07 September 2013

"Prison camp? Nothing could be FURTHER from the truth" Gareth Morgan on the DPRK

The Australian Federal Government owned ABC is clearly a tool of Western propaganda to demonise the DPRK.  The ABC picks some highlights from what he has said...

""the imagery that you get from this almost concerted effort to demonise the place...it that it must be like one massive prison camp, nothing could be further from the truth."

Yep except from virtually no one being allowed to leave the country, and the comprehensive internal passport system, with military checkpoints at the entrance of most towns (he didn't notice this?). Except for the actual gulags.  Except for the compulsory adoration of the four person personality cult. Except for the secret police, the red guards, the compulsory weekly self-criticism and neighbourly criticism sessions.  Except for the complete absence of private property regarding home ownership. Except for the complete prohibition on any publishing that isn't by the state.  Except for the death penalty for listening to broadcasts from the outside world.

"preconceptions that the people are starving are actually not true. He says the group found people were eating well and local crops were healthy."

Western propaganda then.  He saw it all, got to visit any villages he asked.  That campaign a few years ago "let's eat two meals a day" was misreported.  What he saw was a fair reflection of what was real.

Farming is self-sufficient, labour intensive but very productive.

Throughout the famines in the Ukraine in the 1930s and China in the 1960s, visitors were shown productive farms and statistics indicated growing production.  Sure north Korea has no famine now, but to swallow the "very productive" claim is naive.

The problem is that the country's sanctions mean there are no reserves - a facet Gareth Morgan says could lead to famine.

Oh so it would be fine as a totalitarian centrally planned economy then?  China shouldn't have decollectivised farming, that was obviously foolish.  It's all the fault of the foreigners.  Convenient, and swallowing the party line once more.  Of course why are there sanctions?  Those nuclear weapons it promised to dismantle in exchange for help in developing a nuclear power generation facility, which it then developed anyway?  The constant exporting of missile technology to Iran, Syria and other rogue states that threaten Western allies?

because of the sanctions they are isolated.

Yes, not at all a country that isolates itself is it?  Such an open engagement allowed  between its people and the world.

Mr Morgan says that Koreans dress well noting that ladies wear gumboots with heels on them.

Noticing the important things.  

He says interaction between the group and ordinary North Koreans proved quite difficult.

Finally, a hint of acknowledgement of the core problem.  

Unlike in South Korea where people are free to chat he says that people in North Korea are all organised in work parties but say they did manage to meet a few North Koreans when they were at a beach resort.

The workers' paradise ensures even those of the lowest standing get to go on beach holidays right? Oh, maybe it's just more members of the elite?

The group were escorted throughout North Korea by a huge motorcade including a car with loudspeakers telling everyone what they were doing.

Yes the country is full of loudspeakers.  Did Jo understand what was being said?  Was it telling people what to do as well?  We may never know.

6 comments:

Kiwiwit said...

It takes a particularly callous dictator to lock up the children of his enemies and to incarcerate even the newborn babies of his political prisoners. I would challenge Gareth Morgan to meet Shin Dong-hyuk, the only person born in a North Korean gulag to escape, and to tell Shin to his face that everything in this book is a lie.

Oswald Bastable said...

Perhaps these delusional fools should move there...

Libertyscott said...

To be fair to him, he has stated he has read an unspecified book about life in a gulag and said he has no reason to not believe it.

Apparently incarcerating babies isn't enough to distinguish the DPRK from China, Russia or Singapore.

Apparently, the heeled gumboots of the women he saw was worth mentioning though.

MvL said...

Hey...Gareth could be on to something.
Reports of a prison camp CLOSING could strengthen his arguement. No?
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/09/05/several-thousand-north-korean-prisoners-missing-after-camp-closure-human-rights/

Libertyscott said...

Apparently it is consolidation. Not as if the regime is pointing it out.

thor42 said...

I wonder if Gareth Morgan is familiar with the term "useful idiot"? Definition - supporters of a cause whose goals or ramifications they are not fully aware of.

G.M. would seem to be a textbook example of this species.