What's wrong with the DPRK? The only source that life there is terrible are defector's testimonies, which contradict each other on a daily basis and where the worst, most emotional stories are rewarded with fame and money. Often it's the only way to make ends meats for them. If you come to the south from the north you are a nobody.

Furthermore, the DPRK has never threatened anyone. They have a 100% literacy rate (literally on the CIA website) and every citizen is guaranteed free healthcare, free education and a place to live. They use all of their arible land for food production but because of the sanctions and their mountainous terrain sometimes they have scarcities, but no one is starving. Their constitution is full of human and political rights and social gurantees.

And to proof that I don't shill for any country calling itself socialist, I don't like China at all (while still thinking that they are at least better for the world than the US).

And of course there are things to criticize the DPRK for, like the lack of LGBT rights and their weapons exports and hackergroups. But considering the sanctions (that even China upholds) they are in very dier need of foreign currency.

I would also encourage everybody to study the history of Korea.

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 15 points 6 months ago (1 children)

The only source that life there is terrible are defector's testimonies, which contradict each other on a daily basis and where the worst, most emotional stories are rewarded with fame and money.

There are other sources.

For example:

[–] BachenBenno@feddit.de -1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

They turn most of their lights off at night to preserve power. They don't really have energy resources themselves and it is very difficult for them to get foreign currencies. They are still a poor country but considering that they are the most sanctioned country in the history of sanctions they are doing about at well as they can.

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

That might be their real problem. I mean, everywhere else on the planet, the value of menial labor greatly exceeds the cost of the lighting a human needs to be able to work. If they are, indeed, only providing lighting during daylight hours, they are only utilizing 1/3 to 1/2 of the industrial capacity they have invested in. They bought a tractor plant, but because they won't turn on the lights, it's production is far short of its capacity.

For want of a lightbulb, the production was lost. For want of production, farming equipment was lost. For want of farming equipment, the harvest was lost. For want of a harvest, the people were lost.

If the value of electricity to run a lightbulb so greatly exceeds the value of human labor, I would expect that they would have human powered generators to convert low-value human labor into high-value lighting, so that other laborers would have the light they need to produce.

[–] BachenBenno@feddit.de 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

First, factory lights only account for a small fraction of the power consumed and second people sleep at night. And third, it doesn't matter what the electricity costs if you don't have enough coal/oil/gas.

[–] Rivalarrival@lemmy.today 0 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

The DPRK has no shortage of coal. It's one of their export products. They currently produce 35 million tons a year, and only burn 10 million.

While not commonly used in the rest of the world due to abundant oil and gas supplies, coal liquefaction and gasification are relatively simple and proven technologies. Having coal provides a (somewhat dirty) source of gas and liquid fuels, if utilized for that purpose.

Apparently, electricity is considerably more valuable in DPRK than the opportunity cost of shutting down the entire country overnight. I would think that the factories producing tractors and equipment for converting non-arable land into cropland would be a sufficiently high enough priority to justify burning some excess coal, but apparently not.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 6 points 6 months ago

Their average height is much lower than people from South Korea. The most likely cause is malnutrition. When malnutrition affects even the military, your civilians aren't doing well.

If you're looking for sources, there are plenty of links should you search for "north korean vs south korean height". The difference is pretty dramatic for 75 years of isolation.

[+] imnotfromkaliningrad@lemmy.ml -9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

thank you, comrade!

one thing i might add is the fact that most if not all of the propagated lies about the dprk are projection. sexual slavery was a thing the american occupation forces engaged in massively and south korean dictator pak chong-hui was killed during a dinner party with a underage concubine present. later, haircut policing was a thing in the south during the 1980s under chon tu-hwan. the most prominent korean defector, pak yon-mi is a white supremacist btw.

i believe that the whole hacking thing is massively exaggerated by western media as part of their whole "the enemy is both weak and strong"-strategy. it is both a way to engineer further fear mongering against korea, as well as to mask their own incompetence. but even if im wrong and they are indeed from the dprk, i still find them quite based and funny tbh.

do you happen to have any resources on the lgbt situation within the county? i would love to educate myself on the topic.

i also slightly disagree with you on china. they never seized being a socialist state, but have sadly become revisionist since deng. that doesnt make them any less worthy of critical support though.