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Kim Jong-un orders divorcing couples to labour camps under tough new rules (uk.news.yahoo.com)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Kim Jong-un has reportedly ordered that divorcing couples be sent to labour camps for up to six months, with women potentially facing longer sentences.

The North Korean leader has declared that ending a marriage demonstrates anti-socialist sympathies and warrants punishment.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

After doing a sociological background check, I think the news article is true. NK is a hard place to get information from, but in that case, you establish whether something is plausible in a given society. I started my check from here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_in_Korea#Marriage_in_North_Korea

"As of the late 2010s, marriage rates in North Korea have been reported as very high (over 96% of adults aged 30+ are married), and divorce rates as very low (less than 1% of North Korean population is classified as separated or divorced according to official data).[7]"

Maintaining a 96% marriage rate and a 1% divorce rate is not possible without coercion. So there is no doubt that some kind of coercion is used to get people married and prevent them from divorcing in North Korea.

See also:

Arranged marriage is still popular in North Korea.[8]

See also: a long article about marriage and divorce in NK in the previous decades. Does not include mention of recent developments. Ends at the COVID-19 timepoint (2020), when divorces increased. Apparently, coercion existed then too, but was primarily economical:

The processing fee for divorce is as high as 80 percent of the average monthly salary of workers, so residents find it really difficult to divorce, realistically speaking. Also, those who seek a divorce for a second time should file a petition with a higher court. In most cases, alimony is not recognized for divorced women.

Also, they don't recognize divorce by mutual agreement. To get a divorce over there, someone has to be at fault in the authorities' eyes. And from being at fault to being punished - very short trip in that country.

Divorce by mutual consent isn’t recognized in the North, as opposed to South Korea.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

If one of the parties is at fault in all cases of divorce why are they both being punished?

This information makes it much more plausible, sure, but it still doesn't prove anything.

Considering the source, i'd need actual evidence that this has been said by the party, any physical evidence of this at all is necessary in my eyes. Legal documents shouldn't be that hard to comeby, the claim is that kim jong un himself said it, is there no recording of this? Why not?

Was this not on their news? Why not?

Considering this source often tells plausible lies, I don't believe them without a shred of evidence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BO83Ig-E8E

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/haircut-03262014163017.html

this is the level of lies that source spews out, this being somewhat plausible really just isn't enough when we factor in the source knowingly lies regularly. To me that just means they did their due diligence to make the lie believable.

If the source regularly knowingly lies, plausibility just isn't enough.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

This information makes it much more plausible, sure, but it still doesn’t prove anything.

Yes. Getting hard information from a very closed country requires more time. And I'm sure that does tempt people with inventing news about North Korea, so I understand your skepticism.

Over time, news tend to get confirmed or refuted, so in a few weeks or months, one should find out with a high degree of certainty.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

There's also the fact that this source does that systematically for funding, there is no less reliable of a source, if radio free asia told me the sky is blue in NK I wouldn't buy it.