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North Korea's Official Statement

92 points by tomkwok 12y ago

TheAceOfHearts 12y ago
I'm trying to read it but something about the writing style breaks my brain. Could anyone provide a translation in American English?
- Hilyin 12y ago
  Same thing here. It started giving me a headache.
- throwaway344 12y ago
  You might find that changing the font to something more normal would help you do that.
- tomkwok 12y ago
  Maybe you can read these news articles. - http://www.businessinsider.com/north-koreas-official-statement-on-the-sony-hack-2014-12 http://www.businessinsider.com/north-koreas-official-stateme... - http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30573040 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30573040 And an "annotated version": - http://www.vox.com/2014/12/22/7434177/north-korea-sony-translated-annotated http://www.vox.com/2014/12/22/7434177/north-korea-sony-trans...
- tlrobinson 12y ago
  Someone should throw it up on RapGenius.
  - ProAm 12y ago
    You mean Genius
- twright 12y ago
  It's certainly an interesting flavor of English. Seems to be from a combination of run-on sentences, excessive political rhetoric, and bad grammar. Learn when to skip over those and you can get the gist of it. On a technical note all styling is inline and the body background should be `file:///C:/images/kabe-0.gif`.
peteretep 12y ago
I'd always assumed kcna.co.jp was meant to be parody...
- tomkwok 12y ago
  The article can also be found on http://www.kcna.kp http://www.kcna.kp, but the site is currently down, probably due to the attacks reported earlier today. Note: the IP addresses resolved is in the currently well-known block: 175.45.176.0/22. >> www.kcna.kp. 5226 IN A 175.45.177.74 >> www.kcna.kp. 5226 IN A 175.45.176.71
rustyconover 12y ago
Are they trying to long troll us? tl;dr people.
- sitkack 12y ago
  My McSweeny's subscription is paying off. Now shutup and enjoy the ride.
- edkennedy 12y ago
  What's the matter you never read Dadaist poetry? Jokes aside I found it interesting to read something you know is propaganda, the rhythm and efforts to influence were different.
exclipy 12y ago
It's interesting how clearly we see the effects of the English -> Korean -> English translator. Where Obama referred to "proportional response", this statement directly quotes it as "symmetric counteraction".
- dmix 12y ago
  Symmetric counteraction sounds more threatening while still somewhat meaning the same thing.
  - Girgio31 12y ago
    Actually it does.
willscott 12y ago
An interesting takeaway from this, perhaps, is how willing this statement is to defend and mark the 'defenders of peace' group as supporters of the regime. If an anonymous hacker attacked a cause that you supported but you didn't know what they were going to do next, would you publicly support them?
- defen 12y ago
  > If an anonymous hacker attacked a cause that you supported but you didn't know what they were going to do next, would you publicly support them? I can't even begin to contemplate the lulz that would be had if GoP turned their attention to attacking North Korea.
- edkennedy 12y ago
  The main goal with propaganda like this is to subvert other messages so they align with your own intentions. IE: Guardians of Peace hacked Sony because the US is a bully, etc.
speeder 12y ago
There is lots of rambling on the text. But from the tone of it, and from the actual text, I could understand: 1) They claim that US State Department helped in the creation of "The Interview" and that the movie promotes terrorism. 2) They claim that the Sony hack was perpetrated by terrorists, because terrorism breeds terrorism. 3) They claim they have nothing to do with the Sony hack, although they approve it. 4) They claim they are really, really angry at US behaviour of accusing them, and they will retaliate, including militarily. Interestingly enough, they don't mention their own networking getting killed.
- quink 12y ago
  > 3) They claim they have nothing to do with the Sony hack, although they approve it. Nope, they just say that the US shouldn't jump to conclusions, that they've never performed a "cyber-attack" on "south Korea" (which is irrelevant here) and that they don't know who the "GOP" are or where they are. No denials apart from that.
  - speeder 12y ago
    The FBI argument is that they are the culprit because the attack was similar to the attack on south korea. So they are denying both attacks.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
quink 12y ago
Basically, DPRK is claiming that they didn't do it and that they don't know who or where the GOP is. Here are the only two statements that could be assumed to be a denial based on the broken English present in this: > though it is not aware of their [GOP's] residence. > Yet, we do not know who or where they are but we can surely say that they are supporters and sympathizers with the DPRK. Even these two strongest denials are entirely consistent with the DPRK "hiring" the "GOP" to do this task for them. Also, two broken images: * file:///C:/images/kabe-0.gif * file:///C:/images/02mm.gif
- deckar01 12y ago
  Those images are not unique to this article. They seem to be part of the site's template.
sosedoff 12y ago
"Sony Pictures Entertainment which directly sponsored its production and distribution hastily issued a statement on Dec. 25" - probably a typo
edkennedy 12y ago
>It is said that the movie was conceived and produced according to the "guidelines" of the U.S. authorities who contended that such movies hurting the dignity of the DPRK supreme leadership and inciting terrorism against it would be used in an effective way as "propaganda against north Korea". This is what I thought the first time I heard about this movie. I thought that it's either puerile and immature or crafted and malicious (while still being immature). Then again screenwriters have always been desperate for ideas...
- arrrg 12y ago
  North Korea fascinates people in the US and Europe. (North Korea even knows that and uses that to its advantage. Just look at the tours they sell and how much those cost.) In that context it seems like quite the leap to suspect some sort of conspiracy here to get this movie made. Places that fascinate people and get their imagination going will get movies made about them and that’s that. The plot is also quite obvious. What do Americans do with tyrants? They kill them. Wow, what an outlandish trope no one ever thought of before … Make that a comedy and you get this movie. No conspiracy needed at all.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
Chevalier 12y ago
I'm just tired of the Western view of North Korea as a joke. Yes, the Kims are ludicrous. They're also monsters, some of the worst in human history, who have crushed one of the world's most beautiful and functional cultures under their brutality and insanity. Nobody considered Hitler or Stalin to be laughing matters during their purges. But somehow we can all ignore the horrific crimes of these bastards because the father was ridiculous and the son is fat. Nobody gives a damn if the Kims rape women, torture civilians, or murder innocent families so long as their victims are Korean. No, the first time we see even vaguely appropriate anger toward these dictators is when they might have hacked a goddamn MOVIE STUDIO. MacArthur was right. Truman was horribly, horribly wrong. And innocent Koreans have paid for Truman's cowardice and vanity with half a century of utter brutality. The only thing wrong with The Interview movie was that it was a comedy rather than a true story.
- vowelless 12y ago
  > MacArthur was right. Truman was horribly, horribly wrong Could you expand on this?
  - henryl 12y ago
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Truman%27s_relief_of_General_Douglas_MacArthur http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Truman%27s_relief_of_...
  - disjointrevelry 12y ago
    MacArthur publicly stated dropping nuclear weapons on the northern border of the Korean peninsula to prevent the Chinese hordes from invading was necessary to secure peace in the Korean peninsula. Truman fired him because the long-term strategy the US had with the Chinese had a threshold of military conflict that MacArthur was far surpassing. Truman and the strategists involved believed the conflict with the Chinese had to remain on the Korean peninsula. They believed MacArthur's plans to drop nuclear weapons on the Chinese side of the Korean border would escalate the conflict to a point of becoming an uncontrollable conflict in the region.
BorisMelnik 12y ago
Simply hilarious. Each sentence is more ridiculous than the next. The only reason we (NATO) has not crushed them is because of humanitarian reasons, we feel bad for their people being enslaved and fear that engaging in war would starve their people and send their already weak army into a war they are not equipped to fight.
- kushti 12y ago
  The only reason NATO hasn't crushed them is the absence of oil in North Korea.
  - devnonymous 12y ago
    This !
- nemo 12y ago
  "The only reason we (NATO) has not crushed them is because of humanitarian reasons, we feel bad for their people being enslaved and fear that engaging in war would starve their people and send their already weak army into a war they are not equipped to fight." There's also the fact that if we actually militarily threatened them there'd be thousands of missiles fired, and Seoul would be ashes. There's also a risk that they could use nuclear weapons or chemical weapons on S. Korea. N. Korea is a state that has sacrificed everything to prop up a military regime, and invests more in its military than any other part of society. S. Korea with the US as an ally would certainly win a conflict, but N. Korea could cause some seriously devastating carnage before it was over.
- ntSean 12y ago
  What sources do you have to back that statement? Its quite bold of NATO to say they're not engaging them in war because we feed bad. Remember, there isn't really a good reason to attack. They're minding their own business for the most part, albeit not handling the country in the best regard, and not aligned with our views, but that really isn't reason enough to pursue in combat. If the U.S did, what support could they provide for the refugees? Its fairly common knowledge that the U.S isn't in the best position to be supplying support.
eastbayjake 12y ago
It seems like that statement was written and translated outside the usual channels. Other press releases from today were written in much better and coherent English[1][2]. It would be odd for the English to be so good in all the other releases but so terrible in this one -- it's like a higher-up wrote it and ran it through a computer translator, then demanded it be printed verbatim without editing by an English speaker. [1] http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2014/201412/news21/20141221-01ee.html http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2014/201412/news21/20141221-01ee.... [2] http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2014/201412/news21/20141221-11ee.html http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2014/201412/news21/20141221-11ee....
- dsl 12y ago
  With the DDoS attack taking out the internet, they probably couldn't use Google Translate and had to use a locally installed tool.
dynjo 12y ago
Sony were pretty dumb to even let this movie get off the starting blocks. Did they somehow imagine it wouldn't be controversial? Free speech or not, it is in poor taste and i'm damn sure that if the protagonist had been Obama instead of Kim it would definitely not have been made. Sony, you made a bad call, you got p0wned. Take it like a man. Obama, why are you even in this conversation. DPRK, hire a better translator, yours sucks.
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  Kim wasn't the protagonist, and movies, including comedies, involving the death of and/or plots to kill actual current world leaders are nothing new.
  - dynjo 12y ago
    Not new but very very rare to include current leaders http://time.com/3640774/the-interview-sony-north-korea-movies/ http://time.com/3640774/the-interview-sony-north-korea-movie...
- stickfigure 12y ago
  Did you not see the South Park movie? The major failing of this movie is that it was going to suck. The trailer screamed "unwatchable".
ck2 12y ago
Every time I see anything out of the mouth of North Korea I think of the 20+ million starving, in forced labor camps, etc.
- rikacomet 12y ago
  please do share, if you found a picture of noteworthy legitimacy that shows even 1% of the figure quoted above i.e 20 million. (btw the population of DPRK is 24 million as per wikipedia, thus 20 million seems a lot inflated.)
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
ForFreedom 12y ago
Funny english And article on a Japanese domain.
cyphunk 12y ago
Does anyone have source for the analysis of the "program" used that the statement claims the FBI used as their grounds for the accusation? I still cannot find any details
- MDrollette 12y ago
  It's discussed here http://marcrogers.org/2014/12/21/why-i-still-dont-think-its-likely-that-north-korea-hacked-sony/ http://marcrogers.org/2014/12/21/why-i-still-dont-think-its-...
  - cyphunk 12y ago
    thanks
aligajani 12y ago
Why are the North-Koreans using a Japanese TLD?
- etrevino 12y ago
  There's a large-ish North Korean population in Japan that has some significant links to the DRPK. Many are actually used as a means to get hard currency into the country. To a limited (very limited) extent they reduce reliance on China.

92 points by tomkwok 12y ago

I'm trying to read it but something about the writing style breaks my brain. Could anyone provide a translation in American English?

Hilyin 12y ago
Same thing here. It started giving me a headache.
throwaway344 12y ago
You might find that changing the font to something more normal would help you do that.
tomkwok 12y ago
Maybe you can read these news articles. - http://www.businessinsider.com/north-koreas-official-statement-on-the-sony-hack-2014-12 http://www.businessinsider.com/north-koreas-official-stateme... - http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30573040 http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30573040 And an "annotated version": - http://www.vox.com/2014/12/22/7434177/north-korea-sony-translated-annotated http://www.vox.com/2014/12/22/7434177/north-korea-sony-trans...
tlrobinson 12y ago
Someone should throw it up on RapGenius.
- ProAm 12y ago
  You mean Genius
twright 12y ago
It's certainly an interesting flavor of English. Seems to be from a combination of run-on sentences, excessive political rhetoric, and bad grammar. Learn when to skip over those and you can get the gist of it. On a technical note all styling is inline and the body background should be `file:///C:/images/kabe-0.gif`.

peteretep 12y ago

I'd always assumed kcna.co.jp was meant to be parody...

tomkwok 12y ago
The article can also be found on http://www.kcna.kp http://www.kcna.kp, but the site is currently down, probably due to the attacks reported earlier today. Note: the IP addresses resolved is in the currently well-known block: 175.45.176.0/22. >> www.kcna.kp. 5226 IN A 175.45.177.74 >> www.kcna.kp. 5226 IN A 175.45.176.71

rustyconover 12y ago

Are they trying to long troll us? tl;dr people.

sitkack 12y ago
My McSweeny's subscription is paying off. Now shutup and enjoy the ride.
edkennedy 12y ago
What's the matter you never read Dadaist poetry? Jokes aside I found it interesting to read something you know is propaganda, the rhythm and efforts to influence were different.

exclipy 12y ago

It's interesting how clearly we see the effects of the English -> Korean -> English translator. Where Obama referred to "proportional response", this statement directly quotes it as "symmetric counteraction".

dmix 12y ago
Symmetric counteraction sounds more threatening while still somewhat meaning the same thing.
- Girgio31 12y ago
  Actually it does.

willscott 12y ago

An interesting takeaway from this, perhaps, is how willing this statement is to defend and mark the 'defenders of peace' group as supporters of the regime. If an anonymous hacker attacked a cause that you supported but you didn't know what they were going to do next, would you publicly support them?

defen 12y ago
> If an anonymous hacker attacked a cause that you supported but you didn't know what they were going to do next, would you publicly support them? I can't even begin to contemplate the lulz that would be had if GoP turned their attention to attacking North Korea.
edkennedy 12y ago
The main goal with propaganda like this is to subvert other messages so they align with your own intentions. IE: Guardians of Peace hacked Sony because the US is a bully, etc.

speeder 12y ago

There is lots of rambling on the text. But from the tone of it, and from the actual text, I could understand: 1) They claim that US State Department helped in the creation of "The Interview" and that the movie promotes terrorism. 2) They claim that the Sony hack was perpetrated by terrorists, because terrorism breeds terrorism. 3) They claim they have nothing to do with the Sony hack, although they approve it. 4) They claim they are really, really angry at US behaviour of accusing them, and they will retaliate, including militarily. Interestingly enough, they don't mention their own networking getting killed.

quink 12y ago
> 3) They claim they have nothing to do with the Sony hack, although they approve it. Nope, they just say that the US shouldn't jump to conclusions, that they've never performed a "cyber-attack" on "south Korea" (which is irrelevant here) and that they don't know who the "GOP" are or where they are. No denials apart from that.
- speeder 12y ago
  The FBI argument is that they are the culprit because the attack was similar to the attack on south korea. So they are denying both attacks.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

quink 12y ago

Basically, DPRK is claiming that they didn't do it and that they don't know who or where the GOP is. Here are the only two statements that could be assumed to be a denial based on the broken English present in this: > though it is not aware of their [GOP's] residence. > Yet, we do not know who or where they are but we can surely say that they are supporters and sympathizers with the DPRK. Even these two strongest denials are entirely consistent with the DPRK "hiring" the "GOP" to do this task for them. Also, two broken images: * file:///C:/images/kabe-0.gif * file:///C:/images/02mm.gif

deckar01 12y ago
Those images are not unique to this article. They seem to be part of the site's template.

sosedoff 12y ago

"Sony Pictures Entertainment which directly sponsored its production and distribution hastily issued a statement on Dec. 25" - probably a typo

edkennedy 12y ago

>It is said that the movie was conceived and produced according to the "guidelines" of the U.S. authorities who contended that such movies hurting the dignity of the DPRK supreme leadership and inciting terrorism against it would be used in an effective way as "propaganda against north Korea". This is what I thought the first time I heard about this movie. I thought that it's either puerile and immature or crafted and malicious (while still being immature). Then again screenwriters have always been desperate for ideas...

arrrg 12y ago
North Korea fascinates people in the US and Europe. (North Korea even knows that and uses that to its advantage. Just look at the tours they sell and how much those cost.) In that context it seems like quite the leap to suspect some sort of conspiracy here to get this movie made. Places that fascinate people and get their imagination going will get movies made about them and that’s that. The plot is also quite obvious. What do Americans do with tyrants? They kill them. Wow, what an outlandish trope no one ever thought of before … Make that a comedy and you get this movie. No conspiracy needed at all.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

Chevalier 12y ago

I'm just tired of the Western view of North Korea as a joke. Yes, the Kims are ludicrous. They're also monsters, some of the worst in human history, who have crushed one of the world's most beautiful and functional cultures under their brutality and insanity. Nobody considered Hitler or Stalin to be laughing matters during their purges. But somehow we can all ignore the horrific crimes of these bastards because the father was ridiculous and the son is fat. Nobody gives a damn if the Kims rape women, torture civilians, or murder innocent families so long as their victims are Korean. No, the first time we see even vaguely appropriate anger toward these dictators is when they might have hacked a goddamn MOVIE STUDIO. MacArthur was right. Truman was horribly, horribly wrong. And innocent Koreans have paid for Truman's cowardice and vanity with half a century of utter brutality. The only thing wrong with The Interview movie was that it was a comedy rather than a true story.

vowelless 12y ago
> MacArthur was right. Truman was horribly, horribly wrong Could you expand on this?
- henryl 12y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Truman%27s_relief_of_General_Douglas_MacArthur http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Truman%27s_relief_of_...
- disjointrevelry 12y ago
  MacArthur publicly stated dropping nuclear weapons on the northern border of the Korean peninsula to prevent the Chinese hordes from invading was necessary to secure peace in the Korean peninsula. Truman fired him because the long-term strategy the US had with the Chinese had a threshold of military conflict that MacArthur was far surpassing. Truman and the strategists involved believed the conflict with the Chinese had to remain on the Korean peninsula. They believed MacArthur's plans to drop nuclear weapons on the Chinese side of the Korean border would escalate the conflict to a point of becoming an uncontrollable conflict in the region.

BorisMelnik 12y ago

Simply hilarious. Each sentence is more ridiculous than the next. The only reason we (NATO) has not crushed them is because of humanitarian reasons, we feel bad for their people being enslaved and fear that engaging in war would starve their people and send their already weak army into a war they are not equipped to fight.

kushti 12y ago
The only reason NATO hasn't crushed them is the absence of oil in North Korea.
- devnonymous 12y ago
  This !
nemo 12y ago
"The only reason we (NATO) has not crushed them is because of humanitarian reasons, we feel bad for their people being enslaved and fear that engaging in war would starve their people and send their already weak army into a war they are not equipped to fight." There's also the fact that if we actually militarily threatened them there'd be thousands of missiles fired, and Seoul would be ashes. There's also a risk that they could use nuclear weapons or chemical weapons on S. Korea. N. Korea is a state that has sacrificed everything to prop up a military regime, and invests more in its military than any other part of society. S. Korea with the US as an ally would certainly win a conflict, but N. Korea could cause some seriously devastating carnage before it was over.
ntSean 12y ago
What sources do you have to back that statement? Its quite bold of NATO to say they're not engaging them in war because we feed bad. Remember, there isn't really a good reason to attack. They're minding their own business for the most part, albeit not handling the country in the best regard, and not aligned with our views, but that really isn't reason enough to pursue in combat. If the U.S did, what support could they provide for the refugees? Its fairly common knowledge that the U.S isn't in the best position to be supplying support.

eastbayjake 12y ago

It seems like that statement was written and translated outside the usual channels. Other press releases from today were written in much better and coherent English[1][2]. It would be odd for the English to be so good in all the other releases but so terrible in this one -- it's like a higher-up wrote it and ran it through a computer translator, then demanded it be printed verbatim without editing by an English speaker. [1] http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2014/201412/news21/20141221-01ee.html http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2014/201412/news21/20141221-01ee.... [2] http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2014/201412/news21/20141221-11ee.html http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2014/201412/news21/20141221-11ee....

dsl 12y ago
With the DDoS attack taking out the internet, they probably couldn't use Google Translate and had to use a locally installed tool.

dynjo 12y ago

Sony were pretty dumb to even let this movie get off the starting blocks. Did they somehow imagine it wouldn't be controversial? Free speech or not, it is in poor taste and i'm damn sure that if the protagonist had been Obama instead of Kim it would definitely not have been made. Sony, you made a bad call, you got p0wned. Take it like a man. Obama, why are you even in this conversation. DPRK, hire a better translator, yours sucks.

dragonwriter 12y ago
Kim wasn't the protagonist, and movies, including comedies, involving the death of and/or plots to kill actual current world leaders are nothing new.
- dynjo 12y ago
  Not new but very very rare to include current leaders http://time.com/3640774/the-interview-sony-north-korea-movies/ http://time.com/3640774/the-interview-sony-north-korea-movie...
stickfigure 12y ago
Did you not see the South Park movie? The major failing of this movie is that it was going to suck. The trailer screamed "unwatchable".

ck2 12y ago

Every time I see anything out of the mouth of North Korea I think of the 20+ million starving, in forced labor camps, etc.

rikacomet 12y ago
please do share, if you found a picture of noteworthy legitimacy that shows even 1% of the figure quoted above i.e 20 million. (btw the population of DPRK is 24 million as per wikipedia, thus 20 million seems a lot inflated.)

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

ForFreedom 12y ago

Funny english And article on a Japanese domain.

cyphunk 12y ago

Does anyone have source for the analysis of the "program" used that the statement claims the FBI used as their grounds for the accusation? I still cannot find any details

MDrollette 12y ago
It's discussed here http://marcrogers.org/2014/12/21/why-i-still-dont-think-its-likely-that-north-korea-hacked-sony/ http://marcrogers.org/2014/12/21/why-i-still-dont-think-its-...
- cyphunk 12y ago
  thanks

aligajani 12y ago

Why are the North-Koreans using a Japanese TLD?

etrevino 12y ago
There's a large-ish North Korean population in Japan that has some significant links to the DRPK. Many are actually used as a means to get hard currency into the country. To a limited (very limited) extent they reduce reliance on China.