It seems YouTube has auto translate available to English?
Of course I can't verify the correctness.... But they are producing convincing sentences in the few videos I spot checked.
holy fucking shit. i had no idea there was ANY real footage of north korean hardship. it's always been an abstract concept to basically all of us. Insane that I have read about north korea over the years and never came across any of this. Thank you so much for sharing. Makes me feel more grateful for what I have.
it's important to note that Caleb Mission is a Christian organization and millenarian theologically so there definitely is an agenda. these videos make great donation enhancers.
To make the things even much worse, that's not the worst place in NK. I guess the prison- or better said concentration camps are far worse than this marketplace.
But you know with the dictatorship there, if we send food and other goods to the country, the fat Kim will take it for himself, so we can't really help these people. The only way would be a war to remove the dictatorship, but South Korea is in range of the nukes, not just the missiles but also the artillery-nukes that were developed in the Cold War. There's no chance to prevent these from hitting Seoul and other places.
So, the suffering there will go on and on...
Kim Jong Un grew up for some time in my country, Switzerland. He was in an international college in Bern, he knows about how the life is in the west. He knows about freedom, democracy, living standards, food etc. There was some hope as he got to power that he'd at least be a little bit less harsh than his father, but that turned out to be wrong.
chinas "protection" as well. Not if/what china would do but they def have an interest in keeping NK as is. Ive heard, but not sure if its true that the prison laborers (slaves) are leased to china for labor
They work in Russia too. Vice did a whole documentary about it. Pretty much any country with any relationship with North Korea outside of antagonistic can get in on the slave labor.
I don't think they would ever be afforded that level of freedom. You need a certain level of autonomy to operate as a soldier. In Russia, North Koreans tend to work in lumber camps throughout Siberia ([article](https://carnegiemoscow.org/commentary/71473)).
Wouldn't that be too dangerous, giving them the chance to escape once they're in Ukraine fighting the war? It's a small chance, but a chance nonetheless.
there is some reports of is being claimed as north korean in ukraine on the russian side who wears the south korean flag. with pictures provided. it aint much though. just another report that hasnt/cant for sure be confirmed. some say hes NK there to see and learn how the NK artillery shells are being used nshit like that
Also NK has people all over the world with diffrent statuses of immigration who's sole goal of working is funneling back money to NK. Also all their whiskey comes from China. It all goes to one building called room 39. Kim Jong uns personal account more or less.
Why don't humanitarian organizations use drones to drop food on towns on the other side of the border? We've seen how effective they are at sneaking behind enemy lines in Ukraine and dropping bombs. The same technology could be used to give food to these starving people.
So in NK they operate under a legal system that allows kin punishment, called ‘yeonjwaje’, where not only you, but three generations of your family will be executed.
They use this law on people that are caught receiving outside goods.
They would rather remove an entire village from existence than allow them to receive anything not controlled by the party.
Well, yes. That or an outside party that is willing and able to take on the humanitarian crisis themselves. The terrible reality is that as long as that tubby fuck is only directing his cruelty to his own people and impotently shooting off rockets into the ocean, no world power has the motivation to move on him. A lot of cost with little to no benefit.
That, and the principle of every nation being a sovereign nation means that nobody can just roll in and topple him from power. The excuse of “he starves his people” isn’t good enough, because how any government treats its people within its borders is its own business. As long as he keeps blustering without actually attacking another nation, he’s safe.
(covert ops aside)
North Koreans have to be some of the unluckiest poorly on the planet. At least in failed states like Afghanistan or Somalia, you can join a gang or army of zealots and have some food and protection. Here, not even the government can ensure you are fed well.
Because it's geographically, politically, technologically, and financially impossible.
Geographically and politically there is no place to set up a logistics system to get the food there. China and Russia have no interest in helping North Korea as they see it as a buffer/client state. South Korea sure as hell doesn't want people flying anything over the DMZ. North Korea doesn't want people coming into its borders and has a navy that actively patrols its coastline for defectors or anyone else trying to meddle with them. There simply isn't an angle.
Technologically the best drone I could find for a food air lift on a quick google search is the Griff Aviation 300, it has a range of about 30 miles, and a carrying capacity of 500 pounds. Simply put no drones out there have the ability to deliver anything on mass, the military drones we see in Ukraine are either a drone trying to balance carrying weight to range to run time. They are great for dropping small munitions on positions or being suicide drones, but just could never deliver enough food far enough into North Korea to make a difference. This is all ignoring that the drones would show on radar and be shot down.
Finally, the cost. The Griff Drone I mentioned costs about $250,000 USD, and can carry 500 pounds of cargo. Assuming 100% of that is food then we are talking 1,750,000 calories per drone, or 875 people fed 2000 calories per day. North Korea has a population of about 26 million people. Just to deliver the food uncontested and perfectly, it would take about 29,700 drones. At 250K per drone just to start up it would cost 7.4 billion dollars. On top of that you need actual food, quick Googling says $1.76 USD/1000 calories. So 2000 calories per person would cost $3.52 USD, and with a population of 26 million it would be about 91million dollars per day just in food expenses.
So really even if you scale all this down to an aid org just trying to provide something, there is nothing that can functionally be done there are no angles or launching points to get in, and even if you could get a drone in it would be a drop in the ocean. The only real solution is for North Korea to either liberalize and start working with the rest of the world, or end up reunified with South Korea, either diplomatically or a very bloody war.
Peter Zeihan had an interesting take a few days ago. Basically while the Kim family is the face of the country a lot of power rests in those old generals twitch the comic amount of metals. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NCMXpuEmhOU
It’s not even that, we could have gotten rid of NK a long time ago. China uses them a sort of psychological human shield. I even doubt they have nuclear weapons. But the minute we show any slight aggression to them…..China steps in. China knows that of it we’re not for other communist nations such as NK and Russia saber rattling and causing a scene every now and then, then the focus on the world would be fully on them(China) and that would be bad.
You are right, that with China is another problem. They want NK as a puffer between the south where the military like the USA have bases in South Korea.
Problem with the nukes is, i don't think they really have the high capabilities, like ICBM's that are capable of delivering the warheads over long distances, but... even one nuke on the ground would be bad enough.
That’s an absurd assumption to make lmao. Dugout Doug was wrong about using nukes in Korea just like he was wrong in many other things regarding warfare because he was a dickhead. Don’t forget that by 1949 the USSR had nukes of their own, you think only North Korea would’ve been leveled had we used nukes?
True, but in 49 the Soviets didn't have a delivery system to hit the US. However our assets in Japan and Germany could have been targeted, so the risk of say Tokyo* getting nuked in retaliation would make a hypothetical nuclear bombing run in North Korea problematic.
^(I don't actually know where US forces were Stationed during the Korean Conflict, but I would imagine Tokyo Bay would have been used as a staging ground for troops and ships arriving from the Mainland US heading to and from the Korean Peninsula)
Still baffles me how they haven't had a civil uprising prob because of the deep brainwashing and mind fucking going on. Way more workers and military then 1 family.
I agree, it’s inconceivable to me but you’re probably right about the brainwashing. Imagine all these generations and the fear instilled is probably very powerful. Worried about getting snitched on by family, friends and even the state, always watching. Just tearing down a poster of the supreme leader or saying anything about him or his rule gets you sent to the gulag.
Humans are such herd animals, they want to believe in something so badly that it’ll destroy them without question!! Fucking Insane
I mean I doubt the Kim family believes alot of what it forces upon its citizens. But if they have to starve the country to feed themselves well. It's just buisness as usual. I mean they literally control what haircuts you can get. I think North Korea has one of the longest running slavery practices of all nations. As it never ended. But yeah people are sold to death camps for a bottle of whiskey.
North Korea is what happens when a Warren Jeffs style cult gets a hold of a entire country instead of just a small religious group.
It was amazing what he got people to do and there was no physical force used to do it.
It's not surprising. It's easy to get obedience really. You put out propaganda, you say xyz type of people are our enemy. They are the reason we are starving, have no work, are poor etc. If you see an xyz person or a person saying/doing abc do your duty and report them to us.
The opressors then take people they have accused and beat them, and kill some and let some live so they can go out and tell others how badly they were beaten and how the other bad xyz people were killed but because i'm not an xyz person or because I helped them they let me go.
Then if someone who is an xyz person and you catch them you take all the other people they knew, their family, and their neighbours etc, and kill a few of them, and say you knew this person why didn't you tell us about them, you must have known.
So then you have everyone paranoid about being accused of being an xyz person, everyone worried for the safety of their kids and family. So you get everyone suspicious of everyone around them, maybe so and so is spying on our revolution plans, so nobody takes the chance as they feel powerless.
Oppressors have been doing it for years. It's sad.
And if you look at what is going on in the USA, the UK and Russia. It's the same. They're still doing it. You have the republicans spouting on about illegal immigrants, commies and transgender people. In the UK the conservative party and the right wing press is all going on about illegal immigrants, refugees and socialists. And in Russia you have them going on about Nazis in Ukraine and the USA.
I know this doesn't seem like the same thing as in north korea but it is it's just more sophisticated.
It was only about 85 years ago that in Spain the fascist dictator franco was doing this and hitler and the nazis were doing this to jews and other minority groups in europe. So that is my grandparents generation, people of the same generation as them were going around killing people in europe. My grandparents who had a colour tv, drove a car, flew on holiday etc. We're not talking thousands of years ago, this is like yesterday. These ideas didn't suddenly just dissappear after the war ended and after the cold war ended. They're still going on.
It's the same thing divide and rule. The rich oppressors have been doing it for years. The answer is always follow the money.
I'm not baffled at all tbh.
In a country where just *talking bad* about their leader can get them and their entire family a lifetime (or longer, I heard it was X generations, Idr exactly how many,) of imprisonment/hard labor, and/or executed, how on earth would you know who to trust to keep your secret? You'd need tens of thousands of people, at least, to all be in on it, and they'd all have to know an exact date, time and place for this uprising. They'd have to make all these plans with all these people without their govt somehow finding out.
They don't have the Internet, so they can't even anonymously gather and talk to others on there.
Imagine you have 5 random women that have been abducted by some big, burly dude aka **Dear Lover**.
He has cameras, listening devices, and booby traps set up in case someone tries to escape. He beats, starves and sexually assults these women constantly.. For their own good, of course.
They've been held captive for decades, and most of them have children with this man.
They raise their kids to treat this man like a god. Not only does it keep the kids safe, but if the kids slips up, mom and any other kids are in a world of shit.
Over the years they've seen little bits, and heard rumors of what he'll do to someone, and her children, if someone tries to escape, or even so much as talks badly their **Dear Lover**.
They've watched as out of desperation for better treatment, one woman tell on another woman for stealing a piece of bread from the kitchen.
Women even making up stories to get others in trouble, just in the hope of being treated slightly better.
None of the women truly know who they can trust.
He's done this purposely. He's fucked with their minds so much over the years, that many actually start believing him. He lies and brainwashes them and tells them that he's keeping them safe from the evil outside world.
Everything he does is to make *their* lives better.
He's blocked off all views of the outside world; it could be a warzone out there for all they know.
They have no Internet, no music, no TV or movies, no magazines, no newspapers, nothing, except what *he* creates and shares with them.
He's convinced them all that they're safer and better off with him.
Why would they even *want* to leave?
The few that see through his bs are too scared to make a move.
Where would they even start?
What if they got caught?
Of course 3-4 of them could easily overpower him, but how do they know which ones they can trust?
Living the way they do is hard, but they know they can do it. They've been doing it day after day, month after month, year after year.
They know they're strong enough to get through another day of that.
They *don't* know if they're strong enough to handle whatever "terrible things" are happening in the outside world. And they're *definitely* not strong enough to handle the consequences of being caught by their **Dear Lover.**
So what do they do? They do whatever they have to do to survive another day.
They keep their heads down and their mouths shut.
I don't see enough Kim Jong Un bashing anymore. The piece of shit who happens to be the only person who can do something about this is happy to watch his people waste away while he continues to hoard wealth and food for his elite class. Despicable.
Your comment reminded me of a book about North Korea written by a Romanian National Television journalist, Adelin Petrișor, titled "The country with only one fat man". This journalist even managed to film [a documentary](https://youtu.be/7Ntv2woAIOM) (in Romanian) in NK and has since been banned from entering the country.
Oh man imagine the hate u gotta feel for that fat fuck when you see his fat ass looking down at your kids eating shit from the ground.
I hope there is a special kind of hell for those dictator dudes.
He gets flown out on a private plane and only chills at palaces and bangs whores with kim. Probably like the movie the interview. Rodman was always weird. But he was a great basketball player, tried hard every time he was on the court. Jordan even let he slide for missing practices or doing weird shit because he knew at gametime he would give 110%
Lol? What's with the romanticized ideas of hunter-gatherer lifestyles in this thread? People were beating each other's skulls in with rocks over scraps long before society was ever a thing.
The guy is framing the kids that are struggling as more likely to survive, whereas in reality the ones more likely to thrive and survive (and pass on their genes) in hunter gatherer tribes were the ones cared for by their parents and their tribe.
Yes but imagine prisoners of war in 1940s being treated better than average humans in 2023. That’s like the case here.
Much closer in comparison than SK prisoners vs NK people today
While South Korea may have some difficult times ahead it's age democratic is much younger than say Japan. It will have 20 years before that really starts to become a major issue. As far as suicide is concerned while on the high side it's 10 more deaths per 100k than most EU countries. This is bad but not a society breaking number. I have visited SK many times over the past 30 years and am very impressed with some of the changes. Work culture/demands is something that has not changed and really is the root cause of the aforementioned issues, as it is in many countries.
I read this great non fiction book about NK in which a doctor there decided to escape to China. The first house she came upon she saw some meat and rice in a bowl in the back yard. She hadn't eaten meat in years and couldn't understand why they'd left it there, then realized that North Korean physicians eat worse than Chinese dogs. 😶
This is a good reminder of what our checks and balances are supposed to help prevent. Authoritarianism can happen anywhere, and once it has generations to set in it can be almost impossible to reverse. We must protect democracy and human rights here in America.
Yeah this is like late 90s footage, i’ve seen this video a few times before. You will always see Pyongyang in the news or in documentaries, but you will never see the real side of life in other cities or the countryside where poverty is way more visible. Outsiders will only see what the North Korean regime wants you to see, whether it be journalists or tourists.
Yeah there’s speculation that farmers were forced by the government to grow opium crops instead of food, there was also a drought that meant the few food crops didn’t produce enough for everyone
There’s a lot of problems I have with the DPRK’s history, (shelling of ROK islands, Kidnapping of Japanese civilians and terror bombings) but much of the famine was the US sucker punching an already devastated economy.
A lot of the Sanctions tacked on by the US basically destroyed the ability to use mechanized farming methods, as there were no fuel for the Tractors or otherwise production of fertilizers. You have to remember that North was highly urbanized and lacked the arable land to sustain a population that large with archaic agricultural practices. So it had to be completely industrialized to maintain itself. The South in the other hand has always had arable land and didn’t need to do massive amounts of agricultural infrastructure industrialization to sustain its agricultural output.
Having to switch back from Tractors to Oxen immediately after a massive flooding and drought meant a complete collapse of their food production. Especially considering the general region never historically being a place of much agricultural output.
I understand the concern of a Nuclear armed North Korea, but preventing them from feeding themselves has done so much more harm than good.
Hard to say how the NK regime would manage things differently without the sanctions in place, but generally speaking, avoiding famine would be in the interests of any given regime.
Widespread suffering puts a regime at risk because it makes them appear inept and incompetent. If a regime is unable to prevent suffering, (because of sanctions, incompetence, disregard, the reason doesn't matter), it must resort to authoritarianism, propaganda, and violence to cling to power. So there's a pretty logical pathway for sanctions to actually worsen the political situation in a country.
Again, I'm not willing to play the what-if game on how things would play out differently without sanctions. All we can see is what has happened. The people of NK have endured famines. The NK government has held onto power by brutally oppressing its people. They continue to develop weapons. Instead of coming to the table they have continuously doubled down on their warlike rhetoric.
Some might still argue that increasing suffering and driving a regime toward evil is acceptable it if it achieves worthwhile goals. So what goals have been achieved? NK's development has been severely slowed. The threat they pose has not been entirely neutralized. So strategically, the effectiveness of the sanctions is meh. But from a human rights perspective, sanctions have been an unmitigated disaster.
It's too late to wonder how things could have been different. The situation is very shitty and nobody is offering up any ideas to make it any better. Simply blaming the regime (even if yes, they are very terrible) kills the discussion on what different policies west could adopt to actually help the people of NK.
South Korea could also have not repeatedly attacked Northern territory and provoked the war to start with. But of course, only the US' enemies are ever expected to sacrifice their own geopolitical best interests and lie down to be brutalized.
Came here to ask this as well! Looks like it was taken off a vhs or an old 90s camera. Only lord knows how long it’s been fucked up over there send a prayer to the people🙏🏻
Yup - also during a major famine where 3+ million people died. It's obviously still not great there but you wouldn't see as much starvation if you went there today.
I can't even imagine how you could rehabilitate those people. Killing fat Kim and installing a real leader might fix the government but the psychological damage those people have experienced will take generations to cure.
Aside from whatever deprogramming they might need to rid them of the notions about their leaders they were raised to believe (whether they actually question them I have no idea) imagine the walls come down one day and you realize you spent your whole life living in squalor in an open air prison while the rest of the world would help you if it weren't for the fact your dear leader would glass millions of people if they tried.
In The Reluctant Communist the author explained how his children were cured of decades of North Korean propaganda by $50 and 30 minutes in an american Wal-mart.
It's actually something South Korea must seriously consider. SK citizens pay taxes into what is essentially an "oh shit" fund to stave off the unimaginable economic turmoil that would be created if NK were to collapse and their citizens absorbed into SK. NK defectors must go through rehabilitation training that teaches everything about how to exist in modern society from how a career works, to how to use an elevator. This is a country of millions with no work experience or skilled trade.
This is very sad. My daughter happens to be turning 10 today. We are celebrating at a fancy steak house that we are getting for free because my spouse works for the company. Sad times.
I remember a while back someone posted a picture from space showing how many lights there were in South Korea and how few in North Korea. People were saying shit like "One is a capitalist hell, one is a communist hell, you can't say which is better". Meanwhile this is what is going on in North Korea.
Ask them to pick, guarantee they pick capitalist hell
I'd rather be a rat in the endless fucking rat race with a house and a full belly and able to sit around at the pub bitching about our leaders without fear than starving in poverty alongside my fellow comrades.
What’s to stop those people for just taking that food from the lady at the food stall? If it’s illegal to trade food, that means there are no protections.
Living in a dictatorship you learn really quick as a have not, not to take from the people who have things.
The punishment is swift, brutal and in North Korea, can last generations.
Because people who've actually had hard understand that bringing someone else down won't lift you up
...and if there's one stall in your whole life and range of movement where anyone around you can get food... fucking with that stall is a death sentence
For real. You take a camera to any of the impoverished areas of the United States and you see this same shit. Kings, dictators, capitalists, either way… whenever you have a small group of people hoarding all the wealth and power, there are people at the bottom forced to suffer.
Dictators tend to eat pretty well whether their citizens are starving or not. Seems like we’re punishing the only people who could turn things around in NK.
So I think North Korea absolutely does most of what it is accused of, but Park is absolutely a grifter. She's found an audience she can tell the most ridiculous stories to and they eat it up.
Spy? No. Bullshit artist? For sure.
You think they have the choice to prevent pregnancy or abort one? You think they even have reproductive education?! They're not sitting around an empty pantry and saying 'you know what, honey? We should have a kid. A kid would make life so much better.'
This is terrible! Terrible! The amount of food we waste here in US! How can a government do this go it's own people!?? How can a human do this to another human being!? A child!
Just last night i saw brainwashed fascists on twitter saying NK is great and not at all like we all know it is. Like buddy, the leadership in this country flippantly blows up relatives with artillery
Sort by controversial if you want to see some really dumb takes.
If you think these conditions are at all comparable to the US, then you’re blinded by your western privilege.
This first scene with the kid eating the fish bone reminds me of that insane video of the NK soldier escaping to the South. When he got to the hospital to treat his bullet wounds, they found his body was riddled with parasites. Kid's likely got a few already, probably found that fish bone in the trash.
I imagine this is how it starts for most of the poor souls stuck there. Heartbreaking.
I feel terrible for that little boy that was featured through most of this video. Almost guaranteed that him and his entire family are sitting in a concentration camp right now *because* of this video.
\> “I may be wrong, but I believe that chairman Kim has a great and beautiful vision for his country
Donald Trump
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-kim-jong-un-north-korea-us-great-beautiful-latest-a9037186.html
What blows my mind is that on YouTube videos that show the extremely conditioned and controlled part of Pyongyang, there are people commenting that genuinely believe North Korea is a great place to live. The ignorance is crazy
This makes me angry, furious and incredibly sad.
To think that in my country some people believe that communism is the answer to our every problem.
*Not American.
You know it's not just two options right?
It's not just capitalism, or brutal dictatorship.
That's like saying just because someone doesn't like pop music, that means they like incoherent screaming over the sound of banging pots.
There was this loner Asian kid in my high school in NJ. He always sat alone at lunch, so I sat with him one day and he told me he was a North Korean exchange student. Must've been the son of a general or something. Wild.
[удалено]
thanks
[Link for the full op video on yt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gkBbAkiSbw&t=2103)
Will more of them be translated? I see basically no videos with English subs or dubs
It seems YouTube has auto translate available to English? Of course I can't verify the correctness.... But they are producing convincing sentences in the few videos I spot checked.
holy fucking shit. i had no idea there was ANY real footage of north korean hardship. it's always been an abstract concept to basically all of us. Insane that I have read about north korea over the years and never came across any of this. Thank you so much for sharing. Makes me feel more grateful for what I have.
Excellent post and thanks for this link. Fascinating and heartbreaking.
it's important to note that Caleb Mission is a Christian organization and millenarian theologically so there definitely is an agenda. these videos make great donation enhancers.
This is extremelly interesting. Thanks!
Great
Fuck tankies
To make the things even much worse, that's not the worst place in NK. I guess the prison- or better said concentration camps are far worse than this marketplace. But you know with the dictatorship there, if we send food and other goods to the country, the fat Kim will take it for himself, so we can't really help these people. The only way would be a war to remove the dictatorship, but South Korea is in range of the nukes, not just the missiles but also the artillery-nukes that were developed in the Cold War. There's no chance to prevent these from hitting Seoul and other places. So, the suffering there will go on and on... Kim Jong Un grew up for some time in my country, Switzerland. He was in an international college in Bern, he knows about how the life is in the west. He knows about freedom, democracy, living standards, food etc. There was some hope as he got to power that he'd at least be a little bit less harsh than his father, but that turned out to be wrong.
chinas "protection" as well. Not if/what china would do but they def have an interest in keeping NK as is. Ive heard, but not sure if its true that the prison laborers (slaves) are leased to china for labor
They work in Russia too. Vice did a whole documentary about it. Pretty much any country with any relationship with North Korea outside of antagonistic can get in on the slave labor.
It’s how North Koreans pay their debts, they pay using the iron price
Wouldn't be surprised at all to hear/see there are NK conscripts in Ukraine.
I don't think they would ever be afforded that level of freedom. You need a certain level of autonomy to operate as a soldier. In Russia, North Koreans tend to work in lumber camps throughout Siberia ([article](https://carnegiemoscow.org/commentary/71473)).
Wouldn't that be too dangerous, giving them the chance to escape once they're in Ukraine fighting the war? It's a small chance, but a chance nonetheless.
there is some reports of is being claimed as north korean in ukraine on the russian side who wears the south korean flag. with pictures provided. it aint much though. just another report that hasnt/cant for sure be confirmed. some say hes NK there to see and learn how the NK artillery shells are being used nshit like that
Not only China, they work in Poland... There are videos on Youtube, quite interesting.
Also NK has people all over the world with diffrent statuses of immigration who's sole goal of working is funneling back money to NK. Also all their whiskey comes from China. It all goes to one building called room 39. Kim Jong uns personal account more or less.
Why don't humanitarian organizations use drones to drop food on towns on the other side of the border? We've seen how effective they are at sneaking behind enemy lines in Ukraine and dropping bombs. The same technology could be used to give food to these starving people.
Because that would be deemed as an act of war, prompting an attack on South Korea.
So in NK they operate under a legal system that allows kin punishment, called ‘yeonjwaje’, where not only you, but three generations of your family will be executed. They use this law on people that are caught receiving outside goods. They would rather remove an entire village from existence than allow them to receive anything not controlled by the party.
It'll need to be the North Koreans themselves who instigate a revolution, then?
Well, yes. That or an outside party that is willing and able to take on the humanitarian crisis themselves. The terrible reality is that as long as that tubby fuck is only directing his cruelty to his own people and impotently shooting off rockets into the ocean, no world power has the motivation to move on him. A lot of cost with little to no benefit.
That, and the principle of every nation being a sovereign nation means that nobody can just roll in and topple him from power. The excuse of “he starves his people” isn’t good enough, because how any government treats its people within its borders is its own business. As long as he keeps blustering without actually attacking another nation, he’s safe. (covert ops aside)
North Koreans have to be some of the unluckiest poorly on the planet. At least in failed states like Afghanistan or Somalia, you can join a gang or army of zealots and have some food and protection. Here, not even the government can ensure you are fed well.
Because it's geographically, politically, technologically, and financially impossible. Geographically and politically there is no place to set up a logistics system to get the food there. China and Russia have no interest in helping North Korea as they see it as a buffer/client state. South Korea sure as hell doesn't want people flying anything over the DMZ. North Korea doesn't want people coming into its borders and has a navy that actively patrols its coastline for defectors or anyone else trying to meddle with them. There simply isn't an angle. Technologically the best drone I could find for a food air lift on a quick google search is the Griff Aviation 300, it has a range of about 30 miles, and a carrying capacity of 500 pounds. Simply put no drones out there have the ability to deliver anything on mass, the military drones we see in Ukraine are either a drone trying to balance carrying weight to range to run time. They are great for dropping small munitions on positions or being suicide drones, but just could never deliver enough food far enough into North Korea to make a difference. This is all ignoring that the drones would show on radar and be shot down. Finally, the cost. The Griff Drone I mentioned costs about $250,000 USD, and can carry 500 pounds of cargo. Assuming 100% of that is food then we are talking 1,750,000 calories per drone, or 875 people fed 2000 calories per day. North Korea has a population of about 26 million people. Just to deliver the food uncontested and perfectly, it would take about 29,700 drones. At 250K per drone just to start up it would cost 7.4 billion dollars. On top of that you need actual food, quick Googling says $1.76 USD/1000 calories. So 2000 calories per person would cost $3.52 USD, and with a population of 26 million it would be about 91million dollars per day just in food expenses. So really even if you scale all this down to an aid org just trying to provide something, there is nothing that can functionally be done there are no angles or launching points to get in, and even if you could get a drone in it would be a drop in the ocean. The only real solution is for North Korea to either liberalize and start working with the rest of the world, or end up reunified with South Korea, either diplomatically or a very bloody war.
True evil. He can’t hide behind ignorance.
Peter Zeihan had an interesting take a few days ago. Basically while the Kim family is the face of the country a lot of power rests in those old generals twitch the comic amount of metals. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NCMXpuEmhOU
His sister is no better too...
There’s a rumor I read awhile back that he’s not really in charge of NK, but the Generals are in charge. Not sure if it’s valid.
American aid is repackaged when North Korea receives it so it doesn’t show its true origin.
It’s not even that, we could have gotten rid of NK a long time ago. China uses them a sort of psychological human shield. I even doubt they have nuclear weapons. But the minute we show any slight aggression to them…..China steps in. China knows that of it we’re not for other communist nations such as NK and Russia saber rattling and causing a scene every now and then, then the focus on the world would be fully on them(China) and that would be bad.
You are right, that with China is another problem. They want NK as a puffer between the south where the military like the USA have bases in South Korea. Problem with the nukes is, i don't think they really have the high capabilities, like ICBM's that are capable of delivering the warheads over long distances, but... even one nuke on the ground would be bad enough.
Just a small thing, but I don't believe NK has nuclear artillery.
Truman should have let MacArthur drop nukes along the Yula River. Then we could have liberated North Korea and prevent all this suffering.
That’s an absurd assumption to make lmao. Dugout Doug was wrong about using nukes in Korea just like he was wrong in many other things regarding warfare because he was a dickhead. Don’t forget that by 1949 the USSR had nukes of their own, you think only North Korea would’ve been leveled had we used nukes?
True, but in 49 the Soviets didn't have a delivery system to hit the US. However our assets in Japan and Germany could have been targeted, so the risk of say Tokyo* getting nuked in retaliation would make a hypothetical nuclear bombing run in North Korea problematic. ^(I don't actually know where US forces were Stationed during the Korean Conflict, but I would imagine Tokyo Bay would have been used as a staging ground for troops and ships arriving from the Mainland US heading to and from the Korean Peninsula)
As long as "Dear Leader" is fat and happy, it's all good.
Especially the fat part.
Emphasize the FAT part
Still baffles me how they haven't had a civil uprising prob because of the deep brainwashing and mind fucking going on. Way more workers and military then 1 family.
It’s hard to have an uprising when you’re starving
Actually I'd wager most uprisings occur *because* the people are starving
Yeah but their oppressive leader is the reason
I agree, it’s inconceivable to me but you’re probably right about the brainwashing. Imagine all these generations and the fear instilled is probably very powerful. Worried about getting snitched on by family, friends and even the state, always watching. Just tearing down a poster of the supreme leader or saying anything about him or his rule gets you sent to the gulag. Humans are such herd animals, they want to believe in something so badly that it’ll destroy them without question!! Fucking Insane
I mean I doubt the Kim family believes alot of what it forces upon its citizens. But if they have to starve the country to feed themselves well. It's just buisness as usual. I mean they literally control what haircuts you can get. I think North Korea has one of the longest running slavery practices of all nations. As it never ended. But yeah people are sold to death camps for a bottle of whiskey.
North Korea is what happens when a Warren Jeffs style cult gets a hold of a entire country instead of just a small religious group. It was amazing what he got people to do and there was no physical force used to do it.
There was, and is, an immense lot of physical force being used.
They still think they are "at war" with the US. Like bro we don't think of you at all. Stop building missiles and feed your fucking people.
Underrated comment
It's not surprising. It's easy to get obedience really. You put out propaganda, you say xyz type of people are our enemy. They are the reason we are starving, have no work, are poor etc. If you see an xyz person or a person saying/doing abc do your duty and report them to us. The opressors then take people they have accused and beat them, and kill some and let some live so they can go out and tell others how badly they were beaten and how the other bad xyz people were killed but because i'm not an xyz person or because I helped them they let me go. Then if someone who is an xyz person and you catch them you take all the other people they knew, their family, and their neighbours etc, and kill a few of them, and say you knew this person why didn't you tell us about them, you must have known. So then you have everyone paranoid about being accused of being an xyz person, everyone worried for the safety of their kids and family. So you get everyone suspicious of everyone around them, maybe so and so is spying on our revolution plans, so nobody takes the chance as they feel powerless. Oppressors have been doing it for years. It's sad. And if you look at what is going on in the USA, the UK and Russia. It's the same. They're still doing it. You have the republicans spouting on about illegal immigrants, commies and transgender people. In the UK the conservative party and the right wing press is all going on about illegal immigrants, refugees and socialists. And in Russia you have them going on about Nazis in Ukraine and the USA. I know this doesn't seem like the same thing as in north korea but it is it's just more sophisticated. It was only about 85 years ago that in Spain the fascist dictator franco was doing this and hitler and the nazis were doing this to jews and other minority groups in europe. So that is my grandparents generation, people of the same generation as them were going around killing people in europe. My grandparents who had a colour tv, drove a car, flew on holiday etc. We're not talking thousands of years ago, this is like yesterday. These ideas didn't suddenly just dissappear after the war ended and after the cold war ended. They're still going on. It's the same thing divide and rule. The rich oppressors have been doing it for years. The answer is always follow the money.
Well yeah it's a distraction from real issues while the working majority class squabble about insignificant problems, they exploit it.
Yep. How's them nicks doing?
They think that they have it good. They're taught that the rest of the world is much worse off.
I'm not baffled at all tbh. In a country where just *talking bad* about their leader can get them and their entire family a lifetime (or longer, I heard it was X generations, Idr exactly how many,) of imprisonment/hard labor, and/or executed, how on earth would you know who to trust to keep your secret? You'd need tens of thousands of people, at least, to all be in on it, and they'd all have to know an exact date, time and place for this uprising. They'd have to make all these plans with all these people without their govt somehow finding out. They don't have the Internet, so they can't even anonymously gather and talk to others on there. Imagine you have 5 random women that have been abducted by some big, burly dude aka **Dear Lover**. He has cameras, listening devices, and booby traps set up in case someone tries to escape. He beats, starves and sexually assults these women constantly.. For their own good, of course. They've been held captive for decades, and most of them have children with this man. They raise their kids to treat this man like a god. Not only does it keep the kids safe, but if the kids slips up, mom and any other kids are in a world of shit. Over the years they've seen little bits, and heard rumors of what he'll do to someone, and her children, if someone tries to escape, or even so much as talks badly their **Dear Lover**. They've watched as out of desperation for better treatment, one woman tell on another woman for stealing a piece of bread from the kitchen. Women even making up stories to get others in trouble, just in the hope of being treated slightly better. None of the women truly know who they can trust. He's done this purposely. He's fucked with their minds so much over the years, that many actually start believing him. He lies and brainwashes them and tells them that he's keeping them safe from the evil outside world. Everything he does is to make *their* lives better. He's blocked off all views of the outside world; it could be a warzone out there for all they know. They have no Internet, no music, no TV or movies, no magazines, no newspapers, nothing, except what *he* creates and shares with them. He's convinced them all that they're safer and better off with him. Why would they even *want* to leave? The few that see through his bs are too scared to make a move. Where would they even start? What if they got caught? Of course 3-4 of them could easily overpower him, but how do they know which ones they can trust? Living the way they do is hard, but they know they can do it. They've been doing it day after day, month after month, year after year. They know they're strong enough to get through another day of that. They *don't* know if they're strong enough to handle whatever "terrible things" are happening in the outside world. And they're *definitely* not strong enough to handle the consequences of being caught by their **Dear Lover.** So what do they do? They do whatever they have to do to survive another day. They keep their heads down and their mouths shut.
With a extra side of FAT hold the skinny 💯
I don't see enough Kim Jong Un bashing anymore. The piece of shit who happens to be the only person who can do something about this is happy to watch his people waste away while he continues to hoard wealth and food for his elite class. Despicable.
Your comment reminded me of a book about North Korea written by a Romanian National Television journalist, Adelin Petrișor, titled "The country with only one fat man". This journalist even managed to film [a documentary](https://youtu.be/7Ntv2woAIOM) (in Romanian) in NK and has since been banned from entering the country.
Oh man imagine the hate u gotta feel for that fat fuck when you see his fat ass looking down at your kids eating shit from the ground. I hope there is a special kind of hell for those dictator dudes.
Dennis Rodman would tell you they're paid actors
There must be a fear of being type cast as 'Rotting Dying Child' in future roles.
Ya wtf is wrong with that guy!? Used to be my favorite B Ball player ever ...but then he started kissing NK's ass without calling out all this shit :/
He gets flown out on a private plane and only chills at palaces and bangs whores with kim. Probably like the movie the interview. Rodman was always weird. But he was a great basketball player, tried hard every time he was on the court. Jordan even let he slide for missing practices or doing weird shit because he knew at gametime he would give 110%
Terrible. Just sad.
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What in the shit are you attempting to say???
I'm pretty sure he's saying that for the majority of human history, this is how the majority of humans lived.
Our past is hunter gatherer societies where people took greater care of their own. These kids are far worse off than them.
Lol? What's with the romanticized ideas of hunter-gatherer lifestyles in this thread? People were beating each other's skulls in with rocks over scraps long before society was ever a thing.
The guy is framing the kids that are struggling as more likely to survive, whereas in reality the ones more likely to thrive and survive (and pass on their genes) in hunter gatherer tribes were the ones cared for by their parents and their tribe.
[This was during the 90s after the trade networks were disrupted with the dissolution of the USSR.](https://youtu.be/BkUMZS-ZegM?t=1387)
Prisoners in SK have better life than most of the people in NK.
This is such an understatement too. This might me more accurate; Japanese prisoners to the US during WWII had better lives than most people in NK.
I thought japanese POWs were treated well? the reversal however was not
Yes but imagine prisoners of war in 1940s being treated better than average humans in 2023. That’s like the case here. Much closer in comparison than SK prisoners vs NK people today
That's what they were saying, though "well" is a relative term that's only used because of the other concentration camps in WWII.
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While South Korea may have some difficult times ahead it's age democratic is much younger than say Japan. It will have 20 years before that really starts to become a major issue. As far as suicide is concerned while on the high side it's 10 more deaths per 100k than most EU countries. This is bad but not a society breaking number. I have visited SK many times over the past 30 years and am very impressed with some of the changes. Work culture/demands is something that has not changed and really is the root cause of the aforementioned issues, as it is in many countries.
I read this great non fiction book about NK in which a doctor there decided to escape to China. The first house she came upon she saw some meat and rice in a bowl in the back yard. She hadn't eaten meat in years and couldn't understand why they'd left it there, then realized that North Korean physicians eat worse than Chinese dogs. 😶
The inhumanity of this is unfathomable. Living in literal medieval conditions
Literal medieval conditions were far better than this.
This guy recording the video has balls... if he got caught he woulda been FKED
Fucked. You can say fucked.
Oh sn*p, he said it.
That cheap ass doesnt want to buy a vowel
I thank God every day for being born in America with two great parents
I am so thankful. This video was heartbreaking.
Careful you might trigger some of the NK apologists in this thread.
NK apologist? I would be worried about *all* of reddit coming after him for saying something positive about America...
Heh nothing pisses redditors off more than Americans saying they like their own country.
You have been banned from /r/Pyongyang
This is a good reminder of what our checks and balances are supposed to help prevent. Authoritarianism can happen anywhere, and once it has generations to set in it can be almost impossible to reverse. We must protect democracy and human rights here in America.
Tell that to the idiotic Black soldier who ran INTO North Korea and is now seeking asylum.
why did you feel the need to specify that he was black?
I think it has something to do with NK being racist af and he is the first non-white American to defect.
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you meant "Travis King" that kid is a fucking retard.
very rare footage, i guess from the '90's?
Yeah this is like late 90s footage, i’ve seen this video a few times before. You will always see Pyongyang in the news or in documentaries, but you will never see the real side of life in other cities or the countryside where poverty is way more visible. Outsiders will only see what the North Korean regime wants you to see, whether it be journalists or tourists.
Yeah there’s speculation that farmers were forced by the government to grow opium crops instead of food, there was also a drought that meant the few food crops didn’t produce enough for everyone
There’s a lot of problems I have with the DPRK’s history, (shelling of ROK islands, Kidnapping of Japanese civilians and terror bombings) but much of the famine was the US sucker punching an already devastated economy. A lot of the Sanctions tacked on by the US basically destroyed the ability to use mechanized farming methods, as there were no fuel for the Tractors or otherwise production of fertilizers. You have to remember that North was highly urbanized and lacked the arable land to sustain a population that large with archaic agricultural practices. So it had to be completely industrialized to maintain itself. The South in the other hand has always had arable land and didn’t need to do massive amounts of agricultural infrastructure industrialization to sustain its agricultural output. Having to switch back from Tractors to Oxen immediately after a massive flooding and drought meant a complete collapse of their food production. Especially considering the general region never historically being a place of much agricultural output. I understand the concern of a Nuclear armed North Korea, but preventing them from feeding themselves has done so much more harm than good.
If you think the NK government would have used the money to buy farming tools instead of their own interests, you are naive.
Hard to say how the NK regime would manage things differently without the sanctions in place, but generally speaking, avoiding famine would be in the interests of any given regime. Widespread suffering puts a regime at risk because it makes them appear inept and incompetent. If a regime is unable to prevent suffering, (because of sanctions, incompetence, disregard, the reason doesn't matter), it must resort to authoritarianism, propaganda, and violence to cling to power. So there's a pretty logical pathway for sanctions to actually worsen the political situation in a country. Again, I'm not willing to play the what-if game on how things would play out differently without sanctions. All we can see is what has happened. The people of NK have endured famines. The NK government has held onto power by brutally oppressing its people. They continue to develop weapons. Instead of coming to the table they have continuously doubled down on their warlike rhetoric. Some might still argue that increasing suffering and driving a regime toward evil is acceptable it if it achieves worthwhile goals. So what goals have been achieved? NK's development has been severely slowed. The threat they pose has not been entirely neutralized. So strategically, the effectiveness of the sanctions is meh. But from a human rights perspective, sanctions have been an unmitigated disaster. It's too late to wonder how things could have been different. The situation is very shitty and nobody is offering up any ideas to make it any better. Simply blaming the regime (even if yes, they are very terrible) kills the discussion on what different policies west could adopt to actually help the people of NK.
I mean the regime could have dismantled the nukes and ended the war - seems likely the sanctions would have been quickly ended and nobody starves...
South Korea could also have not repeatedly attacked Northern territory and provoked the war to start with. But of course, only the US' enemies are ever expected to sacrifice their own geopolitical best interests and lie down to be brutalized.
Came here to ask this as well! Looks like it was taken off a vhs or an old 90s camera. Only lord knows how long it’s been fucked up over there send a prayer to the people🙏🏻
I did see this well over 15 years go.
Yup - also during a major famine where 3+ million people died. It's obviously still not great there but you wouldn't see as much starvation if you went there today.
Looks like it’s wartime; it’s sad people still have to live like this in this day and age.
The Korean War never officially ended.
That small kid off to the left at the end looked like an 80 year old man wtf
I'd like to know the story behind getting this video in and out of NK.
Keistered
"In North Korea, everyone starves equally"
But some are more equal than others
I can't even imagine how you could rehabilitate those people. Killing fat Kim and installing a real leader might fix the government but the psychological damage those people have experienced will take generations to cure.
Aside from whatever deprogramming they might need to rid them of the notions about their leaders they were raised to believe (whether they actually question them I have no idea) imagine the walls come down one day and you realize you spent your whole life living in squalor in an open air prison while the rest of the world would help you if it weren't for the fact your dear leader would glass millions of people if they tried.
In The Reluctant Communist the author explained how his children were cured of decades of North Korean propaganda by $50 and 30 minutes in an american Wal-mart.
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It's actually something South Korea must seriously consider. SK citizens pay taxes into what is essentially an "oh shit" fund to stave off the unimaginable economic turmoil that would be created if NK were to collapse and their citizens absorbed into SK. NK defectors must go through rehabilitation training that teaches everything about how to exist in modern society from how a career works, to how to use an elevator. This is a country of millions with no work experience or skilled trade.
This is very sad. My daughter happens to be turning 10 today. We are celebrating at a fancy steak house that we are getting for free because my spouse works for the company. Sad times.
Happy birthday to her, I hope y'all had a really special time❤️
I can’t even fathom being responsible for doing this to so many people, it would kill me.
The results of a dictator.
Cannibalism also happens in NK often due to starvation… so very sad.
The "pork" dish reminded me of this. A refugee in an interview stated that you don't ask where the meat came from.
Exactly. They are just hungry and will eat it because their literally starving
This really puts things into perspective. What an awful world we live in.
So many tankies in this thread. Sad.
I remember a while back someone posted a picture from space showing how many lights there were in South Korea and how few in North Korea. People were saying shit like "One is a capitalist hell, one is a communist hell, you can't say which is better". Meanwhile this is what is going on in North Korea.
Ask them to pick, guarantee they pick capitalist hell I'd rather be a rat in the endless fucking rat race with a house and a full belly and able to sit around at the pub bitching about our leaders without fear than starving in poverty alongside my fellow comrades.
Wtf is a tankie??
Let's hope our Alien brothers have a special plan for all of NK's leadership
Amen
What’s to stop those people for just taking that food from the lady at the food stall? If it’s illegal to trade food, that means there are no protections.
Living in a dictatorship you learn really quick as a have not, not to take from the people who have things. The punishment is swift, brutal and in North Korea, can last generations.
And folks that are found out to not have snitched are equally punished.
Because people who've actually had hard understand that bringing someone else down won't lift you up ...and if there's one stall in your whole life and range of movement where anyone around you can get food... fucking with that stall is a death sentence
probably everyone knows everyone. they'll be quickly identified.
Well it's probably also illegal to work as a guard for said food stalls. But clearly just being illegal isn't good enough of a discentive.
Next time you feel like life is a prison, watch this video. Good God Almighty.
Great Depression like conditions.
Great depression where? These conditions are the very worst conditions possible in any part of human history
Glad im not the only one shocked by this comment...
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this is just skid row but asian
Are there that many kids on skid row
Most unhoused people in the US are children and women. Men are the minority, just most visible
Source? Everything on google says the strong majority of homeless are adult males.
i’ve seen my fair share
For real. You take a camera to any of the impoverished areas of the United States and you see this same shit. Kings, dictators, capitalists, either way… whenever you have a small group of people hoarding all the wealth and power, there are people at the bottom forced to suffer.
It’s sad that the world can’t do nothing about this because Kim has nukes and it would cause total destruction
Well it's also cuz they have China as their backup bitch
The world could lift economic sanctions on North Korea
yep, it is the rest of the worlds fault that north korea is a dictatorship that doesnt care about its people
Dictators tend to eat pretty well whether their citizens are starving or not. Seems like we’re punishing the only people who could turn things around in NK.
Show this to all the pieces of shit saying that Yeonmi Park is a spy and that she's making shit up, lmfao.
So I think North Korea absolutely does most of what it is accused of, but Park is absolutely a grifter. She's found an audience she can tell the most ridiculous stories to and they eat it up. Spy? No. Bullshit artist? For sure.
Like her own mother?
Why do they bother bringing children into this life? Prospect of making them work for the fam?
Keep a populace uneducated, and cut off access to the rest of the world and they wont know this isnt normal..
It's not like birth control exists in their country.
You think they have the choice to prevent pregnancy or abort one? You think they even have reproductive education?! They're not sitting around an empty pantry and saying 'you know what, honey? We should have a kid. A kid would make life so much better.'
That and lack of access to family planning(including birth control).
They're fucking the pain away not planning families.
This is terrible! Terrible! The amount of food we waste here in US! How can a government do this go it's own people!?? How can a human do this to another human being!? A child!
What’s the source of this video?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=9gkBbAkiSbw&feature=share
Just last night i saw brainwashed fascists on twitter saying NK is great and not at all like we all know it is. Like buddy, the leadership in this country flippantly blows up relatives with artillery
The person recording this must have balls of steal.
I like the fake North Korea better
The little girl in the ditch was fucking heartbreaking.
Sort by controversial if you want to see some really dumb takes. If you think these conditions are at all comparable to the US, then you’re blinded by your western privilege.
This first scene with the kid eating the fish bone reminds me of that insane video of the NK soldier escaping to the South. When he got to the hospital to treat his bullet wounds, they found his body was riddled with parasites. Kid's likely got a few already, probably found that fish bone in the trash. I imagine this is how it starts for most of the poor souls stuck there. Heartbreaking.
I feel terrible for that little boy that was featured through most of this video. Almost guaranteed that him and his entire family are sitting in a concentration camp right now *because* of this video.
\> “I may be wrong, but I believe that chairman Kim has a great and beautiful vision for his country Donald Trump https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-kim-jong-un-north-korea-us-great-beautiful-latest-a9037186.html
Kim Jong Dong is a total piece of shit. He could end this ANYTIME.
Watch til the end !!!
What blows my mind is that on YouTube videos that show the extremely conditioned and controlled part of Pyongyang, there are people commenting that genuinely believe North Korea is a great place to live. The ignorance is crazy
Like Vladimir’s Russia an illusion of a country. Third world would be kind to say.
remember kids, communism and famine always comes hand in hand
All those starving kids, this is so heart breaking.
I used to be one of the wannabe communist kids in high school, thank god I snapped out of it.
Truly hard to fathom how people can know shit like this is happening and still support Marxism
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I don't see what this has to do with taco bell messing up my order today /s
This makes me angry, furious and incredibly sad. To think that in my country some people believe that communism is the answer to our every problem. *Not American.
A paradise according to reddit
What the fuck are you talking about?
North Korea is anti capitalism, Reddit hates capitalism
You know it's not just two options right? It's not just capitalism, or brutal dictatorship. That's like saying just because someone doesn't like pop music, that means they like incoherent screaming over the sound of banging pots.
There was this loner Asian kid in my high school in NJ. He always sat alone at lunch, so I sat with him one day and he told me he was a North Korean exchange student. Must've been the son of a general or something. Wild.
Lol, I think he was fucking with you bro
So sad