Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/08/24/north-korea-invites-russians-t.html
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To any Russian visiting there: Don’t try to return with any selfie-foodie pictures by that one flavored ice stand in Kim Il-sung square; you’ll be accused of espionage.
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To be fair, their police departments don’t have a single reported instant of crime against tourists 
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NK ain’t on my bucket-list.
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if North Korea could partner with United Airlines on a special vacation offer I’m sure they would create a truly epic customer experience together.
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Cowabunga!
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Come for the oppression but stay for the famine.
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Almost snorted out my bottled water on that one!
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More like “Stay because you’re in a gulag. You’re Russian, right? We hear you people love gulags.”
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Up for some snowboarding? Skiing? Heavily monitored state sanctioned “happy hours”? Da?
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For out-of-favour oligarchs or ex-diplomats it may well be safer than London.
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I don’t know, that sounds plausible. I was given to understand that authoritarian regimes are often pretty good at suppressing street crime, as they have large numbers of police working within looser constraints (no piffling worries about due process or innocence until guilt is proven). And it sounds like you get your very own bodyguard-cum-babysitter, as an added deterrent to any North Korean hood who might otherwise be tempted to let his enthusiasm for his job overcome his natural caution about upsetting the state’s latest scheme to raise foreign currency.
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Only NK can take the fun out of a beer festival. I imagine a bunch of somber-faced people standing around drinking government-brewed swill under the watchful eye of a military escort.
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Safer than London? As long as you keep your hands off those tempting hotel propaganda posters 
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Here’s a video of the first North Korean beer festival last year.
The Economist said that North Korean Taedonggang beer was better than mass market South Korean beers such as OB or Hite, which are capitalist-brewed swill.
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Beer is one of the things that governments find hard to fuck up. Even politicians need a drink at the end of the day.
“To all you Westerners scoffing at our invitation to vacation in North Korea: we didn’t invite you. Hmph.”
– North Korea probably
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They probably share the hotel bed with you. All six of them.
Damned if I remember where, but I once saw scans of a 70s-era tourist brochure from NK aimed at Soviet tourists. One of the places you’d have no trouble getting permission to visit.
Also remember reading, maybe in the mid 80s, an article about the Kim family personality cult. Big daddy was still alive back then. The asked a Russian diplomat what he thought about the regime, and his response was something like “it’s . . . not normal.”
