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There is just a lot of bs being spread about NK. Westerners, for example, genuindely believed all koreans had to get a haircut that is approved by the government.

I'm not even saying this country is not paranoid, but its nearly not as bad as everyone is imaging, and frankly, considering what Americans have inflicted unto the korean people, its fairly understandable.

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Oh I'll take the firsthand reports of escapees over your thoughts on the matter, any day.

North Korean defectors are well known for being unreliable sources. They rarely have skills nor social connections and thus are massively incentivized to join the existing markets for anti-NK propaganda in both the West and India.

The kind of obvious propaganda like "it's a crime to have the same haircut as Kim Jong-Un" (or to not have it, depending on the source). No one is saying life there is great, but there is a track record of fantastically untrue stories.

If they rarely have skills or social connections, how were they able to achieve the feat of escaping from the Hermit Kingdom in the first place? It seems to me that this high bar selects for people who can thrive in adverse circumstances.

That’s honestly just an embarrassing way to get to the truth. Those defectors are known grifters.

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