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This surprised me. To be honest, I've seen a lot of "information" (and misinformation) about North Korea, and the media makes jokes about them to a degree that

This surprised me. To be honest, I've seen a lot of "information" (and misinformation) about North Korea, and the media makes jokes about them to a degree that it's been difficult for me to tell what's real and what's not. I knew it was probably pretty bad, but I did not know exactly how bad. There's no way they could all starve and have no internet, right? That seemed like one of the exaggerations to me. But this article implies (and what develops will likely prove) that there are in fact many serious human rights violations going on in that country though, so this helps a lot. Edit: I understand why this could be seen as ignorance, so I understand the downvotes. However, I want to clarify that my comment is more about the impact that the media has, at least on me, in actually reducing the perceived "terribleness" of North Korea. Perhaps I am just too easily influenced and uninformed.

DanBC 11y ago
We've known for a long time that NK is fucking terrible. The evidence just keeps piling up. Here's something from Oct 2013. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10413950/UN-inquiry-chief-reduced-to-tears-by-North-Korea-brutality.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10...
- TallGuyShort 11y ago
  I agree they are terrible, but it's also still true that defectors have admitted to lying, and not everything that's been said about them has been true. It's good that he has data because that can be verified, and I think we'd all agree verifying this, true or not, is what should be done.
  - hackuser 11y ago
    > it's also still true that defectors have admitted to lying It's also true that every human lies, and people in every sphere of life have admitted to it. As I posted elsewhere (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9821740 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9821740) it's interesting that so many posts are trying to cast doubt on defectors, all using the same arguments.
    - TallGuyShort 11y ago
      I'm sure you find it "interesting". I'm not casting doubt - I'm saying let's not get carried away. Are you AGAINST seeing what data he actually has?
      - akavel 11y ago
        > Are you AGAINST seeing what data he actually has? Wow, now you're straight in the face advancing a pure and explicit strawman; he didn't at any point say he's against seeing the data. Just - wow.
        TallGuyShort 11y ago
        I'm not advancing a strawman - I'm straight asking him a question, because he's responded this way to multiple people who are just saying "let's wait and see what the data says".

DanBC 11y ago

We've known for a long time that NK is fucking terrible. The evidence just keeps piling up. Here's something from Oct 2013. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10413950/UN-inquiry-chief-reduced-to-tears-by-North-Korea-brutality.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10...

TallGuyShort 11y ago
I agree they are terrible, but it's also still true that defectors have admitted to lying, and not everything that's been said about them has been true. It's good that he has data because that can be verified, and I think we'd all agree verifying this, true or not, is what should be done.
- hackuser 11y ago
  > it's also still true that defectors have admitted to lying It's also true that every human lies, and people in every sphere of life have admitted to it. As I posted elsewhere (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9821740 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9821740) it's interesting that so many posts are trying to cast doubt on defectors, all using the same arguments.
  - TallGuyShort 11y ago
    I'm sure you find it "interesting". I'm not casting doubt - I'm saying let's not get carried away. Are you AGAINST seeing what data he actually has?
    - akavel 11y ago
      > Are you AGAINST seeing what data he actually has? Wow, now you're straight in the face advancing a pure and explicit strawman; he didn't at any point say he's against seeing the data. Just - wow.
      - TallGuyShort 11y ago
        I'm not advancing a strawman - I'm straight asking him a question, because he's responded this way to multiple people who are just saying "let's wait and see what the data says".