. Yeah, he's
an interesting eye, I'm sure. Yeah. Okay, So where were
are we done here? Which do we need to know?
We need to talk about what's going on today? That's right.
I brought us up to today basically the idea that

(58:17):
Kim Jong un, now that he has everything he wants,
would just turn his back on it. It makes zero sense, dude,
So what is going on? I don't know? Okay, Well,
how about this? Um let's talk about Up till two
days ago, there were there were basically four um ways

(58:38):
of dealing with North Korea that had been discussed and
bandied about. Did you read that Mark Bowden article? Yes, Okay,
so you know these four four prongs basically, I guess
that would be that'd be part of the last the
last one. Yeah, but their prevention, turning the screws, decapitation

(59:04):
and acceptance. Where where does patient what was obamas jam patients? Um?
That could be conceivably part of turning the screws because
it's sanctioned heavy. It's also in a way part of acceptance,
depending on your take on it. But there were there
were a couple that we need to talk about. Real quick.
Prevention is a full on an attack on North Korea,

(59:30):
a preemptive attack on North Korea. And here's why no
one did that yet. No one's done that. It would
be a devastating loss of life. There would be literally millions,
if not tens of millions of people who died in
the handful of hours the first day following that attack.

(59:50):
They would be people who lived in Seoul, which is
forty minutes south of the d m Z, and they
would be people in Tokyo and elsewhere in Japan. They
would just they would die. Because the North Koreans have
not just nuclear warheads that are capable of hitting Soul
in Tokyo, right, So right there, you've got fifty million people,
more more than fifty million people, almost sixty if not more, UM,

(01:00:14):
who are just vulnerable in two cities. They also had
eight thousand what they call big guns, which could just
rain our chillery down on Soul for as long as
they were allowed to stay in intact. They also have
nerve gas and chemical agents and biological agents enough to
kill many, many millions of people just by releasing this gas.

(01:00:37):
We don't really have any means of of defense against
a gas attack, which is one of the reasons why
chemical and biological agents are just internationally outlawed. But if
you're a hermit kingdom, you don't have to play by
those rules. So the fact that they have had all
of the stock pilot at least since is the reason
why no one has just gone in and taken out

(01:00:58):
North Korea, because it would result in a huge loss
of life that just could not be um morally defended. Yeah,
I mean, geographically it's so unique, Um, like you said,
with Soul being right there, there's just no way around it.
The I mean, the the brightest military minds have tried
to construct ways to do this, and it's just not possible.

(01:01:19):
It's just not so. So prevention is basically like, we
can't do that, which is one reason why Donald Trump's
bellicosity really made a lot of people nervous, because it
made some observers think, oh god, he might go for
the prevention um choice, which is not okay. Right. There's
also turning the screws, which is basically like a series

(01:01:41):
of drawn out attacks with pauses in between to let
North Korean know this is not the prevention. But um,
we're still going to hurt you. But it would leave
Kim Jong hoon in power on purpose to keep stability
in the country. There's decapitation like assassination, yes, yeah, and
that that's just tough to do. Um. Well, first of all,

(01:02:03):
the U S supposedly doesn't sanction assassination like this. I
think the rest of the world would kind of be
like on this one. But at least the way this
writer sees it is that any assassination attempt would require
at least some kind of inner circle cooperation. Um. And

(01:02:26):
that's just impossible, they say, right, They're they're so dedicated
that they even one person wouldn't be a turn code no,
and even if they could get them, these people are
so surveiled and watched that they would be Yeah, it
would be. And then the last one is acceptance, the
idea that we would just have to live with the

(01:02:47):
idea of North Korea being a member of the nuclear States,
and that's just that. The idea with acceptance is that
then you create a framework to de nuclearize them, um
by continuing with sanctions, by using carrots and sticks, and
and hope that they will end up behaving enough that

(01:03:08):
you can keep them from using their nukes. So here
we are today with a complete about face, and a
lot of people say, okay, what's going on? And from
what I understand, the talk is that South Korea is
now headed by a president who's a liberal human rights lawyer,
correct Moon jay En, and um the South Koreans and

(01:03:30):
the North Koreans. We'd like to think of South Koreans
as our allies, and they are, but they're also Koreans
and North Koreans and South Koreans. They're Koreans, yeah, and
they have family that are on the other side, right.
So to be a Korean and say we want to
just reunite, we want to end this this war first
of all, but we want to reunite. To do that

(01:03:54):
at the expense of the U. S having a post there,
you could see South Korea being like, okay, let's figure
this out. The problem is that leaves Japan extremely vulnerable
because don't forget, Korea was a colony of Japan as recently. UM,
and the US would very much like to have a
presence on the Korean peninsula UM either way, and North

(01:04:16):
Korea just wouldn't put up with that. So is that
the case? Because I don't see any scenario where the
US are just like, all right, well we're out of here.
Then you guys, good, we're out of here. Right. I
don't either, but I don't Also, I also don't see
North Korea saying yeah, we'll unify and US you can
stick around. It's going to be a very interesting few weeks.
It certainly is. And we could talk about North Korea

(01:04:38):
for ten more hours. But if you want to know
more about it, just start looking into it. It's a
fascinating country. Or go visit. Oh wait, you can't know,
you can't not anymore. No, Uh, let's see you got
anything else right now? Okay, Well, we said North Korea
in there, I think once or twice, which means it's
time for listener. Man, I'm gonna call this Walrus correction. Hey,

(01:05:02):
guys a little behind recently listen to Walrus podcast. It's
very exciting to hear some familiar places and names because
I've just gotten back from the Arctic in the last month.
I'm working towards my PhD studying Arctic sea ice, and
I spent six weeks in Small Bard recently. Yeah, I
know Chuck was excited to talk about as Alaska friend,

(01:05:22):
but now you can say you have another Arctic friend,
even if I technically live in Colorado. So, um, we
got something a little wrong here emailing you because, um,
you guys said Walruss can survive water down to negative
four uh, and then Chuck said even down to negative

(01:05:42):
fifty nine fahrenheit. I'm pretty sure you meant air, because water,
even with a lot of salt, does not get that
cold without freezing, certainly not below twenty degrees. I stand
by negative anyway. I've been listening since two thousand nine,
back when I was a baby scientist just working on
my undergraduate degree. Still love the podcast. I wish your

(01:06:05):
Denver shows didn't sell out so fast. That's from Erica Schreiber.
That's it, that's it, all right, you left just hanging there.
Have you ever been in a car where like you
pressed the brakes, but the the it doesn't fully complete
and you just kind of roll to a stop and
it feels like you haven't really fully stopped, but you're
not moving any longer. I have no idea what you mean.

(01:06:26):
That means you have bad breaks? No, it just means
like a weird twist of fate happened. It's it's possible.
You don't lurch to a stop at all. That's what
you just did with that listener mail. Thanks a lot, Erica,
glad to hear that you made it back safe and
thanks for listening. And if you want to get in
touch with us, you can tweet to us at s

(01:06:46):
Y s K podcast or Josh M Clark or movie Crush.
You can hang out with us at Facebook dot com
slash Stuff you Should Know or Facebook dot com slash
Charles W. Chuck Bryant. You can send us an email
to Stuff Podcast to how Stiff works dot com and
has always joined us their home on the web, Stuff
you Should Know dot Com for more on this and

(01:07:09):
thousands of other topics, visit how stuff Works dot com.
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