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>Basically, people in North Korea do not have the freedom to choose their occupations. Once you’re assigned a job from the government, it is your lifelong job.
by crdoconnor 13y ago
>Basically, people in North Korea do not have the freedom to choose their occupations. Once you’re assigned a job from the government, it is your lifelong job.
The tour guide I had described in some detail the previous job he'd had - just weeks before becoming a tour guide. He worked at the zoo and was tasked with coordinating the exchange of animals with other countries.
He gave me the impression that he requested to become a tour guide too, in order to improve his English.
- deliminator 13y ago> Actually, most of the people working in those organizations are children of party officers or executives of wealthy foreign currency-earning organizations. I expect he had connections and/or was able to bribe his way towards becoming a tour guide. Tourism, after all, is a foreign currency earning industry.
- jonknee 13y agoWhy do you assume the government tour guide of North Korea would be honest? I'm sure it was a fascinating tour, but not one rooted in accuracy.
- crdoconnor 13y agoEqually, people who run away from North Korea might also be tempted to bend the truth, most especially when they're being paid to write about it. A lot of what they said was clearly lies. This rang true though.
- mildtrepidation 13y agoIn a place with such tight information controls, why either of you would assume any of these people had any idea what the lives and information access of the others were like is beyond me. I don't think it's any kind of contradiction to suggest that both of these things are true: That many people aren't given a choice, and that those who are do not necessarily know about the fact that others are not.