- This seems like an appropriate sentence for listening to Radio Free Asia lmao
- This definitely didn't happen
https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1341056354396549123
The U.S.-funded news source reported last week that a man who was identified only by his surname Choi was executed in front of dozens of other captains after admitting to authorities to listening to Radio Free Asia for more than a decade.
From the original RFA propaganda piece:
Authorities in North Korea executed the owner of a fishing fleet in front of 100 boat captains and fisheries executives for secretly listening to broadcasts by Radio Free Asia and other forbidden media outlets while at sea, sources in the country told RFA...
“In mid-October, a captain of a fishing boat from Chongjin was executed by firing squad, on charges of listening to Radio Free Asia regularly over a long period of time,” a law enforcement official from North Hamgyong province told RFA’s Korean Service Wednesday.
“We know that the captain’s surname was Choi and he was in his 40s. He was working out of a fishery base affiliated with the Central Party’s Bureau 39,” the source said, referring to the secret organization tasked with acquiring hard currency and maintaining a slush fund for Kim Jong Un...
“We know that the provincial security department defined his crime as an attempt of subversion against the party. They publicly shot him at the base in front of 100 other captains and managers of the facility’s fish processing plants. They also dismissed or discharged party officials, the base’s administration and the security officers who allowed Choi to work at sea,” said the source.
Another source, a resident of the province, confirmed to RFA that news of Choi’s execution had spread among the public.
“During the investigation, they found out that when he was out fishing on distant seas, he fixed the frequency and listened continuously to foreign broadcasts,” the second source said.
The source said that with Choi’s growing power and wealth as a fleet owner, he became high-handed toward his crew.
“One of the fishermen sought vengeance for Choi’s arrogant and disrespectful behavior so he reported him to the security department,” the second source said.
Let's recap what "sources" have said about the story:
- They know the crime and some of the legal specifics ("an attempt of subversion against the party")
- They know where it happened; a specific province, a specific base, and something about what the base does
- They claim 100 witnesses to the actual execution, plus "news... spread among the public"
- They know the whole backstory of how this illicit listening was discovered
- They know about several other punishments handed out to related officials
But they don't even know the guy's full name? And this public execution doesn't have any sort of official report to back it up?
They euthanised him to spare him from the cringe of having heard Radio Free Asia
I saw this article yesterday and was just dumbfounded. How can Radio Free Asia fabricate such a ridiculous story and claim there were 100 witnesses to the execution? And that news has spread throughout the public? Can they get away with lying because there's no way to confirm this from the DPRK government or people, and us westerners are supposed to just eat it up?
Yeah, people simply don't question things they know absolutely nothing about.
Source: 4 years ago I probably would've believed this. Until I read chapo I never questioned news about the DPRK, for a couple of reasons:
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I had more faith in the neutrality of newspapers and the general public's opinion
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From a young age I only ever heard that the DPRK was effectively ruled by a cartoon villain, and if you believe something from a young age you're less likely to question ridicoulus things
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I didn't really care to verify anything
Combine these factors and you can tell someone pretty much anything and they'll believe it.
I was in the exact same position as you up until maybe 2-3 years ago. When I first started browsing /r/cth, I was really confused and kinda disturbed that people unironically supported DPRK, Castro, Ho Chi Minh, and Stalin. I was the same type of lib who had general trust in publications like NYT and WaPo, and didn’t think outside the narrative of West is best until I got de-programmed.
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Also, in what world does this make sense? They constantly report that people are put in work camps over more severe crimes than this, so why on Earth would they execute a dude publicly because he admitted to listening to a banned radio station? I can't believe I would've taken this at face value like a year ago lol.
I’m with you that this is probably fake, but I don’t think this line of reasoning is particularly compelling. Governments aren’t always consistent in how they dowel out punishment for crimes, sometimes horrible offenders get off easy and minor offender get the book thrown at them.
Idk this kind feeds into the lib narrative that the DPRK is a petty dictatorship without proper laws. If Kim is feeling in a good mood on Tuesday he’ll sentence someone to hard labor. If he got up on the wrong side of the bed Wednesday he’ll sentence someone guilty of the same thing to public execution.
It’s BS either way but libs are smart enough to make these retorts to be prepared.
I actually think there’s no winning with people in general. They either get there mostly on their own or you’re just wasting your time.
I read all these stories about people “radicalizing* their uncle or some shit and I can’t help but be skeptical that it won’t last more than a week or will wash away once they get confronted with some challenging shit like rethinking the USSR or opposing US imperialism. I had a CHUDDY friend who I thought several time I had brought over to our side, but every time he’d spend like a week binging right wing YT videos and be right back where he was.
Really we should focus on the people already mostly on our side, trying to goad your racist aunt into be a commie is mostly pointless.
The powerful Juche necromancers of the DPRK will revive him within a week.
I swear, you could say Kim Jong Un forces everyone in Pyongyang to do the dance from No by Meghan Trainor, and fires an RPG at anyone who gets it wrong, and westerners would eat it up
