No problem! Glad for the correction, I don't want my fellow Zambians to think that I am taking away the fame from them if any fame living in DPRK's Gulag

I heard (but could not confirm) that two sons of a west African deceased president were there for military training during the 90ties. I'm chasing that info down but I could not get names yet.

It looks like that my secondary job as become an investigative work to find Africans or anyone who lived or studied in North Korea. I even dedicated a page on my website http://www.niane.net in vain.

I am browsing social network sites, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter with names that sounds similar to the names of former students in the 80ties with no real luck.

However, yesterday, I found a Canadian with Slavic name who contacted me and told me that he was in Pyongyang in 2005. I sent him an email that he is yet to reply to.

I still want to cross check or confirm few things that occurred but have not clear recollection in my head, but need someone to help me out with pictures, memo paper, newspaper, or books.

By the way, I might be one of the rare students from North Korea being exposed. It was a toll to must student who remained hidden. We were about 80 students, no one could be found after 20 years. That is beyond any

I could not get back to DPR Korea despite my numerous requests for Visa in the late 80ties and early 90ties. I lost all my books in Korean and French language!

Cheers!

I will have to check out the RFA transcript. Do you know if African nations are still being given scholarships to send students to North Korea?

As per my co-op interview with Jodi Kiely posted on One Free Korea's website on May 28, 2009, it is stated that I am originally from the republic of Guinea not Zambia. Although I had 2 Zambian classmates.

At Wonsan University campus reserved to "African", were students from Zambia, Tanzania, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Ethiopia and Equatorial Guinea and Cambodgians who were moved to an undisclosed location.

We were granted free scholarship from the DPR Korean government in 1982 – 1987.

The most difficult thing any visitor to Pyongyang will find hard to believe is getting the truth out of North Korean guides or translators, because of the propaganda machine that obstructs any reality.

I spoke about that again in a radio interview with RFA journalist Ms. Soo Kyeung Lee. The interview with Korean language transcript is posted on Radio Free Asia's website. http://adjix.com/niwp

Every one of the most disgusting groups of people on earth do need to be looked at objectively and with some kind of "respect" to get the full picture. If you don't, you'll already have made up your mind and you'll just believe the sensationalist BS surrounding that group or an issue that the group is involved with.

It doesn't mean you have to respect them, it means when you want to understand them you have to forget about what you think you know and there's a lot of folks who don't know the first thing about Korea who's already got some kind of opinion about North Korea. Usually the Neocons seem to have the lowest level of understanding and the biggest opinion "WE" should strike (though they don't serve and never will serve in the military in any capacity).

The chemistry of serial killers is normal.

A crazy guy is like the Chinese guy who took off the head of a Chinese female student at VA Tech in January.

North Korea, as it functions, is lunacy.

Your follow up does not exactly mesh well with either the sentiment in the first or the Korean woman's quoted thought. Maybe it is an issue of wording. Or, maybe it is an issue of having a different tract or focus when formulating the rebuttal, I don't know…

Dismissing much of what is said about the North in the US or elsewhere as propaganda isn't a very good way to demand more attention to details.

In fact, it does the opposite: it tells people that the groups/nations offering the statements should be ignored because they can't be trusted to tell the truth.

As Gerry pointed out, that seems to be a rather harsh direction to shove people in due to quibbling over the examples you brought up.

And I return to my earlier key point: If anything —– judging by what experts know about North Korea (or anybody who has paid close attention —- and what gets widely reported (and not) in the US and West about those facts ————– the West is certainly NOT talking about the North as much as it SHOULD…

….and to call what they have been putting out "propaganda" only demands they become MORE silent on the VAST amount of human rights abuses that go on in North Korea as a matter of routine day-to-day, decade-to-decade.

That is why saying there is too much "propaganda" out there from the West concerning the "truth" about North Korea is so galling…

2) Just because someone says they're going to do something to you doesn't necessarily mean they will. The North Koreans haven't got the stomach (pardon the pun) to attack the South. They know if they do, they're finished.

They're issuing empty threats and the Press love to trumpet it up to get more people to read their stuff. It leads to people and perhaps even policy makers getting the wrong picture as to why North Korea issues threats all the time.

3) North Korea hasn't launched a terrorist attack in the longest time. They do assist others who are closely linked with terrorists but they do not go about funding, training and conducting terrorism themselves. If you'd like to go that far, you can argue that the US is a supporter of terrorism due to its Irish American population having supplied and funded the IRA directly.

Rational as in he knows what he's doing. It doesn't mean he's doing the right thing or he does what he believes is right. It just means that the chemical processes in his brain are working as it should, and if arrested at any point, an insanity plea would never work.

I did a study on serial killers (was a high school project for my psychology class)… about 10 years ago. But what surprised me the most was that these guys were often not crazy. They were rational, but they had this addiction to the game. They were also very smart, the average serial killer having a much higher IQ than the average Joe.

Kim Jong-il's survival depends on his power. In fact the survival of his family does. If he gives it up, the enemies in his country will come after him. That's why he will protect it at all costs. Launching a war against Korea means he's only going to speed up the process of him either getting arrested or having some North Korean General Officer shoot him in the back at some point.