6 ms·

'Should you be worried about North Korea? I went there to find out' (January)

10 points by ryanmercer 8y ago

ryanmercer 8y ago
"They took us to the main library to explain that their people actually had all kinds of information freedom. But notice the people with the white collars standing behind whomever is at the computer? Those are government handlers, physically monitoring what people are searching for in the library’s book index." Wow.
- acct1771 8y ago
  They just haven't developed their intelligence services well enough to send an FBI equivalent when someone looks up "bomb making" digitally, give em time.
iKSv2 8y ago
"The Kims are worshipped as a God-King hybrid" I see thats done in the US as well, different Kim though
iKSv2 8y ago
"They’ve also started rolling out a cell phone network, but all of the hardware is tapped and all of the info comes straight from the central gov." North Korea is seriously closest to "1984" we have right now.
- acct1771 8y ago
  Your baseband in your phone is likely backdoored, and your media is friendly to war efforts, and owned by oligarchs with connections to the military-industrial-Congressional complex. Awful as they may be, at least N.K. has the balls to be honest about it...
the_prepared 8y ago
Hi everyone — I'm the one who visited NK and wrote this article. Happy to answer any questions!
- jsoc815 8y ago
  Hello, after reading your article, I have a few questions. 1) Can you explain what the threat is, and to whom? 2) What does NK gain from acting upon the "threat" you specify above? 3) You mentioned NK's position that SK is occupied by "a foreign monster." Where does that thinking come from? 4) You mentioned a "resistance." To what exactly and what would be the regional and/or greater security implications of its "success"? Thanks.
  - the_prepared 8y ago
    1) Keep in mind this was written for people scared about what's been happening with NK, especially when Kim and Trump were comparing e-penises over twitter. The threat that many are worried about is some kind of warfare confrontation. Like the false-alarm missile alert in Hawaii that had people terrified for hours. 2) It's certainly not NK's primary game-theory goal to force a confrontation. They get the 80-20 value out of posturing (both inward and outward). But it could come to blows in a number of ways, such as escalating rhetoric causing a misunderstanding that snowballs, and so on. An imperfect metaphor is two 10 year old boys play wrestling. Things start off fine, they escalate, one pinches another, the other play hits back, escalates more, and it's all "not real" until finally someone crosses the previously-unknown line, causing the other to hit back real hard and storm off. NK's primary goal is to sustain themselves and the power they hold. They know that history and the world is against them, so they're "punching from their back foot", which is weak but can still hurt. Or like a trapped animal. 3) That thinking comes directly from the regime. It's the classic tactic of creating an enemy to focus/displace blame and justify unpopular actions, whether Steve Jobs obsessing over IBM, the Third Reich with jews, or Putin convincing Russians that America is out to get them. 4) The resistance is to the regime and the way their state is run. There's a political theory that the US, South Korea, Japan, and China consider when thinking about NK: The sudden liberation of 22 million people who don't know how the world works would be a humanitarian disaster. I think that's very possible, but one of those "better to bite the bullet now" things. But the more likely outcome is that the resistance continues to succeed in changing local hearts and minds, one at a time. It's snowballing. Pulling on that thread can eventually lead to a moment like the Berlin wall coming down or the Arab Springs.

10 points by ryanmercer 8y ago

"They took us to the main library to explain that their people actually had all kinds of information freedom. But notice the people with the white collars standing behind whomever is at the computer? Those are government handlers, physically monitoring what people are searching for in the library’s book index." Wow.

acct1771 8y ago
They just haven't developed their intelligence services well enough to send an FBI equivalent when someone looks up "bomb making" digitally, give em time.

iKSv2 8y ago

"The Kims are worshipped as a God-King hybrid" I see thats done in the US as well, different Kim though

iKSv2 8y ago

"They’ve also started rolling out a cell phone network, but all of the hardware is tapped and all of the info comes straight from the central gov." North Korea is seriously closest to "1984" we have right now.

acct1771 8y ago
Your baseband in your phone is likely backdoored, and your media is friendly to war efforts, and owned by oligarchs with connections to the military-industrial-Congressional complex. Awful as they may be, at least N.K. has the balls to be honest about it...

the_prepared 8y ago

Hi everyone — I'm the one who visited NK and wrote this article. Happy to answer any questions!

jsoc815 8y ago
Hello, after reading your article, I have a few questions. 1) Can you explain what the threat is, and to whom? 2) What does NK gain from acting upon the "threat" you specify above? 3) You mentioned NK's position that SK is occupied by "a foreign monster." Where does that thinking come from? 4) You mentioned a "resistance." To what exactly and what would be the regional and/or greater security implications of its "success"? Thanks.
- the_prepared 8y ago
  1) Keep in mind this was written for people scared about what's been happening with NK, especially when Kim and Trump were comparing e-penises over twitter. The threat that many are worried about is some kind of warfare confrontation. Like the false-alarm missile alert in Hawaii that had people terrified for hours. 2) It's certainly not NK's primary game-theory goal to force a confrontation. They get the 80-20 value out of posturing (both inward and outward). But it could come to blows in a number of ways, such as escalating rhetoric causing a misunderstanding that snowballs, and so on. An imperfect metaphor is two 10 year old boys play wrestling. Things start off fine, they escalate, one pinches another, the other play hits back, escalates more, and it's all "not real" until finally someone crosses the previously-unknown line, causing the other to hit back real hard and storm off. NK's primary goal is to sustain themselves and the power they hold. They know that history and the world is against them, so they're "punching from their back foot", which is weak but can still hurt. Or like a trapped animal. 3) That thinking comes directly from the regime. It's the classic tactic of creating an enemy to focus/displace blame and justify unpopular actions, whether Steve Jobs obsessing over IBM, the Third Reich with jews, or Putin convincing Russians that America is out to get them. 4) The resistance is to the regime and the way their state is run. There's a political theory that the US, South Korea, Japan, and China consider when thinking about NK: The sudden liberation of 22 million people who don't know how the world works would be a humanitarian disaster. I think that's very possible, but one of those "better to bite the bullet now" things. But the more likely outcome is that the resistance continues to succeed in changing local hearts and minds, one at a time. It's snowballing. Pulling on that thread can eventually lead to a moment like the Berlin wall coming down or the Arab Springs.