North Korea And Panorama Tonight

[DTCwordfan]

Who is watching?

(I am)

Do you agree with the BBC's position as to the LSE students?

(I don't - I think that there has been major duplicity here)

However the programme is too valuable (content allowing) not to show it.

Agree with that?

[237SJ]

No I don`t. The BBC hoodwinked the students into taking part. After the recent spotlight that has been on the Panorama programme, I`m surprised they still think that they can get away with murder. Now that the programme is made though, they might as well show it.

[Sharingan]

Agree with that.
If I had been one of the students concerned I would be livid and would be wanting more than the half arsed apologist nonsense I heard from the journalist in question. I think it was a terrible thing to do, but I will be watching lol.

[DTCwordfan]

are you watching though, SJ?

I almost had a visit up to the N-East - when N-K was showing signs of opening up, there was some consideration of my co opening up a distribution depot and marketing up there. And guess who had bridgeheaded Central China.......

Things turned for the worse, so it was off. A shame, as I have enjoyed visiting places like that. Culturally, even South Korea is strange in many ways to us Westerners.

[abstibus]

I'll be watching.
Have been close to the DRPK on the Yalu River. Depressing. The DPRK conscripts get their annual ration of pork on Kim Il Sung's birthday. Imagine the effect on bodies starved of nutrition the rest of the year.

[DTCwordfan]

The big thing, I guess, will be the dichotomy of Pyongyang and Kim Jong-un and his henchmen to the abject poverty/famine of the country (estimates of up to 3.,5 mln have died over the last eight years...) and then the subversiveness.

My theory of what will happen - as to regional hegemony, the Chinese may well go in and take KJ-u out to then split with South Korea in some format, the Japs and the Russians splitting the islands........the States and others don't want to see Russia on the peninsular.

[DTCwordfan]

Dandong I presume, anne - miserable place, never mind the mile away across the river.

[annieigma]

Stupid thing to do. NK leader is trying to convince, or has convinced, his army that the west and the whole world possibly, are all dodgy characters. this just adds more ammo to his cause. and to risk the lives of students, of any age, and to compromise the integrity of a respected solid establishment, the LSE, just to make a television programme is beyond sanity.

[237SJ]

No, I won`t be watching it DT. I`m taking it easy at the mo because I have a few other slightly worrying issues going on and don`t need any more grief. South Korea is doing quite well and business/air links are improving there. The best thing that can happen to North Korea is for someone to bump off Kim but of course, you have to replace him with someone if you do that.

[DTCwordfan]

Good luck SJ, hope things come good for you.....can understand that reaction.

I lived in China, visited South on a number of times (as well as Mongolia to the North), so interested despite the Beeb being plonkers and insensitive - and destroying the chance for others to visit countries like this, me fears. Goes against the ésprit of the Word Service perhaps....?

[abstibus]

Don't forget the huge mineral riches there. Winner takes all.

[DTCwordfan]

true, anne........very true

[DTCwordfan]

well was this worth the expense, risk and issues internationally, as well as the punch up that the Beeb now faces - No. 20.52 and I haven't seen anything new.

[LazyGun]

Did not catch all of it - was anything new or especially interesting revealed? Because given the fact that 3 students of the party now appear to have come forward to say that they were not properly informed of the risks by the BBC, I would say that this was an exercise they should not have done..

[DTCwordfan]

Agree Lazy Gun - it hasn't revealed anything new - was it worth compromising future student 'visits' to North Korea or elsewhere? Nope......

[Zacs-Master]

Very interesting prog. I found myself becoming angry at the oppression / starvation / manipulation and totalitarianism. Very stark. Imagine growing up and living all your life like that? I foresee a revolution.
Ps I couldn't give a toss either way about the students. They're whinging pales into insignificance against the real story.

[LazyGun]

I agree that the conditions in NK must be appalling, no question of that. I would question though whether putting students at risk and future academic visits and studies at tisk was worth it - I would have thought only had we learnt anything new - and apparently we didn't (although I only caught about 5 minutes of the show)

[modeller]

It reminded me of the 70/80s when I visited the USSR , but far worse. The same evasion, and hypnotic answers you get from people who know, , its nonsense. The lights going off and in the USSR suddenly there would be no water in the hotel. They can/will not face reality
I saw someone stabbed once and I told our minder 2/3 minutes later who said " You are mistaken we don't have crime in the USSR. "

[Sammy48]

I watched it, the hospital with no patients was very weird.

[Khandro]

Worth doing and showing, though Sweeny's judgemental, from the outset reporting, showed a lack of professionalism. Reporters like John Simpson or Jeremy Bowen would have given a more objective display of the facts as they saw them, and left us to draw our own (rather obvious) conclusions.

[emmie]

i hope that he gets sacked, they shouldn't have used the students as shields.
and no they shouldn't have showed it either, it might be important, but this sort of duplicity can cause war of words then worse, what were they thinking.