Word: koreanized
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...fact, many Iraqis are also convinced Iran is the key player in Iraqi oil. In December, Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization sent a letter to a South Korean firm threatening to halt its crude oil allocation unless South Korean companies halt oil investment in the Kurdish regions of Iraq. The Kurds claim that Iran was behind the letter - just as they maintain that Iran is holding up an Iraqi oil law that would allow the Kurds to open their region to foreign investment. As far as the Kurds are concerned, Iran intends to monopolize every drop of oil exported...
This was made possible by a little-known NGO based in Europe called the Korean Friendship Association, which has created "friendship" (a.k.a. tourism) delegations for foreigners who want to catch a glimpse behind the curtain of the Hermit Kingdom. Anyone can apply?anyone, that is, with a passport that isn't from the U.S., Japan or South Korea. I turned in my application in September, and two months later I was in Beijing, where I plunked down $4,000 in cash for the 10-day trip. The next day my fellow travelers and I received our visas and boarded...
Before we arrived at our government-run hotel (which had authentic North Korean touches like no heat or hot water despite the freezing temperatures), our minibus stopped at a statue of the deceased Great Leader Kim Il Sung, where we were told to bow and present flowers. Being a tourist in North Korea was going to be even more bizarre than we had thought...
...unsettling habit of taking pictures of us at every tour stop, for reasons they never quite explained. Every once in a while they let slip information that made it obvious they were electronically monitoring our hotel rooms and phone calls. All in a day's work for a North Korean tour guide...
...there was a highlight to all this strangeness, it was our visit to the demilitarized North--South Korean border. It was there, of all places, that we expected to be on a leash. But in fact, we were freer there than we had been anywhere else?permitted to take pictures of the soldiers on guard and given enough space by our minders that we could have even made a dash for the South Korean border. I don't know if tourists have ever defected from North Korea, but after more than a week of constant surveillance and ceaseless propaganda?basically...