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Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

mydiplomaticlife.com

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Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#161

Post by bell-cot »

Propelloni wrote: post #159
bell-cot wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's government. Security Theater/"Look, we're trying" is usually more important than reality.

It's weird. On the one hand governments are devious and brutal oppressors of freedom, on the other hand governments are calculating masters of subterfuge faking moon-landings and implanting microtransmitters by vaccination, on a third hand governments are money-wasting incompetent douches who can't even tie their shoes, and on a fourth hand governments are morally bankrupt and do everything to get re-elected. A stran…

Most people's "knowledge of government" is more like "knowledge of stereotypes & tropes about government".

Also, it can be more about the emotions of the humans doing the attributing than about the real governments. Just look at all the bizarre, contradictory, and fridge-test-flunking attributes which humans have attributed to gods and related mythical beings.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#162

Post by chgs »

qingcharles wrote: post #82
OliveMate wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile instead of some fancy building, their embassy over here is... Well, a little more domestic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_North_Korea,_London

Amazing! Still a bloody expensive property, even 20 years ago. Is that a flagpole in the front garden?

£1.3m. You’d struggle to get a 3 bed semi for that nowadays.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#164

Post by cm2187 »

V__ wrote: post #53

I'll preface this by saying that I can't support this with a source, so take it with a grain of salt. An acquaintance of mine knew someone who worked in that German embassy. Apparently, the extreme isolation of North Korea also made it extremely difficult to have any kind of opsec inside the embassy. Since anything could only be brought in through diplomatic pouches it created an attack vector of one. A few days afte…

In a french documentary about the DGSE (French foreign intelligence service), some former DGSE officials explained that when France took delivery of their new embassy in Poland during the cold war, they found it riddled with bugs. The cabling was hidden inside the concrete. They had to dig a several meters deep trench all around the embassy and severe all cables to isolate it before they could test each cable one by one. I don't know how they ever got comfortable they found every one of them.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#165

Post by cm2187 »

ceejayoz wrote: post #24
ThrowawayTestr wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just diplomacy.

Long history of it, too. The US made special clear coke in nondescript bottles for Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov so he could look like he was drinking vodka instead of the illegal Western drink. https://www.businessinsider.com/us-secret-clear-coca-cola-fo... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Coke

Plus I guess it inspires respect to finish a bottle of what people assume is vodka, bottom up. An empty bottle of vodka makes a great water container to walk around the office with and drink from the bottle between meetings.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#166

Post by lordnacho »

OliveMate wrote: post #51
the_duke wrote: post #9

The post never mentions a date, but this must have been around 2000-2004, since that is when the UK embassy was established. [1] Some things have probably changed since then. A fascinating read regardless. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_the_United_Kingdom,...

Meanwhile instead of some fancy building, their embassy over here is... Well, a little more domestic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embassy_of_North_Korea,_London

The impression I got, from attending a school with a lot of diplomat kids, is that a lot of countries have embassies as a sort of foreign holiday for their ruling classes. Now NK being a bit antagonistic and paranoid might be an exception, but I distinctly got the impression that there were a lot of countries that didn't really do a lot of diplomatic work with the host countries, but the embassy meant they could send some families to go live in the west and have their school paid for by the state.

Those kinds of embassies don't need to be in the fancy embassy district.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#167

Post by simonjgreen »

shiroiushi wrote: post #155
dheera wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder who works in those embassies. Are there some British dudes just living there that go to the embassy every day for work? Where do they buy food? What do their residences look like? Do have spouses and children? Where do they work and go to school? Do they enjoy life there?

Why would anyone in their right mind accept a job like this? It's a lot like taking a job that requires you to live in a prison for several years.

In most cases it’s accepting orders

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#168

Post by shiroiushi »

simonjgreen wrote: post #167
shiroiushi wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would anyone in their right mind accept a job like this? It's a lot like taking a job that requires you to live in a prison for several years.

In most cases it’s accepting orders

Orders? Diplomatic service (in the UK and other democratic nations) isn't part of the military; it's a civilian job. The guards might be soldiers, but the rest of the jobs aren't to my knowledge.

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#169

Post by V__ »

dmix wrote: post #112
Gunax wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry I really want to understand this comment. Can you help? > Since anything could only be brought in through diplomatic pouches it created an attack vector of one. Are you presenting that as a good or bad thing? If there is only one attack vector, that makes it easier to defend against, right? > One official let something slip, which meant a bug had somehow gotten into the scif. You mean the North Korean or German…

The NK official probably mentioned something that was only said in the SCIF And I'm guessing the diplomatic pouches aren't fully in the custody of the german gov at all times there? idk

Correct

Re: Three years in North Korea as a foreigner (2021)

#170

Post by mcmoor »

Propelloni wrote: post #159
bell-cot wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's government. Security Theater/"Look, we're trying" is usually more important than reality.

It's weird. On the one hand governments are devious and brutal oppressors of freedom, on the other hand governments are calculating masters of subterfuge faking moon-landings and implanting microtransmitters by vaccination, on a third hand governments are money-wasting incompetent douches who can't even tie their shoes, and on a fourth hand governments are morally bankrupt and do everything to get re-elected. A stran…

"Enemy is strong and weak" seems like a universal trait for any propaganda, I really have no idea why some want to say that it's a special fascism trait.
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