CryoForceOmelet posted... There's an area between "NK is a great place to live" (lol) and "everything I read about NK is true"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_coverage_of_North_Korea
Unfortunately a lot of stories published and shared about NK are just false. Like a really popular one a while back was that everyone was forced to get Kim's haircut. Almost certainly false. There are frequently stories that Kim has had one of his family members executed, or some government official, only for them to make a public appearance sometime later.
So it's not that there's a 'global conspiracy' so much as the difficulty of obtaining information out from NK has led many news publishers to adopt arguably over-lenient standards of reporting on the country, such as republishing anything printed by some SK tabloids. IMO it is worthwhile to take a skeptical stance on some of the more absurd claims published about the country, and that does not conflict that recognizing that, obviously, a dictatorship is bad and there are human rights abuses. I feel like I really need to emphasize this because there are people who will call you a sympathizer or tankie or whatever just for displaying recognition of the complexity of the media coverage of the country.
Agreed. Yeonmi Park has been caught making up complete lies about North Korea for her own selfish purpose of increasing personal book sales and speaking engagements. No surprise shes a right winger grifter now.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2023/07/16/yeonmi-park-conservative-defector-stories-questioned/