This is the best summary I could come up with:
The total figure is just a fraction of pre-pandemic levels – 1,047 defectors arrived in 2019 – but it still marks a significant rise after a steep decline during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Many must have found it unacceptable after experiencing what (it) was like to live in the free world, knowing that the economic situation even worsened and internal controls strengthened in North Korea,” the official said.
While millions of North Koreans live in impoverished conditions under the dynastic dictatorship of leader Kim Jong Un, the country’s wealthy elite, such as senior government officials and their families, reportedly have access to luxuries such as air conditioning, coffee and even smartphones – though the phones can only access heavily censored government-run intranet.
These residents mostly live in the capital Pyongyang, where a privileged few enjoy facilities like cinemas, department stores and indoor gyms.
After entering China, many cross the border illegally into Laos or Myanmar and head for the South Korean embassy in those countries or continue through to Thailand.
China, a close ally of Pyongyang, doesn’t consider North Korean defectors to be refugees, instead seeing them as illegal economic migrants.
The original article contains 602 words, the summary contains 189 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Aw jeez, don’t tell the hexbears-- don’t you know N Korea is a really cool and chill place to live and only USA is bad??
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How come so many people don’t like communism? Lemmings told me communism is amazing!
Mandatory “there’s more than one version”. You might think anarchism is also bullshit but it’s not North Korea.
Yet somehow every version is a totalitarian clusterfuck.
No. That is not an a known issue with anarchism, for example.
How many anarchist countries do you know?
Off the top of my head, 2. One with no UN seat and one long gone, to be fair, but they still exist and are/were sovereign. You can’t say either turned into totalitarianism.
Maybe you could say they would have or will, but that’s just your guess. I could say the same thing about liberal democracy and be equally as well supported.
So what are these magical countries?
Republican Spain and the “Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria” AKA Rojava.
Republican Spain had some communist factions too, but Rojava is explicitly built around a specific strain of anarchism, and is an “administration” instead of a government. I doubt it looks very anarchist in practice, but that’s neither here nor there, and they’re democratic enough the US has endorsed them in the past to Turkey’s great displeasure.
