Comment by gwern | Hacker News Reader

Comment by gwern | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

People have monitored activity from North Korean IP ranges. There's more than you think!

Of course, this sort of unfiltered access is still extremely restricted: these are the children of the elite, the literally hereditary elite caste (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songbun), who are investments for the state for being sent abroad for the hacking campaigns (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-02-07/inside-ki...) or for the domestic surveillance apparatus. (Someone is developing all of the clever ways they have to restrict and monitor smartphones: https://www.gwern.net/docs/technology/2017-kretchun.pdf And it'll keep going. 'Reducing traffic jams' my arse. But at least we have more 'transparency' now...)

They are granted access for that purpose, and they know their families' welfare and positions are hostage, and are in no hurry to jeopardize their charmed lives in Pyongyang. You don't live in Pyongyang, be taught English, go through university there through to a master's, without absolutely impeccable credentials and a lot to lose. It is unsurprising that they rarely 'abuse' that privilege. (Think of the closed cities in the USSR, or shopping at the foreign-currency stores, or travel abroad.)

I wonder how true the western claim is that North Koreans always feel like they’re being held hostage and fearing for their lives, so they make sure to stay in line. Or whether it’s closer to its neighbor, China, where most people simply do not care about those “forbidden” things and thus don’t seek them out.

Think of people living in rural Appalachia (a place I’m from). Most don’t think about how “good” life could be outside of that area where job opportunities are more plentiful and standard of living is higher. There’s a very strong party allegiance that’s almost religious. Caring about other countries extends to knowing just the names of some major economies and not much more. Unlike NK, they’re completely free people, but they’re happy enough being there with many never going more than a few miles from their home town or researching what the outside world is like. Most people there just don’t care. And I’m not implying it’s bad, just not an uncommon mindset.

I recently watched this interview with a North Korean defector who was part of the social “elite” and he sort of touches on this topic in a few different ways. It’s a bit long, but definitely worth the watch: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t9rLqYXTaFI

There are some people who "defected" accidentally. By happenstance they visited family in China expecting to return but got tricked by human traffickers and ended up in South Korea as defectors. There are a few of these people who say they want to go home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktE_3PrJZO0

Reply on news.ycombinator.com