Rare look inside North Korea's society

BanguIzai SG

A new set of photos provides a special glimpse into one of the world's most secretive nations.

In this April 21, 2011 photo, men operate a manual rail car on tracks running along the West Sea barrage near Nampho, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 13, 2011 photo, North Korean soldiers, foreground, and North Korean traffic police, background, tour the birthplace of Kim Il Sung to pay their respects at Mangyongdae, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 15, 2011 photo, families have their photographs taken in front of the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang, North Korea. The palace, which was the official residence of Kim Il Sung until his death in 1994, is now a mausoleum where his embalmed body lies in state. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, JULY 24, 2011 AND THEREAFTER - In this Tuesday, April 17, 2011 photo, two North Korean soldiers walk along a road and past a small village near the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas outside of Kaesong, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this March 9, 2011 photo, a girl plays the piano inside the Changgwang Elementary School in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 19, 2011 photo, a waitress is reflected in a mirror inside a hotel restaurant in Mount Myohyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 18, 2011 photo, men ride bicycles at the end of a work day in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 18, 2011 photo, a statue known as the Monument to the Three Charters for National Reunification, which symbolizes the hope for eventual reunification of the two Koreas, arches over a highway at the edge of Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 15, 2011 photo, a girl takes a photo of her friends who were dancing at an event to mark the birthday of Kim Il Sung at a park in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 17, 2011 photo, people go about their daily routines south of Pyongyang along the highway leading to the southern city of Kaesong, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 13, 2011 photo, workers carry painted doors along a road in Mangyongdae, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 12, 2011 photo, a European tourist photographs a North Korean woman working at the airport as a North Korean Air Koryo flight arrives from Beijing, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 13, 2011 photo, a professional photographer takes a souvenir picture for visitors to the birthplace of Kim Il Sung at Mangyongdae, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 13, 2011 photo, people stroll along the Taedong River in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 13, 2011 photo, flowers known in North Korea as "Kimilsungia" are displayed next to a small replica of the Kim Il Sung mausoleum at an flower exhibition in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 21, 2011 photo, a girl carries a flower through a memorial cemetery in Pyongyang, North Korea, for men and women who died fighting against the Japanese occupation. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

This April 21, 2011 photo shows a multi-lane highway empty of vehicles near Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 13, 2011 photo, two female North Korean soldiers hold hands as they tour the birthplace of Kim Il Sung at Mangyongdae, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 12, 2011 photo, a car drives along a street at night in central Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 13, 2011 photo, a guard reflected in a window stands by the entrance to a hall where organizers held an exhibition of the flowers known in North Korea as Kimjongilia and Kimilsungia, in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 15, 2011 photo taken through a bus window, a North Korean traffic police woman stands on the side of the street in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this March 8, 2011 photo, a colorful, decorated sheet covers a bed inside the Koryo Hotel in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 16, 2011 photo, plates of food sit on a customer's table at a fast food restaurant inside an amusement park in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this March 9, 2011 photo, a statue of Kim Il Sung sits in the entrance to the Grand People's Study House in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this March 9, 2011 photo, a shadow of the 170-meter (560-foot) Juche Tower is cast over the Taedong River in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

This April 12, 2011 photo shows central Pyongyang, North Korea at dusk through a hotel room window. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this March 10, 2011 photo, children look through a subway car window in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 21, 2011 photo, a woman sits at a small table selling snacks on the roadside along the West Sea Barrage near Nampho, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 20, 2011 photo, hikers rest at a small pagoda along a trail on Mount Myohyang in North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this March 9, 2011 photo, stuffed animals are on display at Changgwang Elementary School where they are used for biology classes in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 13, 2011 photo, an illustration of a building project hangs in front of the construction project in progress in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

This April 12, 2011 photo shows central Pyongyang, North Korea at dusk. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this March 10, 2011 photo, men read a newspaper on public display inside a subway station in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 19, 2011 photo, people walk and use bicycles to cross a railroad bridge over a riverbed north of Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 22, 2011 photo, a woman looks at monkeys behind a glass enclosure at the central zoo in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 14, 2011 photo, a children's choir performs in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 12, 2011 photo, a shadow is cast across a parking lot as a man walks by a row of imported cars in central Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 16, 2011 photo, people react on a ride at an amusement park in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 19, 2011 photo, North Korean workers rebuild the roof of a structure at the Pohyon Temple at the foot of Mount Myohyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this March 9, 2011 photo, people work on library computers at the Grand People's Study House in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea is undergoing a digital revolution of sorts, even as it holds some of the strictest cyberspace policies in the world. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 13, 2011 photo, people work on library computers at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea is undergoing a digital revolution of sorts, even as it holds some of the strictest cyberspace policies in the world. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this March 10, 2011 photo, workers at a brewery operate their section of the facility from computers in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea is undergoing a digital revolution of sorts, even as it holds some of the strictest cyberspace policies in the world. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 14, 2011 photo, a man works on a computer at a museum in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea is undergoing a digital revolution of sorts, even as it holds some of the strictest cyberspace policies in the world. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this March 9, 2011 photo, a woman works on a library computer at the Grand People's Study House in Pyongyang, North Korea. North Korea is undergoing a digital revolution of sorts, even as it holds some of the strictest cyberspace policies in the world. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this April 15, 2011 photo, a city tram carries passengers in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

In this March 10, 2011 photo, a bowl of traditional North Korean cold noodles, known as Naengmyeon, sits on a restaurant table in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

alize SG

You better learn to use a protractor.

Or else you won't be able to fend off an attack by a fleet of U.S. military tanks.

That's the message in this North Korean cartoon, "Pencil Rocket," made for the purpose of teaching kids how to use a protractor.

Rife with hostility and anti-U.S. sentiment, this piece of propaganda may be just the thing North Korean youngsters are eating for breakfast.

(Read "North Korean kindergarten no joke," for another window onto North Korean youngsters at school.)

In the cartoon, a kid falls asleep while doing his homework. In his dream, a U.S. fleet attacks but he can't retaliate because he can't set the angle correctly on his pencil rocket.

Marmot's Hole blog has an in-depth plot summary, though the video below speaks for itself:

The main character, Seok-Pil, is trying to catch a rabbit in the forest when a friend mocks him by saying, “All you do is draw those pig-headed American bastards in class and now here you are playing war all by yourself.” He then returns home and sits at his desk. The homework he has to do is on how to use a protractor. Seok-Pil is inciting his will to fight by drawing an American military helmet with the letters U.S. written on it in his textbook when he suddenly falls asleep.

In his dream the U.S. fleet is coming to attack. He and his friend try to defeat the U.S. soldiers by firing a rocket they have made from pencils, but they continue to fail because they can’t correctly set the angle. This is because they didn’t know how to use the protractor. Finally Seok-Pil awakes after suffering the counter-attacks of the American fleet. Seok-Pil states that he “realizes that he needs to study hard in class and listen to his teachers to become a good soldier of the people.” This leads into some math practice on accurately setting the center axis when measuring angles on the protractor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-fEQBKvZfo