Since the mid-20th century, North Korea's domestic politics have centered on the idea that the whole world is out to get them, and therefore they must be fiercely independent from outside influence. Openly asking for international aid would be like admitting defeat against all their political enemies, real and imagined. Nobody in power is going to do that.
this post was submitted on 03 Nov 2025
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This. Their entire system of authoritarian control depends on it. The people are brainwashed into believing it's true and if cracks start to appear in the facade, the government could (and definitely would for NK) quickly lose control of the people. The regime would be toppled.
Are civilians really brainwashed and think it's true though? Or are they just like regular people and deal with it while getting through the daily grind?
The authoritarian ruler maintains control when enough people are brainwashed. See the current situation in the USA as an example. It's not necessarily even the majority, but enough to maintain and enforce power.
You make a good point there.
There is a large amount of state propaganda using the conflict as justification for the state's existence. I would imagine whether people believe to be true or not to be on a spectrum line other countries.
Out of sight out of mind. It's why authoritarian governments police speech and media. If you control what they see and hear. Then the worst that could happen is they might just feel that something is off. But have no evidence to necessarily back that up. Basically an echo chamber of the size of the nation.
Not that I support the DPRK, but considering the massive rise of fascism, I don't think it's anywhere near 'wrong' to consider capitalism a danger.
I criticise the DPRK for its horrific repression, but considering what capitalism in the US has brought, it is naïve to assume the US is all benevolent.
Who said the US is benevolent ever? It’s always a quod pro quo and the US always takes the more than gives.
I suppose they meant the fascists or liberals who think the US at some point ever really was benevolent.
IMHO, the closest it came was during Teddy Roosenvelt's trust busting campaign, but still. The US is a capitalist project through and through. Being well-off I refuse to finance such a project. We shall crush capitalism through itself.
Maybe, but the DPRK government is on its third generation hereditary leader with a senior leadership consisting of children of previous senior leadership. It is functionally an absolute monarchy.
Capitalism is economic policy, not a governance system. You are committing the gravest sin leftists struggle with by conflating it with a power structure. They are not the same thing. Capitalism is not actually practiced anywhere in the world now, as oligarchy is the norm. The whole "capitalism vs socialism" argument has been conflated and abused to drive a wedge between Democrats and leftists in the USA.
Nice try, CIA, but capitalism is oligarchy. It is actually practised pretty much everywhere.
It's not as though that power structure behind the economic system is leveraged to dismantle and destroy competing economic systems or labor rights or anything. Yeah, totally and completely separate and never the twain shall meet. The CIA definitely didn't use economic terrorism to force countries to submit to US ~~cartels~~ business demands.
Nothing has ever happened, like say, the US corporations using their wealth to dominate the court systems and laws of other counties to do something like put media "pirates" calling themselves "The Pirate Bay" in prison for things that were legal in their own country to enforce the US's own draconian capitalistic IP laws.
What an absolute crock of shit dude get a grip. Capitalism is oligarchy by any other name.
That's total nonsense. Socialism and capitalism are both economic, and economics are tightly integrated into governance. To divide the two so wholly is a fool's errand. The difference between the two lies in who owns the factories and fields. If the factories and fields are privately owned, it's capitalism. The US has been practicing capitalism since before the declaration of independence was even written. Capitalism is also an inherent hierarchical power structure.
Oligarchy is a political form of governance, not an economic model. Oligarchy can exist in several economic models, but let's focus on how we got oligarchs in this capitalist system. They were created by exploiting the labor of the working class to earn their wealth, but being rich isn't enough to them. They use their money to buy power, and then leverage that power to increase their wealth.
So OP nailed it lol
But they could do it and not tell the people.
It might not be that easy to keep it a secret
A handful of ultra-rich people would lose a little bit of power and their entire social structure would collapse. That country won't open back up without tremendous suffering, especially as long as the rich people in power stay rich and powerful by keeping things the way they are.
Similar to everywhere else.
Yup. If red, brown, and cash fascism are all focused on extorting the many while benefiting the elite through corruption and repression, then is capitalism really a way to improvement?
Because that would result in regime change. The interests of the rulers and the interests of the country are not aligned.
It’s simple, the people who need help are not in charge. Those who are in control, benefit from the horrible situation they put everyone else through. The entire country thinks the kims are gods.
Edit: not the entire country but that’s the dogma and it’s heavily enforced.
They got a bunch of aid back in the 90s fwiw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990s_North_Korean_famine
NK is run by A Supreme Leader Kim Jung Un.
Kim’s title is Supreme Leader and he is a brutal dictator who was raised and educated in Switzerland. He is at least 100 pounds overweight and has everything he could ever want. The only help he wants is figuring out who in his government is a threat to his power. Kim once had a political opponent killed by having him shot with an anti-aircraft gun.
Kim has 30 millions slaves who provide Kim and the ruling class with everything they want.
It's been a while, but there used to be a joke that whenever NK needed an aid package, they would fire off a missile. This was in the years before the world went bugfuck right wing crazy
The leadership would not stay in power if they did that.
They already get lots of money without admitting their system sucks.
You assume those in charge are interested in helping out the average citizen, they aren't.
the ones in power are probably quite well off there, so from their point of view the country would be working perfectly.
Juche. That's why. A fucked, corrupt and nihilistic interpretation of Juche.
Because they literally can't? The NK government isn't having the problem. It's causing it, and also preventing people from leaving or even communicating with the outside world.
It'd open the floodgates for """aid""" that actually aims to put up a far-right capitalist dictatorship.
Socialist states only take aid from other socialist states and stateless communist societies.
Are you trying to imply a country run into the ground by a straight up dictator is socialist?
Are you stupid?
I just want to know where a stateless society exists ATM. Never mind how that's to be achieved with ape psychology.
Sentinel Island, maybe? 🤷♂️
Is the stateless communist society in the room with us now? Can you give an example?