The only man to ever escape from a North Korean prison camp...

[Os Cangaceiros]

His name is now Shin Dong-hyuk. His overall physical health is excellent. His body, though, is a roadmap of the hardships of growing up in a labour camp that the North Korean government insists does not exist. Stunted by malnutrition, he is short and slight – 5ft 6in and about 120lb (8.5 stone). His arms are bowed from childhood labour. His lower back and buttocks are covered with scars. His ankles are disfigured by shackles. His right middle finger is missing. His shins are mutilated by burns from the fence that failed to keep him inside Camp 14.

Story is pretty nuts.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/mar/16/escape-north-korea-prison-camp

[Vyacheslav Brolotov]

Story is pretty nuts.

And most likely not true.

Even if it were true, at least I can say that I do not support how the North Korean government runs the nation.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Says something bad about DPRK, can't be true. :ohmy:

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Camp 14... talk about Orwellian.

[Vyacheslav Brolotov]

Says something bad about DPRK, can't be true. :ohmy:

Yeah, because imperialism and imperialist propaganda do not exist.

I am not supporting mass killings, as ultra-leftists often tell me. I would be just as quick to criticize North Korea if this story were true.

[NoPasaran1936]

And most likely not true.

Even if it were true, at least I can say that I do not support how the North Korean government runs the nation.

You're fucking kidding me?

[Os Cangaceiros]

I have no idea why you're carrying the DPRK's water when it comes to their "domestic programs"...nobody in the DPRK's government gives a shit about any of the people in your avatar anymore.

Assuming that this man exists as described in the story, and isn't just a fevered figment of some author's imagination in conjunction with the MI5-sponsored Guardian, how did he get to his present state? Was he tortured by the present day RoK's "military dictatorship" and then fed a story about how he used to live in the DPRK?

[l'Enfermé]

Yeah, because imperialism and imperialist propaganda do not exist.

I am not supporting mass killings, as ultra-leftists often tell me. I would be just as quick to criticize North Korea if this story were true.
You support various mass killings, like those under Stalin in the Soviet Union.

And yes, it's true, and it's even worse.

[Deicide]

This is clearly an invention of U.S. imperialism to slander our Jucheist Comrades!


Numbers 15 and 18 have re-education zones where detainees receive remedial instruction in the teachings of Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung, and are sometimes released. The remaining camps are "complete control districts" where "irredeemables" are worked to death.

[Grenzer]

This is clearly an invention of U.S. imperialism to slander our Jucheist Comrades!

More propaganda!

As Comrade Rodrigo clearly identified, Juche does not really exist. Juche is merely the logical extension of Marxism-Leninism to the unique conditions faced by Korea. The DPRK is the most successful socialist state ever, in fact. It's a little known fact that they have already achieved classless, stateless society. "North Korea" is a mere geographic expression. In that sense, since communism has been achieved they aren't really Marxist-Leninist anymore, they could be said to be post-Marxist-Leninists, colloquially known as Anarcho-Juche.

The truth is that there isn't really much need for propaganda about the DPRK. The Kim dynasty is quite capable of maintaining it's own fucking terrible image without any outside help. It's kind of funny, though unsurprising, that most of the people who cry out "Imperialism! Propaganda!" anytime someone says something bad about the Kim dynasty refuse to acknowledge that imperialism is a global system, and that China and Russia vigorously exploit North Korea in an imperialist sense. By stating that the "DPRK must be defended from imperialism" they are first of all lying, since they really have no intention of defending the DPRK from Chinese and Russian imperialism; and secondly are explicitly endorsing Russian and Chinese imperialism(which in their minds, doesn't count for some reason. Who knew that Lenin defined imperialism as "A unilateral action taken by the United States"? Guess I'll have to crack open my copy of Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism again). Supporting the actions of a state, as opposed to the workers is by default pro-capitalist, pro-nationalist, pro-imperialist, and anti-worker.

[Ocean Seal]

Says something bad about DPRK, can't be true. :ohmy:
People lets cut the shit. As FF used to say when you hear anything about North Korea good or bad assume it to be false. The only things that you will hear about them will be imperialist propaganda or state propaganda neither of which are true.
I generally go for the subtleties to find out whats going on in the DPRK.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Most of the news that comes out of the DPRK's news organ is so banal that I wouldn't be suprised if the large majority of it were true, actually.

Similarly not everything reported about the DPRK in western media was entirely invented either, that's ridiculous.

[Brosip Tito]

How dare this ultra leftists, revisionist, bourgeois, counterevolutionary trotskyite scum escape form glorious happy work camp!

He hurt himself when he fell in the chocolate fountain at the meeting of the proletariat for even more equality and freedom last spring!!

That's how he got those scars!!!!!!!

HOW DARE YOU BELIEVE THIS IMPERIALIST PROPAGANDA!!!!!!!!!!!!! - ML's.
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Seriously though, it's fucked up, and I am willing to bet it's true. Any idiot who thinks the DPRK is a workers' state, or a dictatorship of the proletariat, or socialism, or any of that, needs to get the huge dildo that's lodged in their brains removed.

Why wouldn't the DPRK have work camps? Why would this "propaganda" be made if it were not true, it obviously doesn't change the fact that everyone already thinks the DPRK is fucking nuts.

Wankers.

[Ostrinski]

Whether it's false or not, you certainly can't put things like this past the regime.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Obviously some news about the DPRK seems outlandish and it wouldn't suprise me if some of it was false...for example, when some aid group based out of the RoK claims that a bunch of people are being shot for not crying hard enough after Dear Leader died. But there is enough evidence to point to certain things, like violent and retributive punishment towards prisoners and a harsh situation vis-a-vis the humanitarian situation with food/starvation that claiming that it's all propaganda makes one seem willfully blind.