All stories about "North Korea"

Kim Jong-Il is getting into the hotel business. The communist leader is converting part of North Korea's Berlin embassy into a hostel in order to earn foreign currency. The Kim Jong Il-approved Cityhostel Berlin will offer 37 rooms for rent, and will charge 20 Euros ($31) per head a night. The hostel will also include a reception with a grand piano (we all know North Korea's "Dear Leader" loves classical music) and a Korean restaurant. It's due to open in May. [Bloomberg]

According to the U.S. State Department, China's human rights record is better, but still not great. No longer "one of the world's most systematic human rights violators," it's now considered "an authoritarian regime that denies its people basic human rights and freedoms, tortures prisoners and restricts the media." North Korea, Burma, Iran, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Belarus, Sudan and Uzbekistan continue to make the list for their poor human rights standards. And Syria just got "added because of its worsening record." [BBC]

"A huge cloud of choking dust is passing over South Korea." It's the first sandstorm of the year, the result of sand from China's Gobi Desert being blown over the Korea and Japan. Termed yellow dust, the storms "have become more deadly each year as they pass over China's industrial zones, picking up toxins." Parents have been advised to keep their children indoors in South Korea as a result of the effect that that toxins could have on the children's weaker immune systems. [BBC]

Looks like Kim Jong Il has a soft spot for classical music as well as cinema. The Communist leader has invited The New York Philharmonic into North Korea for an unprecedented performance, slated for tomorrow. The Philharmonic's concert will likewise be broadcast on North Korea's state-run television, "unheard of in the impoverished country, where events are carefully choreographed to bolster the personality cult of leader Kim Jong Il." Classical pianist and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's response on the matter: "I don't think we should get carried away with what listening to Dvorak is going to do in North Korea." [CNN]

Koryo Air, the North Korean run airline, is one of the more interesting carriers we've heard of. We were tipped off to it by entertainment lawyer cum travel blogger Paul Karl Lukacs, whose blog Knife Tricks documents his Asian travels while on hiatus from work. He just left for North Korea on Friday and took Koryo, one of the only two airlines in the world to receive only one star from Skytrax, an airline quality observer. According to Skytrax, one star indicates "very poor standards of product across all travel categories, with poor, inconsistent standards of staff service." Other fun facts about the airline:

Koryo Air's Unofficial Website
I Laugh, So That I do Not Shriek in Terror [Knife Tricks]

-- Amanda Kludt