• Ho_Chi_Chungus [she/her]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Cross most well guarded border on earth

    Realize that it sucks

    Go back

    :chad: Real chad shit

  • CylonZebra [he/him,comrade/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I could be wrong, but from what I've heard this happens quite often, defectors from the DPRK don't have a lot of job prospects in ROK (other than shilling) so they return to DPRK.

    • emizeko [they/them]
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      South Korea will also open fire on its own citizens if they attempt to cross the DMZ north

    • ssjmarx [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      SK prevents them from leaving the country, which is why this person getting back to the North was such a big deal.

      • Alaskaball [comrade/them]
        hexagon
        A
        ·
        4 years ago

        They'll shoot you if you try to cross back, they'll deny you passports and travel rights out of country, they will do anything and everything to keep north korean citizens trapped in the south.

    • Alaskaball [comrade/them]
      hexagon
      A
      ·
      4 years ago

      Either that or starve to death because they live in a capitalist hellhole

    • Alaskaball [comrade/them]
      hexagon
      A
      ·
      4 years ago

      well thats why we have a vid-doc made in the free south that interviews the citizens of the DPRK that sadly don't make the cut for all of the entertainment shows that talks about how barbaric and brutal the north is.

      Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul

    • TankieTanuki [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      their quotes from the video make it sound like she’s coerced

      Which quotes? How so?

        • TankieTanuki [he/him]
          ·
          edit-2
          4 years ago

          She was a TV personality, of course she ate. Highlighting that south korea doesn’t actually have a lot of food is a really weird thing to say.

          She appeared on a TV show because that's often the only job that a North Korean defector can get. They probably gave her a few hundred dollars at most. She's not a wealthy celebrity. Most North Koreans have a hard time landing a job in the south. Poor people in every capitalist country are food insecure. I find her statement 100% believable, especially given the recent documented case of a North Korean defector who starved to death in her apartment in Seoul.

          And then there’s this

          Lim - who described herself as “human trash”

          That sounds to me like she's depressed. I figure most people who are motivated to flee a country which they consider a hell-hole would be depressed.

            • TankieTanuki [he/him]
              ·
              4 years ago

              they all call her a “TV personality” and highlight her appearanceS on tv. (She was on reality shows, did interviews, was on talk shows, etc)

              North Koreans are placed on TV in South Korea the same way that a boy who eats cockroaches is placed on Jerry Springer's studio in America, as freaks to gawk at. Do you think that every person who is interviewed on a daytime talk show is wealthy?

                • REallyN [she/her,they/them]
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  Nothing in the article she said implies she was "starving".
                  Just that South Korea wasn't what she thought...which could mean anything.

                • TankieTanuki [he/him]
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  Did you learn this stuff from a different article? This one just says she was "forced to appear on South Korean television to make the North appear more miserable than it actually was."

                  Maybe she was rich and famous; it's possible. All I'm saying is that it's not at all guaranteed given what I know about most defectors. If she was unable to find a job except for a couple token interviews, that would still make her a "TV personality", but she could still have trouble making rent in Seoul.

        • SolidaritySplodarity [they/them]
          ·
          4 years ago

          That's quite a reach on your part. Ask yourself why coercion is the first place your mind went and on a scale from 8-10 how much of a role anti-communist propaganda played in that reaction.

            • SolidaritySplodarity [they/them]
              ·
              4 years ago

              You've (1) inventively extrapolated from "I thought I'd live and eat well" to "they said they were starving despite being a TV celeb" (with all kinds of false assumptions about how the South Korea detector exploitation TV industry works) and (2) interpreted self-deprecation of the kind you'd literally see on this exact website as suggestive of coercion.

              This is absurd and it's problematic to reach for anti-communist tropes so easily and without coherence. Please try to restrain yourself from feeding such crap through ridiculous speculation.

              In your hurry to defend north korea from imperialist propaganda

              Unless you're (correctly) calling your own words imperialist propaganda, this is not describing anything I've said to you.

                • SolidaritySplodarity [they/them]
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  Oh do try to dig yourself out of your own ass, you seem to have gone too far up there.

                  Reddit tier faux condescension has no place here. Kindly go fuck yourself until you've figured out how to talk to other people.

                  Now see, I read your comments before saying anything and no, you actually did lead with these insinuations and then doubled down on them. If you meant something else, that's on you for failing to communicate because no fewer than three separate people (100% of responses) have the same understanding as I do.

                  Are you capable of any self-crit whatsoever?

                • TankieTanuki [he/him]
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  4 years ago

                  I am talking about how articles about this take quotes out of context to present a narrative

                  That's true, but Deutsche Welle is a German state media outlet which seeks to present the narrative "North Korea bad", so I doubt the context would make things seem worse (although I'd like to see the video too).

                  Edit: Oh, maybe that's what you've been trying to say all along lol. I see you edited your original comment for clarity.

        • 420blazeit69 [he/him]
          ·
          4 years ago

          eat and live well there

          This could mean "eat well and live well," depending on how you read it (and the translation). If all she had was a low-paying job with high living expenses, eating well may have been an issue.

  • ThomasMuentzner [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    edit-2
    4 years ago

    watch "CRASHLANDING ON YOU" its on netflix and its a perfect apolitical romatication of North Korea to Trojan horse it to everybody to spark interest...

    (and the Main Actors are together now)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUThdaetvno :comfy:

  • Azarova [they/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Other defectors have reappeared in the North to be displayed on similar programs, prompting speculation they were kidnapped by Pyongyang

    It really is all projection, isn't it? This is exactly what the south does to DPRK citizens

    • Alaskaball [comrade/them]
      hexagon
      A
      ·
      edit-2
      4 years ago

      lot of those shows are funded by libertarian think tanks that pay their guests at a ratio of more money for more ridiculous stories. Which is why you hear of horror stories of things like "I was born in a concentration camp and was raised as a literal animal not understanding speech or words", or "My mother gave birth to me on a bed of concrete rubble, rebar, and glass shards"

      • TankieTanuki [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Yeah. The Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang documentary really blows the lid on that sham industry. One television producer told a woman that her defection story wasn't fantastical enough to air, so they offered her a script.

      • Oni [any,comrade/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        You can track certain defectors stories and see how they grow more and more harrowing, insane, and contradictory over time, exact same thing with """Xinjiang survivor""" testimonies too.