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How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner

mydiplomaticlife.com

61–70 of 94 posts

Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it interesting observation? When one invades the country, they of course won't feel safety (like in Iraq), but when they dont invade country, of course it feels safe, because no one is bombing and shooting locals

NK is politically aligned with the red countries, and positioned against US. Especially after the Otto Warmbier accident, some believe that Americans/Westerners in NK are in constant danger (my opinion: O.W. did something stupid while drunk; the accusations were obviously fabricated but the incident was not unprovoked), so to those, it may seem surprising that somebody can feel safe there.

[deleted]

Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner

#63
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know who "we" is, but assassinating or kidnapping foreigners is illegal. Also, it didn't work. Not in Iran and not even in Venezuela.

It worked to a degree in Venezuela. (Depending on what you think the goal was, of course...)

The goal was simply to display performative strongman machismo using the military (just like the missile strikes on alleged drug boats). It's a branding exercise for Trump personally (not even for the US as a whole). To that end, it doesn't seem to be working, especially with the Iran quagmire.

Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner

#64

Most interesting observation: > When serving in Iraq or Iran, my biggest fear in those places was always the threat of physical harm, be it ambushes on our person or vehicles, being kidnapped, rocket or mortar attacks on our embassy or accommodation. There were close shaves and the threat and the fear never left you in all of these places. But as far as life in North Korea was concerned, there were none of these fear…

The sentiment about NK echoes my sentiment about my visits to China in recent years.

Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner

#67
post #19

Why do we keep tolerating that regime which makes 26 mln people suffer? Why can't we do Operation a la Maduro there?

North Korean has won, once they had nukes and ICBMs they became untouchable.

"won" is a very strong word for a country that sits economically somewhere between South Sudan and Congo, with a primary "enemy" that started out similarly and is now easily 20 times richer.

Self-sufficiency and exclusion from global trade can be very expensive for a nation long-term (a cautionary tale, since those ideals are a bit of a siren call nowadays to many Americans, after getting quite wealthy by doing the exact opposite).

Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner

#68
post #19

Why do we keep tolerating that regime which makes 26 mln people suffer? Why can't we do Operation a la Maduro there?

[flagged]

Uh... by who?

I think you underestimate the unparalleled dominance of the United States Navy. (Which is but one of 4 major branches, mind you.)

Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner

#69

> Could you go out on your own for a walk? > Surprisingly yes. > Did you get many opportunities to travel within the country? > Surprisingly yes. And surprisingly title is: "How To Survive 3 Years in NK" These people are so biased, they show that bias even when they don't have anything bad to say. Poor people in that country might say how to survive, but not a member of diplomatic corpus

Sounds more like what he had to survive was the sheer boredom.

Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner

#70
post #13

Playing golf in North Korea sounds crazy.

Why? Because the poor are starving? North Korea has ultra-wealthy ... it works a bit differently but there is massive inequality, and there is extreme wealth.

Because North Korea is such a parody of a country that adding a golf course to it sounds completely surreal to me.
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