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Comment by mathieuh | Hacker News Reader

North Korea could produce evidence definitely proving they had nothing to with it and it would still be dismissed as propaganda. The number of people who believe that north Koreans are all brainwashed, and yet will accept unquestioningly all of this crap made up about NK is astounding.

Do people /honestly/ think that they have to have haircuts "in line with a socialist lifestyle"? Even after their national TV network reported that it was slander?

Regardless of what you think about NK, it's a product of the circumstances that led to its creation, and it's a bit rich for the American government in particular to say these kinds of things about NK.

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"Do people /honestly/ think that they have to have haircuts "in line with a socialist lifestyle"? "

My father grew up in communist Bulgaria and long hair was prohibited. I don't doubt that long hair and extreme hairstyles are also prohibited in North Korea.

>Do people /honestly/ think that they have to have haircuts "in line with a socialist lifestyle"?

Yes. [0],[1]

>Even after their national TV network reported that it was slander?

Setting aside the implicit credibility you're ascribing to North Korea, I think you may have been confused with another story. [2]

>Regardless of what you think about NK, it's a product of the circumstances that led to its creation, and it's a bit rich for the American government in particular to say these kinds of things about NK.

I agree, the US clearly does not have the moral standing to sully North Korea's good name with accusations so serious as computer hacking. [3]

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[0] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4157121.stm

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%27s_trim_our_hair_in_accord...

[2] http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/03/26...

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yodok_concentration_camp

The US appointed a puppet dictator (Syngman Rhee) who authorised the torture and extermination of people for the crime of being a communist. They also destroyed every single building in the North (not hyperbole, literally every single building). Add to that the continued war games along the border and off the north Korean coast and constant slander.

And I hate to resort to whataboutery, but let's not forget Guantanamo Bay and the recently released reports about the US's torturing of prisoners.

As I said, believe what you want about NK, but their current situation did not develop in a vacuum.

Regardless if North Korea's existence is a product of errors in US foreign policy of the era, I fail to see how that warrants defending North Korea, much less arguing that the US is somehow just as bad.

As far as Guantanamo Bay, I don't agree with torture in any form and believe the detention facility there should not exist.

That said, something like Yodok isn't really on the same plane of existence. I would class it as somewhere in between the Nazi concentration camps of WW2 and Unit 731's atrocities. Guantanamo Bay may as well be Club Med compared to that level of sadism and suffering.

What sort of evidence, in this case and in general, proves a negative?

Exactly the point I was going to make. Why is the burden of proof on the accused to prove they are innocent?

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