I think both scenarios are 100% plausible. If conservatives made those claims about a political enemy, I’d look at the body of evidence that enemy has produced, and make some judgement calls. NK has a shit track record of being good to its citizens. There are videos of defectors getting shot, stories of political prisoners or just prisoners being tortured and killed, some from the United States, and mountains of other individual acts that show them them as radicals that may kill kids just because.
stories of political prisoners or just prisoners being tortured and killed
Similar to Cuban refugees, they can literally get thrown in prison or executed as agents of an enemy state if they say positive things about Korea.
Journalists paying defectors to share a story would be considered wildly unethical in any other circumstance, but it’s par for the course for north Korean defectors.
The wild stories about rats eating children and children eating rats in camps they torture you for 7 generations is like the definition of non-credible.
I think both scenarios are 100% plausible. If conservatives made those claims about a political enemy, I’d look at the body of evidence that enemy has produced, and make some judgement calls. NK has a shit track record of being good to its citizens. There are videos of defectors getting shot, stories of political prisoners or just prisoners being tortured and killed, some from the United States, and mountains of other individual acts that show them them as radicals that may kill kids just because.
Similar to Cuban refugees, they can literally get thrown in prison or executed as agents of an enemy state if they say positive things about Korea.
Journalists paying defectors to share a story would be considered wildly unethical in any other circumstance, but it’s par for the course for north Korean defectors.
The wild stories about rats eating children and children eating rats in camps they torture you for 7 generations is like the definition of non-credible.