Yeonmi Park - North Korean Grifter

[WonderWino]

You must be talking about Otto Warmbier. My condolences to his family but I don't know what he was expecting when he was trying to steal a poster in a regime like North Korea. It was awful what happened to him and we all know NK was using him as a bargaining chip. Very tragic either way.

He did nothing of the sort. The video makes that quite clear. The person who took the poster, on video, was not him and not acting anything like an american would. The guy who did it treated the poster exactly the way a north korean would, including bowing to it. It was clearly a setup by the north korean government to create a situation they could use to get something from the US

I 100% believe Warmbier attempted suicide, hence the brain damage.

I very much doubt it. If he had the north korean government wouldn't have given an obviously bs explanation as to what happened

The reporter had a really hard time and couldn’t sleep, didn’t eat much, would constantly pace, and would even hit or pinch herself sometimes. And this was a woman who had done hardcore investigative journalism for years in all conditions and embedded with all types of people, who was already in her 30s. She had also researched NK and knew, broadly, what to expect. And they almost broke her.

If she knew what to expect she wouldn't have gone there in the first place. She's an idiot, like all journos and isn't nearly as smart as she thinks she is

 

[Sonalee Rashitwar]

He did nothing of the sort. The video makes that quite clear. The person who took the poster, on video, was not him and not acting anything like an american would. The guy who did it treated the poster exactly the way a north korean would, including bowing to it. It was clearly a setup by the north korean government to create a situation they could use to get something from the US


I very much doubt it. If he had the north korean government wouldn't have given an obviously bs explanation as to what happened


If she knew what to expect she wouldn't have gone there in the first place. She's an idiot, like all journos and isn't nearly as smart as she thinks she is

The journalist thing- she actually did nothing wrong and it left egg on NK’s face.

She and a coworker were filming on the Chinese border, NOT in Korea, and were Chinese and Korean Americans.

Ordinarily you can do this- it will piss them off a bit, but it’s perfectly legal, and they’re not allowed to pursue across the border. China even has observation posts for tourists. But, a guard was overzealous and chased them at the river border (they were on the shared ice, in a permissible area), and forced them back. The reason we knew what happened pretty quickly is because the other half of the journalism team outran the guy and passed news on. So there was actually a breach of laws and protocol there. I think they just saw two Korean looking women at a distance alone, assumed defectors, and snatched them up.

 

[MajinGoku]

He did nothing of the sort. The video makes that quite clear. The person who took the poster, on video, was not him and not acting anything like an american would. The guy who did it treated the poster exactly the way a north korean would, including bowing to it. It was clearly a setup by the north korean government to create a situation they could use to get something from the US


I very much doubt it. If he had the north korean government wouldn't have given an obviously bs explanation as to what happened


If she knew what to expect she wouldn't have gone there in the first place. She's an idiot, like all journos and isn't nearly as smart as she thinks she is

I still dont know why otto would risk his life to travel to north korea in the first place

 

[RodgerDodger]

The popular narrative is that the Kim family starved the population themselves because they are just tyrants. But largely they live in poverty at the low end because North Korea is still under US sanctions. The US does not want a nuclear armed buffer state near the border of China. They need to overthrow China.

The reason for the famine is pretty well known. A lot of it was caused by one of North Korea’s ” greatest national engineering projects” the West Sea Barrage, aka the Nampo Dam.

As an example of how and why this was a true natural disaster, look into the 1940’s Reber Plan to build a series of dams and locks in San Francisco Bay. The Army Core of Engineers built an amazing working scale model of the Bay to run simulations and discovered that the project was not simply stupid, but would have catastrophic consequences, and veto’d it.

Apparently someone in NK got the same idea, or just read Reber’s book and convinced the Kim’s to build it. The result was instead of flood control, and an increase in useable fresh water, they fouled the irrigation system and seasonally flooded the farms with brackish water. But this is one of North Korea’s national treasures. So they can’t admit their largest public works project triggered their worst famines.

 

[Sonalee Rashitwar]

In case anyone else is interested: there is a translated book now available by Thae Yong Ho, who was a high level NK diplomat and has a lot more knowledge about how things were run there and isn’t a grifter.

It’s called “Passcode to the Third Floor.” Goes into how he had to ask for World Food Program aid as a diplomat while getting luxury goods for Kim during the famine, and about the criminal activities of the regime.

 

[KhorneFlakes]

Yeomni Park? More like Sum Dum Ho, ammirite guys

 

[Sonalee Rashitwar]

Any of you NK watchers interested in the book I previously mentioned? It’s unusual for a defector memoir in that the level of public view and interaction with Western people the diplomat had meant he can’t effectively lie.

About halfway through, lots of weird highlights and facts. Example: diplomats aren’t paid a Western-level salary and need to pay for their own medical care abroad. So a colleague of Thae died at his post. Liver cancer. In a country with universal health care. But he didn’t know how that worked and had had it pounded into him that he had to pay his own way for everything, so he didn’t go to the doctor at all until it was terminal.

 

[The Hardest R]

Yeah it’s a very good book and could hardly put it down until I was finished. I’ve been reading in depth regarding North Korea for 20 years and it’s one of the better books out there on North Korea. With professional defectors, you never know where the truth ends and the exaggerations begin. Yeonmi Park is pretty obvious that 90% of her stories are BS or exaggeration at a very minimum. However one of the biggest tells is that she’s almost entirely on the grifter circuit now, so it seems like everyone has figured it out, even if they’re not outright denouncing her.

 

[Sonalee Rashitwar]

Yeah it’s a very good book and could hardly put it down until I was finished. I’ve been reading in depth regarding North Korea for 20 years and it’s one of the better books out there on North Korea. With professional defectors, you never know where the truth ends and the exaggerations begin. Yeonmi Park is pretty obvious that 90% of her stories are BS or exaggeration at a very minimum. However one of the biggest tells is that she’s almost entirely on the grifter circuit now, so it seems like everyone has figured it out, even if they’re not outright denouncing her.

What I find interesting is the level to which Thae was in the public view even before defection. Harder to exaggerate or lie when one can definitely confirm “you lived in X during Y time, and said statements A, B, and C.” The way he describes governance can also be compared against other defectors and what the intelligence community already knows. The really interesting stuff in Thae’s book comes from describing what he thought and the forces shaping him to say and do things.

I think it must be easier for lower level nongovernmental defectors like Yeonmi to make things up, and leaving to get money or food to survive isn’t as narratively interesting as “I need, psychologically, to get out of here.”

 

[rapealltrannies]

North Korea had a hellish famine, but beyond that, it's no worse than the Soviet Union or Pre-Japanese occupation Korea.

No it is much worse.

 

[Norman B. Normal]

 

[Taser Confetti]

For someone who claims to have been as raped as much as she does she sure bomboified herself with plastic surgery.

 

[Trombonista]

At this point, could we consider her the North Korean Laura Loomer?

 

[AltisticRight]

Spoiler: Gay copypasta attempt

Hi, I was raped repeatedly in camp 14 before I escaped to China's Ughyur autonomous region where I was forced to assemble smartphones and mop up webforums for free, I married a 3/10 dorky fat guailao and we left for the USA where I was raped by every cylindrical object along the way, he funded my plastic surgery and finally I got a green card so I dumped his sorry ass.

This is why I support Donald Trump, Ukraine, Israel and trans rights. By the way here's my [100th falungong outlet] article because they're never used by wumaos to discredit legitimate criticism of the CPC, here's my Reddit chinky text copypasta that makes Xi shake in his boots totally and please buy my wellness guru course because I showed my tits and paid mouth service to westoid talking points. Democracy good.

Loudmouth attention grifters like her should just fuck off. She's not doing her countrymen any favours, if anything she's making it worse for them. She doesn't give a shit about them. There's a good reason we almost never hear from defectors that reside in South Korea, or those in China for the matter. It's not just the language barrier, their stories are usually less sensationalised and sounds a lot more plausible. They have a hard time integrating into society already, facing immense xenophobia from locals. I even find a hard time believing the claims of "fake convenience stores".

I know there's convenience stores the upper echelons of the regime shops at and I can totally believe the regime will put up theme park shows filled with the children of the state's officials, state ran opium farms and their various proven hacking activities, but that's about it. A lot of the stories sound like fan fiction. North Korea state will also abduct people from surrounding countries (China, Japan, South Korea), however, we almost never hear about those either.

 

[Narwhal]

those in China for the matter

As far as I know the Chinese government have an agreement with North Korea whereby if a defector is found on Chinese soil the Chinese will send them immediately back to NK.

 

[AltisticRight]

As far as I know the Chinese government have an agreement with North Korea whereby if a defector is found on Chinese soil the Chinese will send them immediately back to NK.

It's not really enforced. There's a sizable technically illegal North Korean population in many border towns, I've been to one of the larger ones and they have stores with Korean language menus.
They are at the grace of the system though because China can evict them all tomorrow if they wanted too and it'll be an automatic death sentence. I'm not sure how the public will react but considering how China's Internet responded to Kim getting the CPC to censor a parody song, I'd guess it'll be very negative.
I personally don't see a reason for China to not accept their refugees, it's good for the labour force.

 

[OrangeJuliusEvola]

It's not really enforced. There's a sizable technically illegal North Korean population in many border towns, I've been to one of the larger ones and they have stores with Korean language menus.
They are at the grace of the system though because China can evict them all tomorrow if they wanted too and it'll be an automatic death sentence. I'm not sure how the public will react but considering how China's Internet responded to Kim getting the CPC to censor a parody song, I'd guess it'll be very negative.
I personally don't see a reason for China to not accept their refugees, it's good for the labour force.

Most of those Koreans have been living in the border area since before North and South Korea existed and have Chinese citizenship.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Chinese

That's not to say there isn't quite a few illegal North Korean immigrants amongst them, but if they're discovered by authorities, they're sent back.

 

[Majestic12]

This bitch looks more and more like a creepy sex doll.

There is a theory she is a CIA blowup doll.

 

[The Hardest R]

View attachment 6325642

How the fuck does he know if she’s registered to vote or not?

A lot of the stories sound like fan fiction.

She’s the millennial North Korean Yakov Smirnoff. The only people who even halfway believe her are people who only know about North Korea from Team America and stories about what the Kim dynasty likes to eat and drink.

“What a country! In America, we have lots of food! In North Korea we have rat droppings and tree bark. In America we have lots of big cars! In North Korea we only have rape wagons that are fueled entirely from children’s tears, etc.”

 

[Norman B. Normal]

How the fuck does he know if she’s registered to vote or not?

Voter rolls are public information, and are usually pretty easy to get ahold of. They don't reveal who someone voted for, but they do reveal whether someone's registered to vote in a jurisdiction, whether they voted in a particular election, and in some jurisdictions, what party they belong to.