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Comment by wkat4242 | Hacker News Reader

Hmm sending a bunch of underfed brainwashed minions to the edge of the Western world where they can hear and see what the world is really like. If they survive of course. The ones that do return will have a different outlook on life. Wars always end up causing a mixture of cultures.

This could eventually lead to a more open North Korea. Though I'm still hoping for a future sane leader eventually like what happened to the soviets with Gorbachev.

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I believe North Korea already sends its citizens overseas to work in construction. I’m pretty sure the North Korean elites keep pretty much all of the wages for themselves - that’s one of the ways they fund their nuclear program and lavish lifestyles.

They will probably send the ones they don't want to survive or return.

Those are usually unreliable.

> a bunch of underfed brainwashed minions

That's pretty much what the Americans thought of Vietnamese. Never underestimate your enemy. Else, you might be evacuating from an embassy building rooftop!

>brainwashed minions

Kinda ironic considering which site posted the article + it's not even true. We should all take a step back and remind ourselves that we do not have the universal truth or are immune to "brainwashing".

It's pretty common knowledge that the north koreans are educated to believe that America is an evil empire out to eradicate them and that their leaders are basically god on earth. Similar to the pre-war Japanese indoctrination model. Called Juche. The ideology was purposely designed to keep the population under control.

If that's not brainwashing I don't know what is.

Also, North Koreans have no access to internet or non-state-sanctioned information. If the border ever opens that will be a huge problem I bet.

> It's pretty common knowledge that the north koreans are educated to believe that America is an evil empire out to eradicate them and that their leaders are basically god on earth. Similar to the pre-war Japanese indoctrination model. Called Juche. The ideology was purposely designed to keep the population under control.

I think you are taking this "knowledge" at face value too much. The reality of the situation could be that most people don't give a shit and just go along with the local village leaders, who often don't give a shit either. As long as they get to drink some alcohol every weekend who cares.

> north koreans are educated

It's a big assumption to assume that North Korean mass education works that well. If they can't even get everybody to read normal books, how would they get everybody to believe crazy shit about America to the point that most people would actually sacrifice their life.

> If that's not brainwashing I don't know what is.

I agree with you though. The government of North Korea aims to brainwash their citizens, to have a world-view where they prioritize the goals of the government over other things, but it's probably not as effective as people think.

> America is an evil empire

This is objectively not true. I don't know much about the world, but I am confident that America is better than the others. That is the mindset I keep as a good citizen.

Pretty true except for the god part, no? America did kill some 10% of their civilians (in addition to their troops) and flatten the entire country, and now sanction the country and call it evil etc.

> Pretty true except for the god part, no?

No. America is not an evil empire trying to eradicate North Korea. At most, America wants to defend one of its closest allies, South Korea, from its belligerent dictator-led neighbor to the north.

> America did kill some 10% of their civilians (in addition to their troops) and flatten the entire country

That was over 70 years ago now, it does not reflect any sort of modern American foreign policy and hasn’t for decades.

> and now sanction the country and call it evil etc.

This is unfortunately inevitable when the country is led by a dictator who rattles his saber, continuously threatens to develop and unleash nuclear weapons on South Korea and Japan, and overall acts as bellicose and belligerent as possible.

If a country decimated your population, razed your entire country, and is conducting economic warfare on you while undermining you politically, you would consider that country evil. They can make up all the justifications they want but there's no question you would still view that country as evil.

That's fair from the perspective of a North Korean citizen; I agree that it makes sense for them to see the US as an evil country. But you and I aren't North Korean citizens, so we have the advantage of a broader perspective. We know why the US sanctions and undermines North Korea.

Yeah, my point being calling it brainwashing is a huge stretch. It's just the natural worldview that will develop from all these factors.

I gotcha, I mistakenly thought you were arguing a different position. Sorry for being quarrelsome.

How would they hear and see what the world is like? They won't have access to telecom equipment.

Word gets around awfully fast. Genies can’t be rebottled.

It’ll just take word of mouth at first. Never underestimate the ability for the message to spread fast.

Yeah even Russian troops they interact with will mostly be pissed that they were forced to be there, I imagine.

> bunch of underfed brainwashed minions

Some humans are not humans for you because they was born in a different country? Do you think that you are more human than an average human of North Korea?

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