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Defecting from North Korea is now harder

nytimes.com

161–170 of 201 posts

Re: Defecting from North Korea is now harder

#161
post #95

Paywall less link? Happy to pay $1 for article but absolutely won’t get into a subscription. Unsubscribing from NY times is a nightmare.

If you haven't done it recently it's not the nightmare that it was. These days you say you want to cancel, they'll ask you "would you pay $X?", you say no and you're out.

Re: Defecting from North Korea is now harder

#162

I really wish that bill Clinton could have brokered a deal with china (right before NK got nukes) which would have done a two-pronged invasion with the assurances that China would control all of NK as a direct puppet state. A Chinese direct puppet state would be far superior to the current situation.

Well, that didn't work, but there's still time for a similar deal with China in regards to Taiwan.

[flagged]

Re: Defecting from North Korea is now harder

#164
post #30

I'm not saying North Korea is a paradise or anything, but the country is technically still at war with the South Korea, which is heavily backed by the US. I wonder how much can be trusted from a NY Times(a US media company) article written by the "Seoul bureau chief for The New York Times".

More trusted than you, mate!

Re: Defecting from North Korea is now harder

#165
post #147

North Korea exists because 5 years after the US liberated China from Japanese oppression, the communist Chinese declared war against the US lead UN forces in South Korea. Fairly wild, in retrospect.

It's not particularly wild because the South Korean government was almost entirely fascist collaborators who had run the colonial government for Japan, and who were reinstalled by mass violence and the crushing of dissent, with US approval. The SK government killed several hundred thousand of their own citizens, see the pictures of the Bodo League massacre taken by American officers for example. [1] > Estimates of th…

That’s a whole lot of words to say the US was demonstrably right. South Korea is an actual country and North Korea is an open air prison.

South Korea is a vastly richer, freer and more prosperous country than both North Korea (and China for that matter).

Re: Defecting from North Korea is now harder

#166
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not particularly wild because the South Korean government was almost entirely fascist collaborators who had run the colonial government for Japan, and who were reinstalled by mass violence and the crushing of dissent, with US approval. The SK government killed several hundred thousand of their own citizens, see the pictures of the Bodo League massacre taken by American officers for example. [1] > Estimates of th…

That’s a whole lot of words to say the US was demonstrably right. South Korea is an actual country and North Korea is an open air prison. South Korea is a vastly richer, freer and more prosperous country than both North Korea (and China for that matter).

It's like saying Hitler was right because Germany is doing pretty well today and Russia isn't, which unfortunately would also not surprise me.

Re: Defecting from North Korea is now harder

#167
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a whole lot of words to say the US was demonstrably right. South Korea is an actual country and North Korea is an open air prison. South Korea is a vastly richer, freer and more prosperous country than both North Korea (and China for that matter).

It's like saying Hitler was right because Germany is doing pretty well today and Russia isn't, which unfortunately would also not surprise me.

You know, not everything and everyone is a hitler-comparable situation.

Now, there is currently a genocide going on in one of the discussed countries so if you were going to draw a hitler comparison I think it should be there.

Re: Defecting from North Korea is now harder

#168
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I absolutely despise this "every story has two sides" quip. No, every story doesn't have two sides. Yes, every story has multiple versions full of complete bullshit, but when we talk about a "side" we mean a reputable reliable side, and it is not the case that every story has two equally debatable and reputable sides. Sometimes a spade is a spade.

Reputable, reliable (tm) American sources also led to a million deaths in Iraq based on what turned out to be false premises. Yet your very own logic would've called "a spade a spade" and would've meant actually believing Iraq had usable WMDs because I mean, that's just the hard truth! Every reliable source on your side said so! Who would even believe Iraqi/arabic media that shouted for a year that Iraq didn't have t…

To be fair, it’s important to point out that the Bush administration politicized the intelligence apparatus. Specifically, Darth Cheney pressured the CIA into supporting his pet theories.

I bitterly told people before the second war with Iraq that there were no WMDs. Any well read, educated, intelligent person should have been able to confidently say the same.

Re: Defecting from North Korea is now harder

#169
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you asking for evidence that knowing everyone’s locations and travel itineraries would assist in contact tracing? Because I think that one is obvious. Otherwise, I’m not particularly interested in having a COVID conversation.

> Are you asking for evidence that knowing everyone’s locations and travel itineraries would assist in contact tracing? Because I think that one is obvious. Ok, I don’t think it’s obvious so let’s have that conversation. Do you have any examples you can share where contact tracing lead to less restrictions compared to another area that did not engage in contact tracing? My intuition is that no such example can be pro…

> Do you have any examples you can share where contact tracing lead to less restrictions compared to another area that did not engage in contact tracing?

I recommend thoroughly reviewing what I wrote that you quoted, and then contemplating the relevance of your question to the topic at hand.

If it helps, the effectiveness of contact tracing is not relevant to the discussion.

Re: Defecting from North Korea is now harder

#170
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I absolutely despise this "every story has two sides" quip. No, every story doesn't have two sides. Yes, every story has multiple versions full of complete bullshit, but when we talk about a "side" we mean a reputable reliable side, and it is not the case that every story has two equally debatable and reputable sides. Sometimes a spade is a spade.

Reputable, reliable (tm) American sources also led to a million deaths in Iraq based on what turned out to be false premises. Yet your very own logic would've called "a spade a spade" and would've meant actually believing Iraq had usable WMDs because I mean, that's just the hard truth! Every reliable source on your side said so! Who would even believe Iraqi/arabic media that shouted for a year that Iraq didn't have t…

An even more bitter pill - a lot of Americans still apparently believe there were WMDs found in Iraq.
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