From reading the articles I would conclude the following:
RFA, a US-funded asian ‘news broadcaster’, very likely has created this piece of propaganda as an attempt to use the popularity of the Squid Games to disseminate mis-information about North Korea
and
North Korea did pass a law that specifies death as a possible penalty for distributing South Korean content
RFA was a media outlet specifically created by the CIA during the time communism spread in Asia (Vietnam, China, DPRK, Indonesia…) to counter with anti-communist propaganda. It’s still owned by the CIA to this day. They also started a Radio Free Europe (now Radio Liberty, still under the CIA) against the DDR.
The DPRK does allow ROK media, because they allow foreign media in general in some quantities. I think this has more to do with quotas and ease of access than anything else. People in the DPRK have proudly showed the foreign media they owned or borrowed from their local library to tourists and TV. So based on this we can assume nobody died from distributing or watching ROK media.
They also invited Red Velvet (south kpop girl group) to perform in Pyongyang.
I believe that CIA-funded media spreads propaganda and misinformation to push a particular narrative. This piece about NK and many others lack proper sourcing (which - to be fair - it is by design difficult to source events from North Korea!), so I can believe that many of them are outright lies.
However, the few conversations that I have had with people from North Korea (a kid I studied with defected from NK, and I also met a priest that defected), as well as an acquaitance that visited NK as a tourist, do pain a pretty bleak picture that is overall consistent with the ‘western narrative’ of NK being a highly repressive regime that produces a lot of propaganda.
So I don’t think that it would easy for me to draw a positive conclusion about NK from seeing North Koreans showing South Korean media to tourists and TV. But if you happen to have some of these videos at hand I would like to watch them so that I can get a better idea.
“Defectors” usually go through South Korea, where they are made prisoners in compounds for weeks or months, until the ministry of defence decides they are loyal enough to South Korea, then they seize their DPRK passport and identity documents, prevent them from getting an ROK passport which prevents them from leaving the country, and then they face discrimination because the stereotype in the ROK is that their DPRK compatriots are dumb – which means high unemployment. A stereotype created by the ROK, mind you. So they go on TV shows to talk about all the horrible stuff the DPRK does, at the insistence of the producers, to drive up ratings and make a living.
Then you get into sort of a vicious circle where you have to keep making up more egregious stuff because what was previously revolting and horrifying becomes normal. You have to bring something new to the table, you can’t just say you spent your whole life in a prison camp anymore, because someone else already said that.
Many have gone on such shows and recanted their horror stories later.
I don’t know about the two people you met specifically but it’s possible they went through ROK (and thus that system) at some point and then somewhere else. Alternatively they would have applied for asylum status which can be revoked when it’s safe for them to go back home.
Defectors usually have two actual backstories: either they thought they would have a better life somewhere else because, since the time of the USSR, we’ve been selling the capitalist dream to people (and then they find out when they get there that it’s difficult to get a job and buy all this stuff in stores), or they’re wanted in the DPRK and fled justice.
In other words, they have a very direct, material interest to lie and exaggerate stories. We can see this with Yeonmi Park, who is now the darling of the neocon right in the US, making up more and more ludicrous stories to keep money coming in. From the start also her story did not hold up.
Or the guy who wrote “Escape from Camp 13”, inventing a tale of courageous hardships. Turns out he was wanted in the DPRK for being a child molester.
As for the tourist to be honest their opinion is worth zilch. I’d love to visit the DPRK myself one day too. But tourists that go somewhere, anywhere, will have preconceptions and stereotypes about the places they visit and analyse their experience through that lens. They’re going as tourists, not as on-the-ground experts for a study.
They do have a certain way to write and do things in the DPRK but you know, if that was reason enough to start suffocating countries with horror propaganda, sanctions and manufactured consent I don’t think there’d be many untouched states left.
It’s difficult to find info on the DPRK because they don’t put out a lot, which does let the ROK and USA print such articles like we saw above, with no sources whatsoever (a favourite of the propaganda department: just say you can’t name your source!). They do have an English source, but it’s difficult to access and googling it, you will actually only find mirrors in the West from third-parties. And they’re not all disinterested.
KCNA Watch https://kcnawatch.org/ is such a mirror and as far as I can tell they are accurate (they always link to the original article) but who knows who’s really behind that site.
That NKnews site is also American. I thought that something like this would be easy to verify, so I have tried to find a bit more information, and according to this site:
While the text of the law was not made public outside of the North, anecdotal reports since indicate that this has prompted a widespread crackdown on foreign content and influence in the country.
From reading the articles I would conclude the following:
and
So… everyone sucks.
RFA was a media outlet specifically created by the CIA during the time communism spread in Asia (Vietnam, China, DPRK, Indonesia…) to counter with anti-communist propaganda. It’s still owned by the CIA to this day. They also started a Radio Free Europe (now Radio Liberty, still under the CIA) against the DDR.
The DPRK does allow ROK media, because they allow foreign media in general in some quantities. I think this has more to do with quotas and ease of access than anything else. People in the DPRK have proudly showed the foreign media they owned or borrowed from their local library to tourists and TV. So based on this we can assume nobody died from distributing or watching ROK media.
They also invited Red Velvet (south kpop girl group) to perform in Pyongyang.
Thank you for the added context!
I believe that CIA-funded media spreads propaganda and misinformation to push a particular narrative. This piece about NK and many others lack proper sourcing (which - to be fair - it is by design difficult to source events from North Korea!), so I can believe that many of them are outright lies.
However, the few conversations that I have had with people from North Korea (a kid I studied with defected from NK, and I also met a priest that defected), as well as an acquaitance that visited NK as a tourist, do pain a pretty bleak picture that is overall consistent with the ‘western narrative’ of NK being a highly repressive regime that produces a lot of propaganda.
So I don’t think that it would easy for me to draw a positive conclusion about NK from seeing North Koreans showing South Korean media to tourists and TV. But if you happen to have some of these videos at hand I would like to watch them so that I can get a better idea.
“Defectors” usually go through South Korea, where they are made prisoners in compounds for weeks or months, until the ministry of defence decides they are loyal enough to South Korea, then they seize their DPRK passport and identity documents, prevent them from getting an ROK passport which prevents them from leaving the country, and then they face discrimination because the stereotype in the ROK is that their DPRK compatriots are dumb – which means high unemployment. A stereotype created by the ROK, mind you. So they go on TV shows to talk about all the horrible stuff the DPRK does, at the insistence of the producers, to drive up ratings and make a living.
Then you get into sort of a vicious circle where you have to keep making up more egregious stuff because what was previously revolting and horrifying becomes normal. You have to bring something new to the table, you can’t just say you spent your whole life in a prison camp anymore, because someone else already said that.
Many have gone on such shows and recanted their horror stories later.
Here’s a documentary that talks about this problem and more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSd48emp0lI
I don’t know about the two people you met specifically but it’s possible they went through ROK (and thus that system) at some point and then somewhere else. Alternatively they would have applied for asylum status which can be revoked when it’s safe for them to go back home.
Defectors usually have two actual backstories: either they thought they would have a better life somewhere else because, since the time of the USSR, we’ve been selling the capitalist dream to people (and then they find out when they get there that it’s difficult to get a job and buy all this stuff in stores), or they’re wanted in the DPRK and fled justice.
In other words, they have a very direct, material interest to lie and exaggerate stories. We can see this with Yeonmi Park, who is now the darling of the neocon right in the US, making up more and more ludicrous stories to keep money coming in. From the start also her story did not hold up.
Or the guy who wrote “Escape from Camp 13”, inventing a tale of courageous hardships. Turns out he was wanted in the DPRK for being a child molester.
As for the tourist to be honest their opinion is worth zilch. I’d love to visit the DPRK myself one day too. But tourists that go somewhere, anywhere, will have preconceptions and stereotypes about the places they visit and analyse their experience through that lens. They’re going as tourists, not as on-the-ground experts for a study.
They do have a certain way to write and do things in the DPRK but you know, if that was reason enough to start suffocating countries with horror propaganda, sanctions and manufactured consent I don’t think there’d be many untouched states left.
It’s difficult to find info on the DPRK because they don’t put out a lot, which does let the ROK and USA print such articles like we saw above, with no sources whatsoever (a favourite of the propaganda department: just say you can’t name your source!). They do have an English source, but it’s difficult to access and googling it, you will actually only find mirrors in the West from third-parties. And they’re not all disinterested.
KCNA Watch https://kcnawatch.org/ is such a mirror and as far as I can tell they are accurate (they always link to the original article) but who knows who’s really behind that site.
Oddly enough, I can’t find much info on that law, there isn’t even a Wikipedia article for it or anything
That NKnews site is also American. I thought that something like this would be easy to verify, so I have tried to find a bit more information, and according to this site:
https://www.38north.org/2021/11/north-korea-intensifies-war-against-foreign-influence/
So, perhaps it is not as simple.
Yeah NKNews links back to RFA in a lot of cases, and they often just blatantly make shit up on their own w/ “unspecified sources”
Interesting