• WittyProfileName2 [she/her]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    Yo, any folks on here got info about this SAND institute that sourced this video.

    Trying to look them up only gives me the BBC article about this video which has this to say about them “This video was provided to the BBC by the South and North Development (Sand), a research institute that works with defectors from the North.”

    Something deeply sus about this, if you don’t mind me donning the tinfoil hat a sec.

    • Trudge [Comrade]@lemmygrad.ml
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      10 months ago

      I was curious and looked a bit more into this. So looking up public information regarding the org in Korean, there’s 0 employees. The registered address is in a residential apartment building directly facing the head office of seoul metropolitan office and two blocks away from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 1

      These are their web presence Youtube Webpage Twitter

      It seems to be an evolution of NK defectors association. But I didn’t look much into it because I got sidetracked by the South Korean Ministry of Reunification that I stumbled upon while looking into SAND. The planning regarding the forced privatization of North Korean land is wild.

      • RyanGosling [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        10 months ago

        If I was a spy risking my life and my family’s life and my family’s subsequent 25 generations to sneak a video of evil go the heroes, I’d maybe spend an extra second to also capture sound lol

      • WittyProfileName2 [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        10 months ago

        Thanks for the links comrade.

        Can’t speak Korean myself so I’m having to rely on the little robot in my phone to tell me what that website says.

        Having a little read about though, and it’s kinda what I expected - some of the articles on it seem to be arguing for a tighter surveillance state to root out communists and the rest are your typical unsourced defector stories.

        Edit: whole lotta reposts of BBC articles.

        Edit again: including a story eerily similar to the recent one.

        Edit once more: and in contradiction, this.

        1/5 of North Koreans have publicly stated they watch K-dramas a crime executable by death and/or hard labour.

      • WittyProfileName2 [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        10 months ago

        That’s a reasonable assumption, but the website Trudge linked to in this thread has a timeline of SAND’s history that starts in 2017 and ends in 2019 (although the “research” section of the website has links to, like, seminars and shit they’ve done since and they’ve maintained a presence on Twitter since 2022, so it’s likely they just haven’t updated the timeline).