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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)

#191

Post by tsujamin »

lolinder wrote: post #111
mathsmath wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in the US, nothing is technically stopping you from walking into a SCIF with a phone most of the time. We used the honor system. I would almost automatically assume that any SCIF in a foreign country was compromised to some degree.

Which would completely invalidate the entire purpose of the SCIF, no? Unless it exists to feed fake info to the locals?

It’s probably not an all or nothing prospect. Raise the costs enough/mitigate the threat in atleast some of them etc

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

#192

Post by rob74 »

whizzter wrote: post #58

Hearing about the lone Swede reminds me of the weird history/role of that, https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/12/04/547390622/...

Photo relevant to this article (showing the "mixed" embassy's entrance): https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2017/09/27/ambassaden1-976c...

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

#193

Post by rurban »

Dah00n wrote: post #178
lordnacho wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Also most of the work is done by the CIA and NSA.

The NSA stays at home. There are some diplomatic normal folks to do the consularic work (visa, lost passports), the rest is secret service (recruiting agents, influencing the press, police, "diplomatic" ie secret communication, contacts to other embassies and the host).

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

#194

Post by input_sh »

RegnisGnaw wrote: post #141
xenospn wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I went there (2005-6), we were told to bring foreign cigarettes. And this is how I ended up importing Israeli into North Korea. Hopefully they liked them!

I went in 2014. I was told Marlboro cigs. For a country that hates the US officially everyone loves those Marlboros.

In any unstable situation (war, sanctions, blockade, siege, whatever), cigarettes quickly turn into a currency. They're light as a feather, they don't spoil, and there's an ever-increasing demand for them. Two packs will get you more than a gold necklace in any such situation, worldwide.

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

#195

Post by samus »

sho wrote: post #126
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…

I'm not sure what you mean about the NK situation making the diplomatic pouch an attack vector? Can you elaborate? Fun fact, those "pouches" don't have to be a pouch or even a bag. They can be boxes or even crates and have been used for smuggling in the past, including drugs, weapons, gold and even - allegedly - people.

TA mentions that they shipped in construction materials via diplomatic containers.

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

#196

Post by rob74 »

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,...

The German Wikipedia article (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Botschaft_Pj%C3%B6ngj...) has some more details. Most interesting: unified Germany initially wasn't interested in diplomatic relations with North Korea, so between 1991 and 2001, the only country actually using the building as an embassy was Sweden (although Germany had a "Schutzmachtvertretung" during this time - not sure what that means, but at least the lonely Swede had some company).

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

#197

Post by rpeden »

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

Kind of reminds me of some of the embassies of smaller countries in Ottawa when I lived there.

There are quite a few in houses like this along Somerset Street if I'm remembering correctly.

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

#198

Post by Vilian »

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…

maybe not underestimate, but no one can really know if the truly culpride got caught

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

#200

Post by InDubioProRubio »

why_at wrote: post #96
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,...

Curious if anyone knows of any more recent descriptions about what life is like in North Korea, like in the last 5-10 years. Most things I've read including this article are decades old. How much have things changed there in terms of technology, food security etc?

Remember those marching formations, where a normal AK looked like a giant toy wielded by kids.
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