North Korea General Discussion.

So you're not going to Ctrl-F the reports I linked to earlier.

It is literally the easiest thing to do - verify that various cut-outs were exclusively the source for Human Rights atrocity propaganda for 'trusted' international agencies.

Are you afraid to do it?
Is that all it is?

Fear of knowledge?

I hadn't heard that assessment. If things had got dire for NK in another US attack, China would step in out of self-interest again - so a repeat of the earlier US war. That's mainly why they didn't try it for the last 70 years.

Before Hwasong-17 say upto mid-2010s, NK had enough artillery & tank guns (4,000+) in the Area north of Seoul to destroy any sizable concentrations of US/puppet military equipment in 25 - 60 minutes (various reporting over the years).

It was a serious amount of firepower. Or put another way, non-trivial.

After Hwasong-17, well, all is clear.

Are the CIA in the room with you right now?

Does that mean you think they are in the room with you now?

I'm also very doubtful about the technical health of any system the North Koreans are currently sitting on. I suspect lot of Soviet-vintage technology and ideas, which may not be that well maintained. For years I had been operating on the now faulty assumption that the North Koreas were at least very adept at keeping Cold War-era tech operational. A sort of "mend and make do" attitute out of nessesity. Stories of the likes of Cuba shipping their MIGs to North Korea for servicing added to that impression.

But now we're getting stories of the Russians being supplied with extemely bad quality North Korean munitions for the Ukraine war, and so I wonder about the quality of what they have to use in a fight. I suspect that these are surplus munitions that has been stockpiled for an eventual war with South Korea…but never got used. If well maintained I guess they could still be useful…but something has happened. They have either been stored badly, allowing critical components to degrade…or more damning…the munitions were never good to begin with.

But to echo yourself, they could certainly still do a huge amount of damage in a fight…but they would likely be facing far better quality and accuracy in a South Korean counter attack.

Interesting view on their artillery Manic, from the US perspective. I don’t have the NK’s true judgement of their own artillery – they have to keep that as secret as possible. But anything they do say is probably in line with Sun Tzu: “Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”

Those helical drums look to be cool in photo-shoots – maybe thats a feature. I may be wrong but I’m not seeing that NK ever claimed that they were designed to automatically feed rounds into the chamber?

They look to me to be a convenient way to carry lots of bullets to a front-line. A soldier would have say 6 standard magazine clips (180 rounds) plus this drum with what 300? more bullets. So the soldier can refill his magazine clips from this drum when his 6 clips are empty.

Yes, but if it is a drum only designed to carry loose bullets – it has to use that magazine well to attach the drum to the rifle.

I’m just going by your video - which some of the commentators thought was some kind of a prank.
Its all unclear.

Your posts about North Korea are pure comedy gold. Keep the bullsh1t coming

After the UN / HRW / AA reports, the second of the two main reasons for people’s trust in the last 15 US governments Western media’s narrative of apocalyptic horror within N.Korea is the Defector Industrial Complex. I picked some article snippets from M.P.’s links from here

• Kang Myung-do appears on a news show on one of four different South Korean TV stations every day, earning 100,000 won ($90) each time, a beneficiary of the proliferation of TV channels and lectures that has created a small class of celebrity North Korean defectors - as well as the temptation to embellish. "I have seen many people fired after their inconsistent stories. Look at Shin Dong-hyuk. It is embarrassing," said Kang.
• Testimony from North Korean defectors has come under renewed scrutiny since one of the most high-profile among them, Shin Dong-hyuk, recanted parts [edit: retracted central facts] of his harrowing story, made famous in the book "Escape from Camp 14" by former Washington Post correspondent Blaine Harden.

• Some defectors embellish, exaggerate or trade their stories for money, she and other defectors said. [my comment: Reuters whitewash spin here - the ROK’s NIS system is prison + threats then pay-for-play embellishment:- that IS the full procedure]
• Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean military official who defected to the South in 1979, "You can be a crook or be asked to lie. I have seen so many people lying and making mistakes on camera ... People only care about spicy stories," he said, using English for "spicy".
  
• South Korea boosts reward for defectors from North to $860,000 – BBC report
• Heo Kang-il has said more about what led to the defection. His story is one of lies, shakedowns and betrayal upon betrayal. “They were all liars and con men,” Mr. Heo said of the South Korean spies, who he now believes used and discarded him. “I wish I could turn the clock back.” Mr. Heo has received none of the millions he said he was promised. For his work, he says, the spy agency paid him a total of $35,500. He has worked as a cashier at a convenience store and driven a delivery truck. – NY Times

Anyone doing a fair reading of even half the links in the google doc above, will quickly come to understand how the US/ROK defector industrial complex works :- NIS Imprisonment, psychological torture, relentless threats then offers of money for embellished “horror” stories from NK. It is an efficient, slick, narrative production line.

The end result is a shlock-horror, gore-filled, B movie narrative with defectors who are constantly retracting and changing their stories – because they are paid to lie, spin & embellish.

The majority of defectors (the equivalent of Irish people moving to England for economic reasons in the 1950s – 90s) are never on any media, because they have no utility, but eek out a miserable life at the bottom of SK society, with many prevented from returning home to NK (cruelty for political reasons).

China has the great firewall – which is porus to VPNs. Many can now see the foresight in China establishing an entirely separate app & information ecosystem, where it is the only country besides the US to have true digital sovereignty on the www.

N.korea did a cheaper approach to digital sovereignty by keeping itself unconnected for a long time (because it has a small fraction of China’s resources). I do know that there is internet access now in hotels for tourists (marathon runners used it in 2025), so unclear whether citizens can access it.

The reason for NK restricting the internet originally was to prevent cyber warfare attacks from the US, nothing to do with the standard smears of the US & Western gov’ts saying it was to censor NK citizens access to information.

Regardless of one’s political alignment – isn’t it better to know the truth on important topics?

Here is a “beaten down” “clueless” “timid” NK citizen on the internet, living in China (so on VPNs). Account is on private but I think its ok to show one post.

Can you think of a reason why Kim Jong Un wants to keep people off the internet and conversing with others?

Just a reminder that - a few short decades before the (US dominated) internet arrived, the US bombed NK so heavily that no building higher than 1 storey was left standing, they destroyed 1,000 hospitals completely,
they attempted to destroy NK’s entire ability to harvest food with experimental biological-weapons ie. infected air-dropped insects (it wasn’t very effective, but that was the US intention), oh and the minor issue - that they slaughtered 20% of the North Korean population.

Did you ever consider that it possibly might have something to do with that?

And does your question imply that you now regularly read the thousands of Chinese who are 90% supporters of the CPC who post their political views online (in English) ?

Pure whataboutery.

The internet is open, probably too open for politicians and certainly too open for Kim Jong Un. The irony is you defending the regime on the internet when the citizens of NK are not allowed to do so.

Didn’t watch that. Can you please relay to us what was being said with Tommy Tiernan?

People living in a western society, with no intention of leaving it, enjoying the trappings of a free market, with the freedom to criticise authority figures... then singing the praises of communist tyranny, are in such a privileged position, ironically.

I despise greed and imperialism - I have class consciousness, I'm glad I live in a country where people in need are helped by the state. There are aspects of communism I agree with tbh, but you don't need to pretend an unhinged dictatorship which just masquerades as an egalitarian utopia (when it's the opposite) is a beacon to the world.