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    • RedDawn [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      North Koreans can and do leave the country, it’s a bit more complicated since they’re in a state of war ever since the U.S. invaded them and killed a third of their people and then instituted decades of sanctions designed to destroy or starve out the country, which continues today. That doesn’t make them “literal prisoners”.

      Which country has the world’s most literal prisoners? By total and by percentage of population? The United States. You may not have known this, since you’re a very propagandized USian, but if you did know it, you may not think it’s so bad, because after all, in North Korea everyone is a prisoner, according to the propaganda you’ve been fed. Well then, no sense in complaining about the mass incarceration in your own country!

      Who is served by you being uninformed and brainwashed into believing ridiculous nonsense about America’s enemies?

      • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        What about the Koreans who have escaped and talked about Kim being a dictator? Why don’t you believe those refugees? They didn’t all go to the US either so you can’t say they were brainwashed by the US.

        • RedDawn [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          There are defectors, yeah. Most of them by the way just leave the country to China through the normal channels and then don’t go back, which kind of discredits the idea that there’s no way to leave the country in the first place.

          The ones who go to South Korea are generally held in prisons by the South Korean government and interrogated until they’re determined not to be spies, then treated as second class citizens by South Korean society. There is an industry around putting them on TV so they can talk about how horrible the north is, with clear incentive to exaggerate or invent claims as only the most exaggerated claims can keep you in the spotlight and possibly get you a big payday and an option other than being a second class citizen slaving away in poverty. It’s also illegal in South Korea to speak positively of the North or of Kim.

          There are also cases of people who defected from North Korea to South Korea and later decided they would rather return to the North. This is forbidden by the South Korea government, those people ate not granted passports and are barred from ever leaving the country. You can watch a documentary about these cases called the loyal citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul. https://youtu.be/3V4Hnl7J9H4?si=J5VTemHyz-EvEja5

          Idk which claims you think I “don’t believe” by these defectors but some are patently ridiculous like much of what Yeonmi Park has said, other claims are things that are probably true but again, difficult conditions in North Korea are largely the result of the U.S’ near genocidal war and sanctions regime against them in the first place, and much of what could be described as “authoritarian” is a response to the existential crisis imposed on them by said war and sanctions regime, and is necessary to prevent the destruction of their state (which it should be noted has far more legitimate origins than the South Korean state, itself established as a military dictatorship and puppet of the U.S.)

    • Plenty of North Koreans leave and live in China. The big reason it is so difficult for them to leave in general isn’t because they are being held prisoner there by the DPRK government, it’s because of restrictions imposed by the US and UN making it impossible for them to live most anywhere else.

      United States:

      “5. North Korean Overseas Workers (OP8): Requires countries to expel all North Korean laborers earning income abroad immediately but no later than 24 months later (end of 2019).”

      United Nations:

      “Strengthens the ban on providing work authorizations for DPRK nationals by requiring Member States to repatriate all DRPK nationals earning income and all DPRK government safety oversight attachés monitoring DPRK workers abroad within their jurisdiction within 24 months from 22 December 2017.”

      Meanwhile the DPRK has no official restriction on the people’s free movement.

      Thanks to @[email protected] for pointing this out a couple months ago, before which I didn’t know either.