• Harashi@jlai.lu
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    10 hours ago

    Ok, so western press exagerates or tell straight up lies on details and defectors could not be trusted everytime, but they tell coherent stories. Besides, there is a difference between wanting to be buried in your homeland and wanting to return live there. The situation might be not as bleak as commonly told in the West and I will check some of the links you provided when I’ll have time, but I still think we have enough proofs to see that NK is not a great country to live and that its government is at fault. I am not an expert on this, but I have a simple question. You wrote :

    As the US Empire’s influence wanes, the DPRK will increase trade and interaction with the world, increasing accurate information

    So why is it so difficult for foreign journalists to comme to NK ? If NK’s situation is as good as you suggest, why not showing it ? Just for the sake of shuting the mouth of western criticism ? Why the few ones who could go there are restricted to Pyongyang ? What could possibly justify to hide the truth about the country if this truth is actually good, or even not as bad as told ? You say foreign exchanges are possibles with Russia, China or Cuba, three country that share views, to put it like that, with NK about the handling of press and information. I do not think this is reliable. In absence of more trustworthy sources, I consider that the coherent reports told by people who actually went there and were of different horizons (defectors, some journalists of different countries) could be at least partially trusted. It would be extremly unlikely that NK turns out to be a socialist paradise that was hidden from us. I do not know if you consider Reporters Without Borders as another capitalist spawn because it has its headquarters in a western country (France), but its survey of press freedom in NK is explicit. So again, why not showing to us westerners how much we are wrong ?

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      10 hours ago

      Ok, so western press exagerates or tell straight up lies on details and defectors could not be trusted everytime, but they tell coherent stories

      They don’t actually tell coherent stories. Just check Yeonmi Park, whose absurd claims are eadily debunked. My point is that defectors are paid to tell outlandish stories.

      but I still think we have enough proofs to see that NK is not a great country to live and that its government is at fault.

      This is absurd. The DPRK had 80% of its buildings destroyed in the Korean War, along with 20% of their population. In the 90s, their biggest trading partner was dissolved. Throughout all of this, extremely brutal sanctions have been placed on then. Like Cuba, their shortcomings are overwhelmingly due to the harsh embargoes.

      So why is it so difficult for foreign journalists to comme to NK ?

      It isn’t, really, just western journalists. Part of this is due to the DPRK being rightfully suspicious of western sabateurs, and part of this is due to western countries restricting their own travel there.

      If NK’s situation is as good as you suggest, why not showing it ?

      They do, though the west usually claims everyone is “acting” or other such nonsense.

      In absence of more trustworthy sources

      Why is publicly owned news media unreliable? This inherent distrust of public media over private reeks of chauvanism.

      I consider that the coherent reports told by people who actually went there and were of different horizons (defectors, some journalists of different countries) could be at least partially trusted.

      Then watch My Brothers and Sisters in the North, from a journalist that had to give up her ROK citizenship. Won awards in Germany. Also, check Sally Yin’s twitter posts, showing daily life in various cities in the DPRK.

      It would be extremly unlikely that NK turns out to be a socialist paradise that was hidden from us.

      It isn’t a paradise. Embargoes and sanctions have dramatically stunted development. It is, however, extremely resiliant and regularly improving.

      I do not know if you consider Reporters Without Borders as another capitalist spawn because it has its headquarters in a western country (France), but its survey of press freedom in NK is explicit. So again, why not showing to us westerners how much we are wrong ?

      Reporters Without Borders is western biased, and the fact that private, capitalist press is restricted in a socialist country isn’t anything new. The fact is, you don’t trust anything reported by the DPRK itself, such as KCNA, nor even outlets like South China Morning Post, which ran a report on Pyongyang’s expansion.