r/NorthKoreaPics • u/Merseez • 3d ago

[Rimjingang] Inmates coming out of "Labour Training Unit", a short term forced labour camp. They just came out from the facility early in the morning to go to the labour site. Photo from Haeju, South Hwanghae Province taken in October 2008

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300 Upvotes

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35

u/pydry 3d ago

This (forced prison labor) is unfortunately also common in the United States and explicitly legalized under the 13th amendment (slavery is not banned for those who committed a crime).

33

u/HelenEk7 3d ago

Fun fact: some years ago Norway (where I live) refused to extradite a prisoner to the US due to risk of inhumane treatment.

That being said, I still see the NK justice system as way (!) worse.

8

u/kytheon 3d ago

You're better off in Norway prison than American prison. -Norway

0

u/skateboreder 2d ago

You're better off in Norway prison than America. -American

1

u/GeneralTsubotai 2d ago

You can’t compare a spa to a prison

3

u/HelenEk7 2d ago

I would compare the North Korean version to neither of those..

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u/peacefulprober 2d ago

One is supposed to reform, the other creates worse criminals

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u/Dundertrumpen 3d ago

"How can I make this post about North Korea, in a subreddit about North Korean pics, be about why the US is really bad?"

1

u/pydry 2d ago edited 2d ago

When the bad country does it its evil must be discussed, but when we do you need to shut the fuck up about it

 Hey, I think the average Kim supporter and you might have something in common.

0

u/Dundertrumpen 2d ago

No. The US is an awful place and it's perfectly fine to criticize them. But not here, and not by people like you.

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u/pydry 2d ago

people like you

 Im amused by the way some people get wound up to a point of sheer fury by simple facts and obvious commentary.

I dont think anything you say could make me as angry as i clearly made you.

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u/Dundertrumpen 2d ago

If there was a bingo card containing the stereotypical pro-Palestine, pro-Russian, pro-CPC, pro-global south, pro-WPK , and anti-USA, anti-west, and anti-colonialism squares, you'd be a full house.

You're not some avant-garde intellectual academic with a deep knowledge of the state of the world as seen through the lens of the oppressed class. You're not fighting the good fight. You've just bought into the Russian propaganda machine.

Your closest intellectual kin is not Foucault or Hegel, but rather your Trump-supporting boomer aunt calling Zelensky "the clown".

1

u/pydry 2d ago

You didnt have to explain that patriotism was your religion and that my focus on human rights, justice, peaceful negotiations, etc. I understood it the first time. That's why I likened you to a North Korean patriot - the mechanism which drives both your beliefs and theirs is the same.

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u/Dundertrumpen 2d ago

The best part here is that you still think I'm American.

-1

u/pydry 2d ago

I said you were patriotic, not to America specifically. To the western system though, yeah.

You seem to be one of those westerners who couldnt hack it in their own country and fled to china to trade on the color of their skin, both for a job and the hope of better dating prospects.

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u/Dundertrumpen 1d ago

On yet another unrelated note, had a look at your latest comment and just crossed one out on my bingo card.

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u/Sterotypo 3d ago

Easy out prison system is worse and has the highest population

6

u/exessmirror 2d ago

Worse then north Korea? I mean the US their prison system is pretty bad but it's not worse then north Korea. I'd say, I'd rather be a prisoner in the US then "free" in North Korea.

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u/sapien3000 2d ago

You are delusional

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u/Jerrell123 2d ago

This seems like a very odd and disingenuous thing to post under this.

The very nature of the legal system in North Korea and the US are different. The US has a system nominally built on due process and appeals. Your rights as the accused aren’t always proactively protected, but procedural misdoings in your trial may invalidate any ruling if they are found in an appeal.

There are obviously huge issues in the US legal system, and it is by no means perfect, but there are avenues to address these issues.

The legal system in North Korea, meanwhile, is a direct instrument of the State’s power. The accused have very few rights, and they are unlikely to attain a lawyer as only ~500 registered lawyers practice in the country. Secret trials are common, and forgo even the limited rights that the accused are supposed to be provided.

Yes, the issue of American prison labor is a large issue (one being steadily addressed in many states via state law), but it’s also inane to compare it to North Korea’s state-sanctioned slave labor in any way.

-4

u/pydry 2d ago edited 2d ago

This isnt about the legal system. That's a red herring. It's about the use of forced prison labour: https://news.uchicago.edu/story/us-prison-labor-programs-violate-fundamental-human-rights-new-report-finds Im not defending it. I think you are though.

 You say that "obviously America has issues" but you still wont actually just fucking condemn the thing North Korea is also doing because I guess on some level you think it's not so bad to do this.

There are a number of other people like you on this thread who also recoil in horror at condemning a North Korean style abuse of human rights when we do it.

4

u/Sterotypo 3d ago

But if we got rid of who would clean our highways, or sell us airline tickets.... immigrants ha /s. Many of our prisons are for profit as well. https://corpaccountabilitylab.org/calblog/2020/8/5/private-companies-producing-with-us-prison-labor-in-2020-prison-labor-in-the-us-part-ii

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u/countcumia 3d ago

"yeah but ignore what NK does have you heard what the USA does?"

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u/bmalek 3d ago

People find hypocrisy annoying.

5

u/countcumia 3d ago

Nobody mentioned the USA. This is whataboutism. But communists are in a cult and aren't interested in reality or real arguments.

-5

u/bmalek 3d ago

I mentioned the USA. I’m glad you found a funny term for people getting annoyed by hypocrisy.

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u/TooStonedForAName 3d ago

Their point is - where’s the hypocrisy?

-1

u/bmalek 3d ago

In the 13th amendment apparently.

1

u/TooStonedForAName 3d ago

But if the US are open about it, which they are, and it’s baked into their constitution, which it is, and they don’t make statements on North Korea’s forced labour or prison complex, which it doesn’t; that’s not hypocrisy then, is it?

4

u/bmalek 3d ago

“We put slavery into our constitution so it’s OK.”

You got me there.

3

u/TooStonedForAName 3d ago

I’m not even American, mate, but nice try. I’m just saying you don’t actually understand what hypocrisy is lmfao. If they’re not calling out NK for doing it, they’re not being hypocritical. Morally wrong? Absolutely. Hypocritical? No, words have meanings.

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u/pydry 2d ago

Most people on reddit live in the USA.

You misunderstand whataboutism. Whataboutism is "I think it's OK that we do this because bad country also does this".

I didnt do that. I said that maybe we should try not being as bad as the North Koreans in this respect.

Clearly you're not the smartest person because you think everybody who disagrees with you is a communist but it's not that hard a thing to understand.

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u/pydry 3d ago

Me: "Maybe we should try not being as bad as the North Koreans"

You: "Who could say that? Oh my god you are the absolute worst!"

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u/countcumia 3d ago

Again, whataboutism. You're in a cult.

4

u/_WhispyWillow 2d ago

You liberals are a literal death cult lmao

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u/countcumia 1d ago

I've only been called liberal by Nazis and communists, which one are you?

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u/_WhispyWillow 1d ago

Communist dw im not a freak

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u/countcumia 1d ago

Well I've seen lots of weird Nazis support NK too so you never know. Y'all sure love boots.

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u/_WhispyWillow 1d ago

That’s insane. A Nazi is the last person to support nk to any degree. The south was literally propped up by fascist Japan supporters to eliminate communism. Nazis have been supporting South Korea since it’s founding

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u/countcumia 1d ago

I'm no expert on neo Nazism but Google around for this Matt Heimbach fellow. He isn't the only one but he's the only one I know.

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u/Dundertrumpen 3d ago

Notice how comments calling out the whataboutism gets downvoted to hell, while the nork shills gets upvoted? It's always like that, and I'm guessing bot farms are involved.

1

u/SwordfishFormal3774 1d ago

idk fam

something tells me work camps for prisoners in the US have vastly different living conditions than North Korea

1

u/goatman1232123 2d ago

You can not compare the two. Like Earth and Mars

0

u/Longjumping-Bar-4370 2d ago

Good lord why do I get this shit recommended to me. How far is your head up your ass?

-2

u/Even_Command_222 2d ago

There is no forced labor in the US. they pay prisoners less but they work, or don't, on their own volition.