this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2026
344 points (98.9% liked)

World News

53755 readers
2370 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has selected his daughter as his heir, South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers on Thursday.

Kim Ju Ae - who is believed to be 13 - has in recent months been pictured beside her father in high-profile events like a visit to Beijing in September, her first known trip abroad.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it took a "range of circumstances" into account including her increasingly prominent public presence at official events" in making this assessment.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] FunkyStuff@lemmy.ml 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

South Korean media reports of North Korean defectors are notoriously not trustworthy. North Korean defectors suffer from a lot of stigma if they go to the South and usually struggle to find a job. Tabloids pay them for their stories. Obviously, the taller the tale, the more likely they get a paycheck.

The fact that NK is so closed off means it's hard to disprove a lot of the claims, but we can still know that they're false when they're contradictory. For example, some NK defectors have claimed having KJU's haircut is illegal, others claim it's the only haircut men are allowed to wear. Some claim that abortion is totally banned, others claim that the state forces women to get abortions.

Probably the epitome of this phenomenon is Yeonmi Park. Are you really gonna die on the hill that NK defectors like her are trustworthy sources?

[–] supernight52@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

Yes, because if we discount every first-hand account because of some people who don't say the exact same thing- then we wouldn't have almost any evidence that what went down in concentration camps during WWII actually happened. First-hand accounts are all we get (outside of tankies running interference for a violent dictatorship) so finding commonality among all of them is how you can at least attempt to verify.

[–] FunkyStuff@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 minutes ago

Yes, because if we discount every first-hand account because of some people who don’t say the exact same thing- then we wouldn’t have almost any evidence that what went down in concentration camps during WWII actually happened.

That's completely different. The Nazis kept records that corroborate the first-hand accounts. There's photographic evidence of how the camps were laid out, the conditions their prisoners were kept in, bodies, experiments, and more. Honestly I find this line to be bordering on Holocaust denial because it's so absurd: you think the Holocaust could have been carried out in such a way that only first-hand accounts provide evidence of it?

Also I'm not talking about getting slight details wrong, I'm talking about different defectors telling stories that directly contradict each other, or things that are simply impossible. Have you ever seen an interview with Yeonmi Park?