How a North Korean diplomat sees London

[Laika]

The video below is interesting for a couple of reasons. The first is that the speaker Thae Yong Ho was a former North Korean diplomat to the UK who defected to South Korea in 2016. He is the highest ranking individual to ever defect from north Korea as he was a member of the korean workers party and its central committee. So he knew the inner workings of the party and was also trusted with taking Kim Jong Chul (the elder brother of the current leader Kim Jong Un) to an eric clapton concert in London in 2015. The video is from 2014 so its interesting to watch if only to wonder as to ask exactly how much of what he is saying he actually believes or means from a human angle of understanding how people come to defect from North korea.

Thae Yong-ho - Wikipedia

The second is that the he is obviously presenting a view in line with north korean government, highlighting the role of propaganda in british society, education and news media. Whilst predictable, its still unusal to hear the "other side" particuarly in such a personable way.

I think the third is that this is an event from 2014 taking place in houseman's booksellers near Kings Cross in London as part of the "sub-culture" in the UK of pro-north korean "radicals". Its therefore an insight into understanding how information is filtered in forming those kind of views and how we decide who we trust to inform us. Thats particularly true as we now live in the era of "fake news" when our politics plays a major role in how we select media content with its obvious confirmation biases.

This obviously won't be of interest to everyone, but as a curiosity with many layers of possible meanings, it may be worth sharing nonetheless.

Any thoughts?

 

[psychoslice]

I stopped after he said they were brain washed, ha, his people are brain washed right from birth, the men have to even have the same hair cut as their president, or whatever the midgets name is.

 

[psychoslice]

This is the other side of the story.

 

[bobhikes]

I only got 5 mins in it is very hard for me to follow his accent

His first part about Bosnia and the death and how the English reacted is believable but he doesn't understand the complexities for interaction. It is not as simple as flying over there and fixing the problem. As to his comments about India and Africa true as well but its something that has always been done in every country white washing history. When I Married my wife from El Salvador my family was talking about WWII and Hitler after we left my wife asked me what that was about. In her country she finished High School and had 2 years of business school and it was never mentioned. I did some research and found more than a few rich Germans settled in her country after the war.

 

[allfoak]

I listened to the man talk about all of the propaganda that we in Britain and the U.S.
are being fed.
I did not disagree.
He said that north Korea is not poor and he actually described the place as desirable.
He said there are no homeless in North Korea, everyone has a job.
Healthcare and education are free.
He made it sound like a utopia.

Here is the part i do not understand.
He defected.
Why did he leave?

 

[Laika]

I listened to the man talk about all of the propaganda that we in Britain and the U.S.
are being fed.
I did not disagree.
He said that north Korea is not poor and he actually described the place as desirable.
He said there are no homeless in North Korea, everyone has a job.
Healthcare and education are free.
He made it sound like a utopia.

Here is the part i do not understand.
He defected.
Why did he leave?

He had a reasonable fear of being "purged" from the Korean Workers Party. The new-ish leader Kim Jong Un has been eliminating party figures he regards as disloyal (possibly who got their positions by patronage from other figures within the party as potentially competing power structures). Thae Yong Ho was recalled from the embassy in London so he took his chances and defected.

 

[allfoak]

When the church wants you gone they just force you to resign by exposing some scandal you are involved in.
Same for politics in the U.S..
They only have you killed if there is no other way to stop you and even then it is not done publicly.