The United States said that North Korean soldiers fighting against Ukraine on the side of Russia in Kursk Oblast are committing suicide to avoid being captured by the Ukrainian defence forces.
Christ. It’s doubly heartbreaking that life as a POW might actually be the highest standard of living they would’ve experienced thus far had they just been captured.
The problem is what happens to their family if they’re reported as captured :(
Well, the party and those who faithfully serve it probably live a pretty nice life. I’m assuming, based on other totalitarian parties throughout history.
Ah, yeah but not at the lower levels like this soldier.
I feel certain that any allegiance he expressed was to protect the well being of his family, rather than a genuine position.
Full text of diary entry:
"I was raised in the nurturing embrace of the Party, studying without concern for anything in the world. There is more unknown love than love that is known and accepted. I didn’t know how to react to the happiness I was surrounded by.
Defending the homeland is the sacred duty of every citizen, and the greatest duty is to protect the nation, which is where my happiness lies. I wear the military uniform of revolution to protect the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. I was honoured with the opportunity to be promoted to sergeant major in my company. However, I betrayed my beloved Party, which had placed its trust in me, and committed acts of ingratitude against the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
The sins I’ve committed are unforgivable, but my homeland has given me a chance for redemption, a fresh start in life.
Now, I have no choice but to regain the trust I once had. I will go to the front lines in this operation and obey the orders of Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un without question, even if it costs me my life. I will show the world the invincible courage and sacrifice of the Red Special Forces (Red Commanders) of Kim Jong Un.
When we win the war and return to our homeland, I will submit a petition to the Party."
This was a man who had been manipulated since birth to not only be a slave, but to like it. I can only assume their whole country is much the same. It’s fucking disgusting and sad that this continues as long as it has.
No way. You notice how he implies he broke the rules and is being punished for it? This was the diary for his commanders and/or military police to “secretly” read. Defectors pretty much give the same story - corruption and crime is ubiquitous, nobody follows the rules when they can’t be caught.
Human nature is pretty unremarkable for the most part, but one thing we have going for us is that the majority of people never buy the propaganda, regardless of what it is and where they are. You can see that in history, in modern authoritarian states, and even in the West about propaganda I personally agree with (save the planet! vaccines don’t cause autism! covid is real!).
I read an account from a woman who escaped North Korea as a child with her mother, through China. She was so propagandized even at her young age that she thought Kim Jong-il could find her if she thought wrong things. She literally believed that he was as a god, omniscient.
So she tried to suppress her own thoughts on the run, so god couldn’t catch her and her mom. They made it.
The last three aren’t examples of propaganda. They can, however, devolve into team sports and make people do dumb shit in the name of being right, but they aren’t more likely to than anything else, it’s an inherent risk with just about anything.
Is this how humans write diaries? It sounds very artificial, like the narration at the start of some movies or the scenes where to inform the viewer, characters tell each other things that, in context, they would already know.
I suspect that this is not genuine and that it is intended to sound heroic (by North Korean standards). Maybe it’s North Korean propaganda or maybe it’s something this guy actually wrote, but as a display of his loyalty rather than as a record of his thoughts. (I expect that he would know better than to write down anything other than a display of loyalty.)
It’s partially translation issues. Maybe double translated from Korean - > Ukrainian - > English? North Korean is supposedly becoming its own dialect, as well.
That said, there’s a lot in there that sounds like the individual giving their whole personality over to the group. More so than a normal military. That comes right out of the BITE model, what’s more commonly called “cults”.
I know this is kind of an overused meme, but this does sound like something from 1984 by George Orwell.
I was raised in the nurturing embrace of the Party, studying without concern for anything in the world.
However, I betrayed my beloved Party, which had placed its trust in me, and committed acts of ingratitude against the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
The sins I’ve committed are unforgivable, but my homeland has given me a chance for redemption, a fresh start in life.
So disturbing. It has literally only taken from their people en masse, guzzling Hennesey and fine French wines while everyone else starves
It’s a weird place. From what I’ve heard, at this point it’s more like a giant plantation or a resource colony (with no foreign overlords) than a normal dictatorship. The three sectors of the economy are policing the common people, making stuff for export (often on the black market and often globally illegal stuff) and making nukes to protect from foreign adversaries. The money from exports goes to grain, and luxury items for a separate elite that doesn’t even like to stay in the country, let alone be part of it.
It’s insane that that book is proven to be right time and time again. I just hope Putin will stop his agression with Ukraine and not move forward in east after this was is complete.
100% agree. I was recently thinking about the Two Minutes Hate and how polarized our politics are these days.
In re-directing the members’ subconscious feelings away from the Party’s governance of Oceania and toward non-existent external enemies, the Party minimises thoughtcrime and the consequent subversive behaviours of thoughtcriminals.
Wag The Dog.
Do we know what “sins” he is referring to, that he believed he needed to redeem himself over?
The propaganda of the regime is that the old Kim and the new Kim are godlike. They can read your thoughts and catch you if you deviate from the plan. Of course most adult North Koreans aren’t stupid enough to believe this. It’s like believing in Santa Claus culturally.
The problem is that the state is almost godlike. They will come into your home and check for unapproved media. They will take your children away and ask them in a detention center what mommy and daddy did that was bad.
They will send your ass to the frontline of a Russian war of conquest and kill your family if you are captured.
They can read your thoughts and catch you if you deviate from the plan
Oh, like parents and teachers and pastors. This actually makes that whole shitshow much more normal.
But like in the worst sense.
When did Korean literacy become so common for soldiers that it’s possible for this to accidentally happen?
It’s honestly pretty fucking sad. It’s a bummer to see how many people on this planet become willful (sometimes) cannon fodder for some perceived glory that feels bigger than them, but in reality, their motherland is often just another gluttonous vampire slowly feeding on their necks and humming songs of heroism into the victim’s ear.
This man’s vampire probably watched his family starve with indifference, and then after this guy committed some sort of crime of desperation, it pulled him close, stroked his hair, and whispered that there was still a way to make it up to him. To make it up to all of them. And my, how proud you’ll make the motherland.
I don’t think it is wilful in this case. This is someone who was raised in North Korea, fed propaganda and Juche his entire life, and this is the result.
It’s similar to why Vikings wanted to die in battle and go to Valhalla. Because that’s how you’re supposed to sacrifice yourself. And if you do it wrong, you’ve let Odin down.
The only difference here really is that the All-Father is the Respected Comrade.
Why would you want to go to Valhalla, Folkvangr sounds much nicer.
The trouble here is that NK state religion is monotheistic.
Things like this always make me think of Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot. All this death and hatred for what?
I’m reminded of Harry Patch
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/aug/01/first-world-war-harry-patch
Mr Patch, a Passchendaele survivor, thought all war was organised murder and refused to talk about it at all until a few years before he died,
I wouldn’t be surprised if ready made diaries were added to some of the soldiers’ inventories to use it as an opportunity for propaganda and PR in case they died and someone found and publicized them.
While that is possible, I believe Ukrainians have South Korean assistance for analysis and a lot of expertise of their own. In case of a diary, you can use old-school detective work - you look for progressively great wear towards the beginning. You look for stains and grease on older pages. Such things are difficult to manufacture in a quantity.
And, besides, it would not be very motivating for a soldier to carry a fake diary on the assumption that it’s going to be recovered from his body. I think they want their folks a bit better motivated than that. :)
To make it more believable I think you should in fact not mass produce it but perhaps just have 10 or so of them in 10000 or so soldiers.
The soldiers which carry the diaries can still be brainwashed to an extent such that they are super happy to be the “chosen ones” to carry the diary. It is a much better look on your country if your soldiers look like emotional deep thinkers attached to their country by very strong feelings of love and gratitude rather than brainwashed suicidal cannon fodder.
I do think it is a bit of a stretch but I wouldn’t put it past North Korea. It is the same level of propaganda as publicising a video of millions of North Koreans crying and fainting after Kim Jong II died.
