I'm a bit surprised that companies are even doing business with North Korea considering how unreliable they have been in the past.
In the 70s, when they at least seemed to be on par with South Korea in terms of development [1], they imported mining equipment and 1,000 cars from Sweden but never fully paid for them [2].
I guess the risk is worth it for some companies/individuals if they're only spending a few thousand dollars to potentially save many more.
> “Let’s say you’re making a cartoon, and you are outsourcing the work. So you go to Romania, because you know it’s very cheap.” But the Romanian company knows of an even cheaper option. Its representative flies to Pyongyang and makes a deal for the same work at half the cost—and then gets 50% of the fee without employing anyone. “This has happened,” he says. He will not name movies. Nor popular video games. North Korean labor is also behind websites and crypto, he says. The shadow hands of globally sanctioned socialist labor are all around us.
The Onion was right all along [3].
And I know this is a pretty stereotypical nitpick, but I wish they (both the author and Cao de Benós) would be more specific and refer to DPRK's ideology as Juche [4], instead of just calling it socialism. Ignoring nuances in political ideologies just makes them more difficult to discuss.
“He rejects all questions about extrajudicial killings or humanitarian atrocities as propaganda: “The media is often reporting that we execute people, which is not true,” he claims.”
Interesting article. I often wonder about the mindset of people who deny the obvious facts. Does he really believe it or is he just cynical?
Neither, IMO. From observing him over the years, he knows what's good for him, and he knows how to get a good vibe going with others at the same time. The vibe can make anything true or false and is not known for being concerned with moral true/false questions, which get into subjective (qualitative) ethics. (You can argue that those same ethics prevent reasonably helpful business from being done in many cases, as distasteful as it sounds.)
I'd add that he has a good nose for opportunity and a higher than average threshold for risk. This is your typical "fixer" type.
>I often wonder about the mindset of people who deny the obvious facts. Does he really believe it or is he just cynical?
This just made me think of Baghdad Bob so I looked him up and apparently he is still alive and allegedly living in the UAE. It would be interesting to hear what he thinks now of all the obvious lies he told almost two decades ago.
The guy is clearly lying considering that even the US does extra-judicial killings both inside (citizen-citizen) and outside the country (Drone strikes, CIA assassinations), regular executions of people (death penalty, even for treason).
Most Americans don’t bat an eye that they pay taxes to fund this. As long as it’s in our interest we turn a blind eye. As long as it’s someone else we look down on them.
Not a DPRK apologist. But I wouldn't really say "obvious" with respect to anything coming out of there... Just two weeks ago rumors ran rampant that the leader was dead... We just have no clue.
The 2nd largest company on the Fortune 500 has its executives doing major business with a government that dismembers Washington Post employees in foreign embassies. In fact, US defense contractors were profiting off their slaughter of Yemenis until recently. The attempts to look abroad and decide to find someone to find fault with is risible.
Which proves ancient statement "Greed and cowardliness rule the world". I'm sure, there are people even in Western democracies, who perfectly aware where their outsource projects comes from. Not to say about China and Russia - they use slave labor of North Koreans for decades. Slaves from North Korea built stadiums for World Cup 2018 [0] in Russia. Everyone there knew about it (I'm Russian as well), there was plenty of evidence. Did anyone boycott the games?
For more about this guy I highly recommend watching the documentary Friends of Kim in which he plays a starring role. You can even find it on YouTube. TL;DR he and a bunch of "friends of the DPRK" went to NK to participate in a parade and shout "Yankee Go Home" but then he started acting suspicious and turned on other members of the group.
There is rich irony in exploiting a country that rejects global capitalism while believing that "the shadow hands of globally sanctioned socialist labor" is socialist at all.
>The shadow hands of globally sanctioned socialist labor are all around us
what a weird smear. who in their right mind really believes DPRK is the realization of any kind of socialism? i guess the nazis were socialists too then.
[+] [-] AlexTrask|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oarabbus_|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] riffraff|5 years ago|reply
[0] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4206218/
[+] [-] mportela|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DavidVoid|5 years ago|reply
I guess the risk is worth it for some companies/individuals if they're only spending a few thousand dollars to potentially save many more.
> “Let’s say you’re making a cartoon, and you are outsourcing the work. So you go to Romania, because you know it’s very cheap.” But the Romanian company knows of an even cheaper option. Its representative flies to Pyongyang and makes a deal for the same work at half the cost—and then gets 50% of the fee without employing anyone. “This has happened,” he says. He will not name movies. Nor popular video games. North Korean labor is also behind websites and crypto, he says. The shadow hands of globally sanctioned socialist labor are all around us.
The Onion was right all along [3].
And I know this is a pretty stereotypical nitpick, but I wish they (both the author and Cao de Benós) would be more specific and refer to DPRK's ideology as Juche [4], instead of just calling it socialism. Ignoring nuances in political ideologies just makes them more difficult to discuss.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_North_Korea#/media/...
[2] https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/12/04/547390622/...
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYaZ57Bn4pQ
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juche
[+] [-] Ididntdothis|5 years ago|reply
Interesting article. I often wonder about the mindset of people who deny the obvious facts. Does he really believe it or is he just cynical?
[+] [-] themodelplumber|5 years ago|reply
Neither, IMO. From observing him over the years, he knows what's good for him, and he knows how to get a good vibe going with others at the same time. The vibe can make anything true or false and is not known for being concerned with moral true/false questions, which get into subjective (qualitative) ethics. (You can argue that those same ethics prevent reasonably helpful business from being done in many cases, as distasteful as it sounds.)
I'd add that he has a good nose for opportunity and a higher than average threshold for risk. This is your typical "fixer" type.
[+] [-] DavidVoid|5 years ago|reply
This just made me think of Baghdad Bob so I looked him up and apparently he is still alive and allegedly living in the UAE. It would be interesting to hear what he thinks now of all the obvious lies he told almost two decades ago.
[+] [-] chrischen|5 years ago|reply
Most Americans don’t bat an eye that they pay taxes to fund this. As long as it’s in our interest we turn a blind eye. As long as it’s someone else we look down on them.
[+] [-] anonu|5 years ago|reply
Not a DPRK apologist. But I wouldn't really say "obvious" with respect to anything coming out of there... Just two weeks ago rumors ran rampant that the leader was dead... We just have no clue.
[+] [-] lonelappde|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] peisistratos|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] strategarius|5 years ago|reply
[0] https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/3205842/russia-2018-world-cup...
[+] [-] neonate|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] saagarjha|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kick|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] tdeck|5 years ago|reply
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C76HqPaA6kw
[+] [-] ecuaflo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pmachinery|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] therealissues|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] virgilp|5 years ago|reply
You think it is - in reality, it's not really so shady. He probably picked the name not because it's true but because it's believable.
[+] [-] q92z8oeif|5 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSU1IJk70i4
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] nexuist|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwlaplace|5 years ago|reply
what a weird smear. who in their right mind really believes DPRK is the realization of any kind of socialism? i guess the nazis were socialists too then.
[+] [-] changoplatanero|5 years ago|reply