North Korea's car industry is fucking insane.

"not for canada - australian in disguise" (for-canada)
09/19/2016 at 23:31 • Filed to: NORTH KOREA, NORTH KOREAN CARS, PYEONGHWA, SUNGRI, KAENSAENG 88, MERCEDES 190E, HYUNDAI, EXCEL, HYUNDAI EXCEL, VW PASSAT, GAZ POBEDA

We all know of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , by far NK’s most well known “contribution” to car culture. But there’s another car manufacturer. Or is there? Who the fuck knows! Enter Sungri.

This is their most famous model, a “clone” (we’ll get into that later) of the Mercedes 190E called the Kaengsaeng 88. There are only three known pictures of it, and they may be of the same car. One’s a rather clear colour picture of an orange one parked next to a brick wall.

One’s an extremely shitty black and white photo that I have no idea where it’s even from or why it exists. Rudimentary car show? Who the fuck knows.

And the third and final is a front shot photo of a red one.

The most baffling thing is, it’s rumoured that it might be a completely fake fake and that it’s just some 190 North Korean officials bought and put some badges on to convince North Koreans that their country builds cars, and good ones at that. I legitimately think that they just painted it red and slapped a new grille on it to convince people that there were several. It really doesn’t seem to far fetched.

(Fellow Oppo Jack Does Cars also did a writeup on the 88)

In a similar vein, there’s the Achimkoy, a copy of the GAZ Pobeda most likely produced in the fifties. Like the 190 copy it’s said only one exists as a prototype. Even less photos exist, only two this time. One colour which appears to be kinda recent, and one from the fifties or sixties which looks like utter shit. Like 1800s quality.

Then our third, final, and most mysterious car. The Jaju. Now, Wikipedia says it’s a Passat clone.

But after a Google image search, this is what I think the Jaju looks like. I have no idea if it actually is.

Scenery and picture quality all look decidedly North Korean. But there’s no badging and it could be just some photo that somebody took of a Hyundai Excel. Or it might be the mysterious Jaju. Who the fuck knows.

E: By closer inspection, this is probably an Isuzu I-Mark/Gemini. I followed the link that the picture was attached to and the Jaju was mentioned before the picture was posted in the thread. However they weren’t referring to the car, they were referring to a truck model.

http://forum.isurgut.ru/viewtopic.php%…

Or maybe this might be the Jaju. It appears that there’s a Pyeonghwa badge on the front. But this might not be the Jaju, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which either means the Hermit Kingdom has a time machine, or this isn’t the Jaju, or there’s two or more generations.

What a baffling fucking country. I truly hope something happens where the dictatorship gets overthrown and we somehow get unfettered access to whatever the fuck went on up there.

Absolute fucking insanity. The things you find while sodding about on Wikipedia and falling way too far down the rabbit hole that is North Korean cars.

DISCUSSION (23)

Sam > not for canada - australian in disguise
09/19/2016 at 23:41

Honestly, it’ll be an international crisis if the dictatorship falls. That is a ton of people to deprogram, most of whom would probably be defined as mentally disabled since they’ve never received even the most basic education. My guess is that if the ruling party falls, China will put another ruler in place.

LeftOfTheDial > not for canada - australian in disguise
09/19/2016 at 23:42

What a baffling fucking country. I truly hope something happens where the dictatorship gets overthrown and we somehow get unfettered access to whatever the fuck went on up there.

Oh man, when the leadership falls the stories are going to be unbelievable.

fhrblig > not for canada - australian in disguise
09/19/2016 at 23:45

That light blue hatch looks like an Isuzu I-mark/Gemini.

not for canada - australian in disguise > fhrblig
09/19/2016 at 23:49

I think you might be right.

C62030 > not for canada - australian in disguise
09/20/2016 at 00:02

How shitty does a car company have to be when they’re copying cars from the Communist Soviet Union? That’s like McDonald’s trying to make its burgers taste more like airplane food.

TheJWT > not for canada - australian in disguise
09/20/2016 at 00:02

I’m genuinely curious if there are car enthusiasts in North Korea.

dogisbadob > not for canada - australian in disguise
09/20/2016 at 00:04

I can see the IAMAUTO collab on this one :p

facw > Sam
09/20/2016 at 00:08

It’s no accident that Kim Jong-il’s oldest son lives in exile in China. He seems to be a garbage person (as you would expect), but I’m sure he would be a convenient puppet if things were looking bad enough to the Chinese.

66671 - 200 [METRIC] my dash > Sam
09/20/2016 at 00:28

Can you imagine if the US gets there nose in overthrowing it?!

Who knows though, it really is the only place of its kind these days, so bizarre...

Sam > 66671 - 200 [METRIC] my dash
09/20/2016 at 00:31

My guess is that our only involvement will be indirect by supporting the South Koreans, since they are on the front line.

mtdrift > not for canada - australian in disguise
09/20/2016 at 00:46

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

FTFY. But, seriously, what you’ve laid out here is a symptom of a much bigger problem.

mtdrift > mtdrift
09/20/2016 at 00:49

I can’t account for that fucking insane spacing. Must be North Korean hackers.

m-b-w loves his SUBAROO > not for canada - australian in disguise
09/20/2016 at 01:33

Kinja'd!!!

The second Jaju image is 100% just a rebadged 2012ish VW Jetta.

deprecated account > not for canada - australian in disguise
09/20/2016 at 03:33

Here’s a classic from the PS2 age

http://mercenaries.wikia.com/wiki/Jaju

Jaju!

BritishLeyland > not for canada - australian in disguise
09/20/2016 at 08:31

This is vile and undtrue western imperialist propaganda! The People’s Republic of North-Korea only assemble the best world class motor vehicles based on fundemental principle of Juche!