• SovereignState@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    I meant to highlight the overemphasis placed on the word itself, detained. They hype it up as if it’s the most monentous part of this incident and use it consistently throughout the article. This is not evil North Korea detaining another poor Amerikan, this is another Amerikan soldier defecting to the DPRK.

    I agree, begrudgingly, with your pragmatic outlook here. The transatlantic empire is weak. There is a part of me that believes it is the time to strike, to disobey. The socialist world is turning left, and I believe this may lend itself an opportunity for the DPRK to further demonstrate its status as a sovereign state not beholden to unilateral U.S. demands, as well as its adherence to their purportedly internationalist ethos.

    This is all based on the presupposition that Travis King is being genuine, of course.

    As for what he offers - at least one noteworthy thing is that he presumably speaks English fluenty. He can always learn Korean. There is a precedent of Amerikan soldiers being granted asylum in the DPRK, and at worst it could be an image thing – the imperialist dog barks and the socialist world muzzles it.

    I do not govern the DPRK, and wager that whatever decision the WPK and thusly the workers decide to make will be the best one that could have been made.

    They have touchscreen phones in the DPRK, at least. They’re not that far behind. But some are vain and miss shit like name brands, I guess. I do not presume to think this Travis King thinks that way, and if he witnesses equality of peoples in the DPRK then that may yet be inspiring enough for him to get over the culture shock. That’d be neat.

    I can see the argument for extradition, but it’s only a pyrrhic understanding.

    I do not believe socialist nations should extradite black asylum seekers to a white supremacist settler state, personally. May be idealist, but oh well.

    • cfgaussian@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      I think a country like the DPRK needs to be very cautious in circumstances like this because there is a risk this is a ploy by the US to infiltrate the DPRK or use the situation to score some kind of propaganda “win”. Though i would rate the former as rather unlikely since if they wanted to infiltrate the DPRK it would be much easier and much more effective to use South Koreans who aren’t as conspicuous and who already speak the language. I agree with the last part for sure though. Under no circumstances should he be extradited to the US or any of their vassals (we saw what happened with Assange in the UK). If the investigation concludes that he is not a spy and his motivation is genuine then imo he should be given a choice whether to stay in the DPRK under some kind of supervision for a few years to make sure that he won’t cause trouble and with a guardian to help him integrate, or whether he wants to go to China instead where he will probably have an easier time integrating since more people speak English and the lifestyle is closer to what he is used to.

    • relay@lemmygrad.ml
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      1 year ago

      He could become a propagandist to discourage African Americans from enlisting and get paid by the DPRK to do it. Merely that is in their interests.