Discussion summary
Discussions about North Korea include perspectives on propaganda, regime criticism, and potential military threats. Some users highlight the regime's nuclear capabilities and international reactions.
What the discussion says
- Some believe North Korean propaganda is pervasive and question its authenticity.
- Critics argue the regime causes suffering for 26 million people and call for intervention.
- Others cite nuclear deterrence as a reason for the lack of military action.
“North Korea is maligned by U.S. propaganda, but some visitors have positive experiences.”
“The regime's nuclear capabilities deter intervention, despite suffering of its people.”
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- Hacker News
- Playing golf in North Korea sounds crazy.by orphereus
- Why? Because the poor are starving? North Korea has ultra-wealthy ... it works a bit differently but there is massive inequality, and there is extreme wealth.by spwa4
- For another interesting perspective, folks should check out Crossing the Line - https://youtu.be/W3L1JemU8hA?is=3SQszuI5s45z7i2W
It’s about 3 (I think? Been a while since I watched) US soldiers that defected to NK during the Korean War. One dude stayed for decades and defended NK intensely in this doc, going so far as to star in propaganda movies against the US while he was there. Wild stuff
by Forgeties79 - (2021) Previous discussion in 2024: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40937973
- Seems a problem with the site not loadingby justinhj
- Based on the topic, this could be intentional.by SvenL
- HN effectby lgcmo
- Man, what's going on with this site that makes every phrase "North Korea" into a link about playing golf there? Some kind of self-link-auto-enhancement plugin gone nuts?by phyzome
- > Could you go out on your own for a walk?
> Surprisingly yes.
> Did you get many opportunities to travel within the country?
> Surprisingly yes.
And surprisingly title is: "How To Survive 3 Years in NK"
These people are so biased, they show that bias even when they don't have anything bad to say. Poor people in that country might say how to survive, but not a member of diplomatic corpus
by throwaw12 - Sounds more like what he had to survive was the sheer boredom.by phyzome
- - how is life in north korea?
- can't complain!
by mito88 - A diplomatic mission established for the sake of establishing it and staff making the best out of their time there I can somewhat understand, but not tourism into DPRK for the "curious" and leaving money in that state. Going there to play golf would feel like visiting Pol Pot's Cambodia because they have good forest hikes, just be careful not to slip on all the blood seeping out of the ground.
As to the lack of fear of physical harm, this was reported from a very privileged position where that safety was guaranteed by the clearly willing host. As a civilian visitor I wouldn't feel that confident. One odd look or an unfortunate question an official didn't take a liking to, will get you into questioning. So I'm told.
by wowczarek - There's still a large difference in the danger posed between an Iraq stationing and NK even as a generic tourist. You're much more at risk of angering the locals and becoming a political token if something should happen while you were there in NK but unless they were there before the US invasion there's a lot bigger threat of non-government groups attacking you in Iraq.by rtkwe
- "North Korea’s border with South Korea is a disputed border as both countries claim the entirety of the Korean Peninsula." - I did not know South Korea felt this way!by runamuck
- South Korea sounds like Ireland. Ireland has a constitutional “firm will” to reunite the island, and people living in Northern Ireland (a part of the UK) can get Irish citizenship.
- Can't open the article, so maybe it was already mentioned. But not only does South Korea claim the entire Peninsula, they even consider North Koreans as South Korean citizens.by looperhacks
- I was fascinated to learn while visiting they consider themselves ‘at war’ and generations from a unified time still strongly believe in the cause.
In tech specifically this leads to some surprising results such as transit planning being very ineffective or broken in google maps due to onshore data storage requirements. Subway alignments are regarded as sensitive info
- That does sound a bit agressive. To be clear, South Korea doesn't so much 'claim the entirety of the Korean Peninsula' as much as it aims to unify the entire peninsula into a single country through peaceful means (at least, since the military government left power in the late '80s).
This article is also from 2021 and things have changed a bit in the North. North Korea changed their constitution a couple of years ago and removed any mention of unification with the South, and defined their territory as basically the existing North/South split (aka 38th parallel). South Korea has been redefined from 'partner in national unity' to 'enemy to be destroyed, by nuclear weapons if need be'.
There's a lot of pretty interesting analysis of North Korea at the 38 North blog (https://www.38north.org/), among other good sources.
by kjs3 - FWIW, this is no longer true for North Korea: a few years back they removed all references to reunification from the constitution and designated South Korea as an enemy state. They even refer to it by its South Korean name now (Hanguk/Daehanminguk), instead of the previous Namchoson.
- by rwmj
- My corp firewall blocks archive dot ph
https://web.archive.org/web/20250409223505/https://mydiploma...
by peaseagee - Most interesting observation:
> When serving in Iraq or Iran, my biggest fear in those places was always the threat of physical harm, be it ambushes on our person or vehicles, being kidnapped, rocket or mortar attacks on our embassy or accommodation. There were close shaves and the threat and the fear never left you in all of these places. But as far as life in North Korea was concerned, there were none of these fears. Serving in North Korea gave you this strange feeling of being cut off, isolated and very insular and perversely at the same time “safe.”
by josefresco - I am not surprised that NK will be perceived as safer and more isolated than Iraq.by tuwtuwtuwtuw
- The sentiment about NK echoes my sentiment about my visits to China in recent years.by zatkin
- I remember one Polish diplomat recalling that his boss told him "I am sending you to the safest outpost in the world" when offering him embassy in North Korea.by jacekm
- Why is it interesting observation?
When one invades the country, they of course won't feel safety (like in Iraq), but when they dont invade country, of course it feels safe, because no one is bombing and shooting locals
by throwaw12