North Korea

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Nation, enemy imagenation state

North Korea  link () Sourcewatch
Location	Asia
Type	nation state
One of the most politically and culturally isolated nations in the world, partly by military-strategic choice, partly caused by fierce economic sanctions.

North Korea was sharply divided from South Korea at the end of the Korean War. It has very limited commercial and other relationships with most other nation states, partly by military-strategic choice, partly caused by fierce economic sanctions.

Official narrative

North Korea was named as an "Axis of evil" member, and the country is reported to have a poor record as regards human rights.

Atrocity fabrication

Watch on YouTube

1998 fall, a North Korean defector videotaped what's going on in North Korea at the risk of his life. KBS obtained the tape from RENK, a japan's civic group, and made the documentary in the past. North Korea would be different today, but the video is still relevant some.

Since the 1990s, atrocity fabrication has played a central role in Western efforts to shape public opinion of North Korea, with North Korean defectors residing in the West often being at the crux of these efforts. Defectors have consistently been able to derive significant financial benefits from denouncing their former homeland, with the more extreme stories gaining the most publicity. The most influential and best publicised testimonies alleging the most egregious abuses by the Korean state, for example Shin Dong-hyuk or Park Yeonmi) have consistently suffered from serious inconsistencies.

Famine

In sharp contrast to the affluence of South Korea, North Korea suffered a severe famine after the collapse of its trading partners. In the late 1990s hundreds of thousands of people (at least) died from starvation. Since then, the country has struggled to maintain self-sufficiency in food. 2016 government warning told people to prepare for food shortages but not to despair, because "the road to revolution is long and arduous."

Internet

In December 2016, a query of their DNS revealed that their national top level internet domain (.pk) was used by just 28 websites.

Nuclear Weapons

North Korea reported a successful nuclear test on 9 October 2006, and a H-bomb test on 5 January 2016. It is believed to have nuclear weapons, although the truth of these claims is debated.

2019 US assassination attempt

In early 2019, US Navy Seals entered Korean waters near the city of Wonsan. The official narrative was that the operation was to plant an electronic bug on DPRK Chairman Kim Jong Un. After killing the unarmed crew of a fishing boat who saw them, the operation was aborted. [Timothy Shorrock]] speculated that "Maybe the raid wasn't to obtain intelligence, but to assassinate (or 'decapitate') the North Korean ruler. Such an action has been practiced numerous times in US-ROK military drills". Either way, the operation would have helped scuttle the Trump-Kim nuclear negotiations in Hanoi in February 2019.