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What's going on in South Korea where someone in their 30s tried to get back to literally North Korea rather than stay? I know KPop is annoying, but cmon.
In South Korea? Nothing. But when you've been effectively institutionalized your entire life, adapting to a significantly freer society can be difficult or impossible.
Yeah, I bet he tried to run back because he was too free.
This is a well known issue with refugees of hyper-authoritarian places. NK refugees discuss this a lot. Like the other person said, this is a well known phenomenon with freed prisoners, too. Basically you spent so much time conforming to a very, very, specific way of living, that you are stuck in that mind frame. Without a lot of therapy you are likely to be unable to adjust. Just like people who have been in abusive households their whole lives, yet return to them, because they can't function, when they are in a freer circumstance.
This well understood issue.
Basically, yeah. Like I said, integration into society is difficult if you've been institutionalized. Going from a highly controlled and regimented life to one where you have to do everything yourself is difficult. I'm not surprised that some people reject it. We see the same thing when people get out of long prison terms.
South Korea famously treats defectors like shit when they are just working class people that want a better life instead of parroting ridiculous US State Dept propaganda.
"Once defectors make it to South Korea, often after a perilous journey across multiple countries, they go through interrogation by the government intelligence agency. Then they are sent to the main Hanawon complex in Anseong, 40 miles southeast of Seoul, to prepare for their new lives in the South.
The facility offers medical and psychiatric care. It teaches defectors about South Korean society and gender equality, and provides occupational training and counseling for skills including cooking, baking, nail art, skin care, clothes-making and mending, and long-term caregiving.
After completing the three-month program, defectors receive subsidies and housing benefits, as well as continued support from local centers to help them assimilate during their early years living in South Korea."
Doesn't sound like they treat them like shit. Sounds like they actually have a very efficient and well-funded system to welcome and integrate defectors.
Are you yourself working for North Korea or something? "OMG yeah North Korea so great, they treat you like shit in South Korea, definitely don't go there, the music is also bad."
I think the poster meant "they" as in South Korean society in general rather than the government.
When I was living over in Seoul, I volunteered at an organization that supported North Korean refugees. There were lots of native South Korean people there too. I imagine it's a mixed bag, similar to the US.
Actually he just had an exam coming up.
even VOA admit it
Amazing how few people know that VOA is literal US propaganda and are down voting you.
Wow you sure saw through our clever deception. What tipped you off, was it when we slipped up and called it "Voice Of America"? I knew people were gonna catch that...
Our?
You would be surprised how few people are aware that VOA is propaganda. They think it is something like NPR.
It is not.
Good job in knowing something most people don't?
What's with the sarcastic tone, again?
I imagine that, if you sat down and asked people "Is voice of america propaganda" you would get a whole bunch of people saying "is it? I didn't realize!". People are dumb about applying specific definitions, and propaganda is largely viewed as the stuff that comes out of leaflet bombs, or that gets played on loudspeakers in dingy german factories that Captain America is about to blow up. But, if you asked "Is VOA Biased" 97% of people will say "well yeah, duh, its called 'Voice of America'".
I truly do not believe your premise that there's huge swathes of people unaware that "Voice of America" is biased towards American interests. People are dumb, but they aren't so dumb as to be unable to read the damn name.
The only response that deserves your previous sarcasm is this one. There is a difference between federally funded news programs like NPR, and outright propaganda outlet with no journalistic standards like the VOA, but I can't believe you actually believe most people know that.
But hey, I guess informing people of that deserves an asshole amount of sarcasm.
My apologies, my initial comment was heavy-handed because I was writing with the apparent "lacks reading comprehension" demographic in mind, and I wanted to be sure they'd understand my scorn.
Now onto the "please just stop" portion of this: I think you're lacking some critical background here. VOA, though obviously incredibly biased from charter to name to office carpet, has a great deal of journalistic integrity. You can be a propaganda outlet and have a commitment to truthful reporting. If you want an example of that look to NPR, another openly biased news outlet, albeit one with a liberal-leaning bias towards the internal American issues it reports on most of the time. Both are propaganda, both do very good work reporting on US news and interests. That you don't know enough about VOA to be aware of this speaks to the notion that maybe your understanding of the subject is not nearly as comprehensive as you seem to think.
Do you work for VOA or something?
Admit what?
Say what you will about North Korea, at least it's not being poor in South Korea?
Voice of America - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)
Information for Voice of America:
MBFC: Least Biased - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: High - United States of America
Wikipedia about this source
Media Bias Fact Check | bot supportSearch topics on Ground.News
https://www.voanews.com/a/north-korean-defector-in-south-stole-bus-in-bid-to-return-home-media-reports-say-/7805880.html
Don't understand this. If he comes back to the North, he would be tortured&executed with his family. If living in SK is that terrible isn't easier to just unalive themselves?
If he comes back to the North, he would be tortured&executed with his family.
Are you basing this statement on anything other than your impression that the North Korean regime is cruel for the sake of being cruel, and everyone in the military and government is incompetent?
It might be true, but it's also possible that the North Koreans would use it as the obvious propaganda coup it is and send him on speaking tours all over the country/world.
It's also quite possible that he's mentally unwell and isn't making rational choices. Or that he's trying to escape an abusive situation.
Don't get me wrong, the North Korean government is not good, I'm just saying that the assumption he'll be tortured and executed underestimates them.
PS. When you say "comes back" it means that you are in that place. So your sentence implies that you're in North Korea. I'm sure you meant "goes back".
Well, they don't appear to use them as propaganda. When Travis T. King crossed the border, they arrested him and not used as propaganda "see? He hated SK and USA so much"
Same for Otto warmbier, instead of "see? After he saw our wonderful country, he wanted to take a piece of propaganda back home to always remember us" he was arrested, tortured and sent back dead.
I do not recall any situation when they used something like this as positive propaganda instead of a public execution
When they did that experiment on YouTube showing how wonderful is life in north Korea (if you're a daughter of the elite), it lasted until it suddenly went like "Winston Smith never existed"
Source?
Source for what, the executions? It's the North Korean government itself, since those are public
Maybe that person had trouble adjusting to SK life and was missing his country and/or people back home. Nothing to see here. It is only “surprising” because presumably they took some risk in leaving and because we only ever hear about NK in the context of its authoritarian government and it being some dystopian nightmare presumably, though if we’re being honest most of us don’t know two shits about the country and I bet to some people it’s simply home.
Why does anyone want to go back to any country that others are desperate to leave? For reasons…
this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2024
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