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A flagged post mentions this is racist and typical anti immigration rhetoric. That's not true, there are only two types of North Korean people you'll meet, eit
by throwaway_ab 1y ago
A flagged post mentions this is racist and typical anti immigration rhetoric.
That's not true, there are only two types of North Korean people you'll meet, either those that have defected and escaped North Korea or those that are agents of the state of North Korea.
There are very few defectors in existence and once they escape they're given full South Korean citizenship. This article is not about those people.
The vast majority of North Koreans outside North Korea are not defectors, instead they are controlled state assets. There are no North Korean people outside the country that are free citizens. Every single North Korean authorised to leave the country is working directly for their government often to raise money for the regime, to steal IP, to infiltrate for some nefarious purpose.
Having one of these North Korean active assets in your company is extremely dangerous, your business is now at risk of leaks, theft, or worst something being modified like added vulnerabilities that could be exploited later in cyber attacks.
So no, this article is not racist at all and really has nothing to do with the recent political situation.
- tkel 1y agoYou're doing the racist rhetoric. There's no one in north korea that isn't "an agent of the state"? Give me a break. You sound ridiculous.
- Boltgolt 1y agoThere's no one _outside_ north korea
- rurban 1y agoNope, those IT specialists are everywhere. It's tricky to weed out spies, if they are American ("Tell me a bad thing about Donald Trump"), Australians, Chinese, Russian or North Korean. That's why you have recruiters doing background checks.
- infecto 1y agoIs it really racist? North Korea is the most tightly controlled country in the world. Seems too easy to just throw out the racist card when you did not refute or provide any counter point. I am certain there are good people in North Korea but it would be hard to figure folks allegiances. A lifetime of propaganda can really do something to the mind.
- fsloth 1y agoI’m not sure what you mean by ‘good’. May I suggest you may have meant ‘there are probably people who in the deepest of their heart disagree with state policy’. If the state can execute your family on a whim because somebody stepped out of line you keep generally those sentiments well hidden. But _liking_ the policies of the state where you live in is generally not considered a vice. So if a person who disagrees with the NK state is ‘good’ this implies people who agree NK state are ‘bad’ and I don’t think that’s the right framework when discussing large populations of nation states.
- infecto 1y agoIt’s mostly just a hand-waving acknowledgment that, yes, I’m broadly categorizing everyone as a North Korean state actor. I get that there are gradients of belief, some coerced, some true believers, but in the end, they’re all still acting on behalf of the state, one way or another.
- tkel 1y ago"A lifetime of propaganda" about how NK is some nightmare land? The evidentiary standard on reporting goes basically to zero if it's about NK. Outlandish claims are to be taken at face value and not interrogated, because of a "lifetime of propaganda" in the US, since the Korean War. Yes, that is linked with racism. The evidentiary standard in the media on other European countries for example is much much higher. For the most part, the racist narrative follows that places where white people are good and free, and places where non-white people are dangerous and bad. Classic racist rhetoric. With regards to the specific points the article is making: "The FBI reported the money funds nuclear weapons and operations". Is a laughable fearmongering hypcrocrisy. part of Every tax dollar in the US goes towards funding nuclear weapons and operations. But good luck trying to get reporters at Fortune to be self-aware of their hypocrisy. That's the propaganda: bad when they do it. Good or neutral when we do it. Uncritical re-printing of statements from government agents (FBI). A reporter with an evidentiary standard would ask for evidence before printing that. Last I checked there was only one country that has actually used a nuclear weapon. Objectively, I would say that country is far more dangerous.
- shmerl 1y ago1984 is a good read. North Korea is somewhere there on thought police levels.
- mvdtnz 1y ago> There's no one in north korea that isn't "an agent of the state"? That's not what he said.
- x3n0ph3n3 1y agoIs it racist if I hire happily hire South Koreans and not North Koreans? Are they a different race? If they are, I'm sure they'd be interested to hear about it.
- Tabular-Iceberg 1y agoIf it was racist rhetoric, wouldn’t it necessarily also have to implicate South Koreans as nefarious agents as well, if we’re claiming that being a nefarious agent is an intrinsic feature of the Korean race?
- slt2021 1y agothere is no such thing as Korean race, so your whole premise is wrong. NK and SK constitute separate ethno-states (due to different culture, socio-political env, upbringing), despite being very close genetically. It got to the point that each nation's name is different, South Koreans are Hanguk, while North Koreans are Chosun
- ashoeafoot 1y agoWell, they have no choice. Similar to chinese students abroad who discover freedom and then get a video call of the police visiting their parents . Its like s mafia thing, you do not volunteer to that, you are born into that slavery anf you either serve or get broken . Oh, and than there is the tanki left, refusing to acknowledge the problem, helping to undermine dissenters escapeplans by downplaying the problem . The worst are the ones with good intentions refusing the call to horror that is reality .
- mjd 1y ago“North Korean” is not a race. Whatever this is, it's not racism.
- slt2021 1y agoits called nationalist chauvinism, which is "racism", but when applied at the ethno-state level, not at the biological race level
- EGG_CREAM 1y agoWhere is “racist” even factoring into it? I see this argument all the time, mostly about North Korea or china. There is nothing racist about suspecting someone from a specific country because you don’t trust that country’s government. That is not racist and what’s more I think you know that. It think these arguments are extremely bad faith. Here’s the test: is it about race? If not, then it’s not racist. For example, if I don’t trust Chinese nationals to work at my company because I think they will steal secrets, but I absolutely don’t have that same fear about people who are ethnically Chinese but born in my country, that’s not racist. If you want to call it xenophobic, sure, I’ll buy that. But racist? You are conflating nation and race on purpose.
- plsbenice34 1y agoWhat about Australia in comparison? Australians can be legally compelled in secret courts to install backdoors in the companies in which they are employed, and gagged from telling the company itself or any journalists (see the Access and Assistance Bill). That doesn't cross the same 'agents of the state' line?
- donnachangstein 1y agoAre you seriously comparing Australia to... North Korea?
- oneshtein 1y ago[flagged]
- DaSHacka 1y agoSource?
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- itake 1y agoAnd? governments shouldn't require their citizens to introduce backdoors into private companies.
- immibis 1y agoAnd they mostly don't, but North Korea does 100% of the time.
- atoav 1y agoIt is a comparison between a North Korean practise to an apparently similar Australian practise. The ideology each state has nothing to do with the risk coming from employing people who can be compelled to follow such rules.
- suraci 1y ago[flagged]
- suraci 1y ago[flagged]
- icetank 1y agoYou cannot assume a Chinese person to be a Chinese state actor just for being Chinese. But you can assume a North Korean citizen to be a state actor as by definition he is only leagally allowed to be outside of North Korea as a state actor. Only exceptions are people who defected.
- rightbyte 1y ago> A flagged post mentions this is racist and typical anti immigration rhetoric. > That's not true, there are only two types of North Korean people you'll meet, [...] Well I see a contradiction here.
- tom_morrow 1y agoWhat’s the contradiction you see?
- slt2021 1y ago[flagged]
- keybored 1y agoWhether it is correct or not (I don’t know), that statement was based on current apparent (again, correct?) political realities, not ethnicity or race.
- rightbyte 1y ago"There are only two types of North Koreans you will meet. One with odd numbers of hair and one with an even number." Being correct or not is not the point.
- calmbell 1y agoJust to nitpick, there are North Korean defectors who are not South Korean citizens. For example, the U.S. has resettled North Korean defectors under the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_Human_Rights_Act_of_2004 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_Human_Rights_Act_...
- derelicta 1y ago[flagged]
- AlecSchueler 1y agoIt really becomes more and more obvious every day since January. It's tragic.
- derelicta 1y agoTbh, before october 7th I wasn't as radicalised as I am now. It's just kind of pathetic to see westerns claim to be the free-est free people of the whole world, without showing any form of understanding as to why NK is the way it is. This country's apparent paranoia and distaste for anything westerner is totally unrelated to the national trauma imposed by an imperial power coming from abroad, right guys?
- thworp 1y agoWhich imperial power? If the US is an imperial power for defending their local dictator, how is PRC not one for doing likewise? Is it because the Communist empires loudly screamed that they‘re anti-imperialist as they went out and conquered their empires?
- wesselbindt 1y ago> The vast majority of North Koreans outside North Korea are not defectors, instead they are controlled state assets. So, I'm not a fan of North Korea (is anyone?), but this is definitely racist rhetoric. One thing that helps me see whether I'm saying something iffy is by replacing the ethnic group I'm talking about, and replacing it with another. If the resulting statement is either silly, deeply offensive, or obvious scare mongering, typically it means the original statement is worth reconsidering.
- leereeves 1y agoNorth Koreans and South Koreans are the same race, divided only by fairly recent politics. This is nationalist, if anything, not racist. Try replacing "North Korean" with "Soviets".
- wesselbindt 1y agoNow you're just arguing semantics. "I hate Ethiopians" is just as problematic as "I hate black people". "Don't trust him, he's from Israel"
- cap11235 1y agoTo the best of my knowledge, Ethiopia isn't running international crime rings to fund nuclear ambitions.
- wesselbindt 1y agoOk, so then take Israel, whatever. Despite the ethnic cleansing that Israel is carrying out, it is not valid to look at a person with suspicion just because they're from Israel. "But it's true!" is in my opinion a poor response to accusations of prejudice. "Black people are criminals" "That's racist" "But it's true, look at the statistics!" It doesn't make the original statement any less racist.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]