6 ms·

Journalists claim North Korean official was “purged”, then he shows up on TV

Binger99 7y ago
Maybe it was a Deep fake video?
- gjs278 7y ago
  no. we are lied to about north korea every day. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_coverage_of_North_Korea https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_coverage_of_North_Kore... it’s western propaganda and lying defectors that feed us false information. there’s no need for a deep fake. he’s just not dead.
- jtr_47 7y ago
  It's called Propaganda and it's being perpetuated here in the US of A by our news organizations. It appears that somebody in the US government doesn't want to make peace with North Korea. The fact Trump decided to open a dialog with North Korea and to remove the "bad guy" image of North Korea, is in my opinion the right thing to do. We, the USA and world, doesn't need "enemies" anymore. But I guess somebody or some thing is making a ton of money off of these bad actor/guys scenarios. Too bad we cannot give peace a chance... Peace
  - sdinsn 7y ago
    North Korea kills dissidents all the time. We were wrong on this one, but there were plenty others we weren't wrong on. It's hard to be right when NK controls all media; we have to make guesses to get through their bullshit. NK does not want peace FYI, and they are quite clear about it. They returned a US prisoner back to us recently, and he had been tortured to the point of being braindead.
    - burgerzzz 7y ago
      > They returned a US prisoner back to us recently, and he had been tortured to the point of being braindead. There was an assumption he was tortured, but the coroner's report couldn't confirm his cause of death. Why would you state he had been tortured without any proof?
      - darkpuma 7y ago
        When he was released, the North Koreans also sent over MRI scan data they'd taken of his brain. By all accounts he was missing substantial brain tissue, which is consistent with loss of blood to the brain. It's not known what caused that. There wasn't any apparent damage to his neck or skull. The North Koreans claim botulism did it, which certainly isn't impossible but neither is there any evidence for it. He may also have been waterboarded incompetently, causing him to nearly drown for real. That would explain the lack of apparent skull or neck injuries, and also the brain damage. > "Why would you state he had been tortured without any proof?" Proof? Proofs are for mathematics. In the real world we always deal with uncertainties. Is it certain that the North Koreans torture prisoners? No. But is it a likely enough possibility that we shouldn't bite our tongues and not comment on that likelihood? Of course. There is a lot of evidence for North Korea torturing people in the past, and there isn't a lot of reason to give them the benefit of the doubt.
      - sdinsn 7y ago
        It's not an "assumption", it's supported by evidence and SMEs. Like I said, we have to use our brains and actually think about things instead of taking NK's word for everything.
  - dang 7y ago
    Could you please stop posting political battle-style comments to HN? This site is for intellectual curiosity, not that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
CharlesColeman 7y ago
There are better articles about this news than this over-editorialized axe-grinding blog post. For instance, this one about the official's reappearance: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/world/asia/north-korean-purge-kim.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/world/asia/north-korean-p... (and the original NY Times report was pretty careful with its words about his disappearance: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/world/asia/north-korea-envoy-execution.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/world/asia/north-korea-en...).
- darkpuma 7y ago
  The submitted article is about how western corporate media handled a story about North Korea, not about the North Korean story itself. That NYTimes article is about the North Korean story, not western media's treatment of that story.
  - CharlesColeman 7y ago
    AFAIK, HN hasn't has any posts about the disappearance or reappearance. We should probably have one, rather than this. This particular article is just loud axe grinding and baseless complaining. For instance, it labels the original Bloomberg report "fake news" and a "false story," when it was in fact pretty careful with its words and spent a significant amount of prominent space casting doubt on the report. You can read it yourself here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-30/north-korea-envoy-executed-over-trump-kim-summit-chosun-reports https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-30/north-kor.... This blog post is not so much about "how western corporate media handled a story about North Korea" but how Ben Norton of thegrayzone.com feels about the Western media and how he wants us to feel about it too.
    - darkpuma 7y ago
      > "North Korea Executed Envoy Over Trump-Kim Summit, Chosun Reports" That Bloomberg headline is itself egregious. Who is Chosun? That Chosun Ilbo is a right wing propaganda tabloid with a reputation for making shit up should have been mentioned in that headline. 'Headlines that seem plausible with details hinting at fabrication in the article' is a bad formula and deserves to be criticized. In fact, Chosun Ilbo's reputation should have prevented the story from being republished by western media at all.

Maybe it was a Deep fake video?

gjs278 7y ago
no. we are lied to about north korea every day. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_coverage_of_North_Korea https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_coverage_of_North_Kore... it’s western propaganda and lying defectors that feed us false information. there’s no need for a deep fake. he’s just not dead.
jtr_47 7y ago
It's called Propaganda and it's being perpetuated here in the US of A by our news organizations. It appears that somebody in the US government doesn't want to make peace with North Korea. The fact Trump decided to open a dialog with North Korea and to remove the "bad guy" image of North Korea, is in my opinion the right thing to do. We, the USA and world, doesn't need "enemies" anymore. But I guess somebody or some thing is making a ton of money off of these bad actor/guys scenarios. Too bad we cannot give peace a chance... Peace
- sdinsn 7y ago
  North Korea kills dissidents all the time. We were wrong on this one, but there were plenty others we weren't wrong on. It's hard to be right when NK controls all media; we have to make guesses to get through their bullshit. NK does not want peace FYI, and they are quite clear about it. They returned a US prisoner back to us recently, and he had been tortured to the point of being braindead.
  - burgerzzz 7y ago
    > They returned a US prisoner back to us recently, and he had been tortured to the point of being braindead. There was an assumption he was tortured, but the coroner's report couldn't confirm his cause of death. Why would you state he had been tortured without any proof?
    - darkpuma 7y ago
      When he was released, the North Koreans also sent over MRI scan data they'd taken of his brain. By all accounts he was missing substantial brain tissue, which is consistent with loss of blood to the brain. It's not known what caused that. There wasn't any apparent damage to his neck or skull. The North Koreans claim botulism did it, which certainly isn't impossible but neither is there any evidence for it. He may also have been waterboarded incompetently, causing him to nearly drown for real. That would explain the lack of apparent skull or neck injuries, and also the brain damage. > "Why would you state he had been tortured without any proof?" Proof? Proofs are for mathematics. In the real world we always deal with uncertainties. Is it certain that the North Koreans torture prisoners? No. But is it a likely enough possibility that we shouldn't bite our tongues and not comment on that likelihood? Of course. There is a lot of evidence for North Korea torturing people in the past, and there isn't a lot of reason to give them the benefit of the doubt.
    - sdinsn 7y ago
      It's not an "assumption", it's supported by evidence and SMEs. Like I said, we have to use our brains and actually think about things instead of taking NK's word for everything.
- dang 7y ago
  Could you please stop posting political battle-style comments to HN? This site is for intellectual curiosity, not that. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

There are better articles about this news than this over-editorialized axe-grinding blog post. For instance, this one about the official's reappearance: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/world/asia/north-korean-purge-kim.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/world/asia/north-korean-p... (and the original NY Times report was pretty careful with its words about his disappearance: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/world/asia/north-korea-envoy-execution.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/world/asia/north-korea-en...).

darkpuma 7y ago
The submitted article is about how western corporate media handled a story about North Korea, not about the North Korean story itself. That NYTimes article is about the North Korean story, not western media's treatment of that story.
- CharlesColeman 7y ago
  AFAIK, HN hasn't has any posts about the disappearance or reappearance. We should probably have one, rather than this. This particular article is just loud axe grinding and baseless complaining. For instance, it labels the original Bloomberg report "fake news" and a "false story," when it was in fact pretty careful with its words and spent a significant amount of prominent space casting doubt on the report. You can read it yourself here: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-30/north-korea-envoy-executed-over-trump-kim-summit-chosun-reports https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-30/north-kor.... This blog post is not so much about "how western corporate media handled a story about North Korea" but how Ben Norton of thegrayzone.com feels about the Western media and how he wants us to feel about it too.
  - darkpuma 7y ago
    > "North Korea Executed Envoy Over Trump-Kim Summit, Chosun Reports" That Bloomberg headline is itself egregious. Who is Chosun? That Chosun Ilbo is a right wing propaganda tabloid with a reputation for making shit up should have been mentioned in that headline. 'Headlines that seem plausible with details hinting at fabrication in the article' is a bad formula and deserves to be criticized. In fact, Chosun Ilbo's reputation should have prevented the story from being republished by western media at all.