There was an article published about DPRK by Ece Goksedef on BBC Turkish on 5th of Jan 2019
I felt like I had to respond to this travel article which is actually a black propaganda.
Actually, when I was reading reaction of people to her article on Twitter, I saw a tweet: “She didn’t have to go to DPRK
for writing this article. She could just stay home and write the same things.” This reply was a likable one!
Indeed, we can see from her article that she was affected by the articles and black propagandas she read on internet. She
kept her attitude towards DPRK during her trip. Besides, she didn’t have to visit DPRK if she trusted the data of United
Nations which she often mentioned in her article. She could just find these bullshits on internet and write the same things.
Does she even know that BBC, the organization she works for is called British Brainwashing Corporation in the UK?
First, I would like to start with the ‘visa’ issue. She claims that everybody needs a special permission to go to DPRK. I
would like to ask her; could she even go to the UK where BBC’s headquarter is without visa? She should maybe call the
visas that she needs for visiting the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and EU countries ‘special permission’
as nobody needs to go to the DPRK Embassy to have an interview, give fingerprints, prove assets or declare bank
statements. The procedure is very simple; you just need to provide to the agency the required documents and wait for
approval. Once, you receive confirmation, you just need to go to the DPRK Embassy in Beijing and get your visa.
Second, she mentions that she was observed 24/7. I guess she thinks that she is a very important person and people have
nothing else to do but just observe her non-stop. This is named ‘paranoia’. I want to send her that funny video below:
----VIDEO TRANSCRIPT---
You have paranoia as normal. You upload your photos on Facebook with your friends while you are having holiday, while
you are barbecuing in Kazlicesme (a place in Istanbul), while celebrating new year with a hat on your head and then you
say at the end “CIA is watching our accounts”. CIA! Everybody keeps their targets high. “CIA is following me!”.
Excalibur 17 is searching for you. What will CIA do with your shitty account? You can be sure that they talk about you in
Pentagon. “Jack, did you see that? Yeah! Right! Muhittin Topalak from Kazlicesme, in relationship with Kezban. Kill
him!” (While you are barbecuing). What happened now? Did they interrupt your BBQ? What happened?
----VIDEO TRANSCRPIT----
If we change the “CIA” as “DPRK officials” and “Pentagon” as “Pyongyang”, this video could be the best answer to her
ridiculous claim about being observed 24/7.
She also claims that tourists are not allowed to take photos. The truth is that; nobody is allowed to take photos anywhere
except for the military buildings, bases or governmental buildings. I am pretty sure that it is the same in Turkey. They
warn tourists not to take people’s photos because in Korean culture it is very rude to take someone’s photo without his/her
permission. This specially applies for women. Is it really convenient to take photos of people without asking them?
I have no words to say about what she says about going to toilets with permission. This is ridiculous! She mentions that
once her friend needed to go to the toilets on the way to another city on the highway and the driver didn’t want to stop the
bus to let her urinate near the road. She makes it sound like they were not allowed to stop the bus but maybe it was
because there were no toilets around! I am sorry Ece Goksedef, but they don’t have the culture of “peeing on the
roadside” in their culture! Maybe the idea of allowing a woman to urinate on the roadside sounded weird to the guides and
driver!
She claims that she was not allowed to talk to local people, but in the same article she writes that she was in a crowd with
local people. Talking to people is totally free and nobody will stop you doing this. However, it would be weird to stop
somebody walking on the street and start talking. She deserves an appreciation for trying to call people liars because they
tell her that they love their country and don’t want to leave. Why can’t she believe that people really love their country,
support Socialism and anti-imperialism? Why does she claim that the people need to say those things? It is very difficult
to understand why...!
It is the same in the Western Media; after listening to people of DPRK and hearing that people are happy, they claim that
“the people we talked were selected by the government”. Goksedef must be affected by those claims as she has the same
bias towards people.
She mentions that they seized her passport which is absolutely a lie! When a tourist arrives at the hotel, the officials need
to send the information to the bureaus including some consulates or embassies in DPRK. For example; UK Citizens need
to declare their stay in DPRK to their mission in DPRK. It’s requirement of the UK officials. After completion of the
process, the passports are given back to the tourist.
I also wonder what she would do with her passport if she believes that she is not even allowed to go to the toilets? How
could she leave the country or what could she do with her passport?
Until now all the claims were about traveling to DPRK.
Now let’s come to her claims about the country…
She starts the paragraph with “nobody can leave the country with personal purposes. Only if the government allows, they
can leave” and continues “privileged people travel abroad for shopping”. If people can’t leave the country, then how can
those (non-existing) privileged people go abroad?
She also writes that there isn’t equality in the country because there are “business class” and “economy class” on the
airplanes. This is not a class discrimination for people. All the airline companies around the world have business class and
economy class offers. Koryo Airlines serves international travelers and businessmen. Sometimes businessmen may
require business class flight. It is valid for Koreans as well. How can you relate class discrimination for flights with
discrimination of people? This is really stupid!
She mentions about the cities where only privileged people live. I think cleaners, maids and other regular people are also
considered as privileged! Besides people working at the supermarkets, shops and restaurants are privileged too! How can
she claim that only wealthy people can live in the cities while there is service industry and people in the cities? Working
class people also live in the cities. It is not that they are not allowed to live in the cities, it is that they need to work where
they are recruited.
All the citizens in KDHC have equal rights and there isn’t a class discrimination as Goksedef claims. Everybody is legally
equal and there is economic and social equality. Working class people are elected to Supreme People’s Assembly. Since it
is a Socialist country, people that she mentions as privileged have the same rights with working class people.
About the life standards…
Again, the same journalist writes that there aren’t overweight people in the country. Is it really something bad? Since
when it is a talent to be overweight? They aren’t overweight because, they eat healthy and traditional food instead of fastfood
garbage. She also says that some people in Pyongyang are fat; it isn’t about eating less or more but about eating
healthy or unhealthily. I also want to add that not only privileged people (there aren’t privileged people by the way) but
everyone can go to the restaurants.
While mentioning about infant death, she gives examples from the United Nations’ data. How is it possible in a country
where healthcare is free before and after birth? And she also reports that people feel happy when they live 60 years. I
believe that it is because she doesn’t know that life expectancy in DPRK is 74.5.
It isn’t something bad not to have lights on unnecessary road or places which reduces waste of energy. There is electricity
in the villages, but people don’t use it unless they need.
People use tractors in the fields where they are needed. It’s funny that she says the cows were very skinny like the
government forgot supplying food for the animals when those animals already eat the grass growing in the nature.
There aren’t soldiers watching workers. Those are worker guards. She makes it sound like the guards whip the workers.
Doesn’t she have supervisors observing the workers at her company?
What I want to tell about poverty is significant.
Should we really consider as poverty what Goksedef mentions as “poverty”?
Is being poor; buying foreign brands with credit cards because you don’t have money or is it; wearing the clothes that are
provided by the government for free and not following the trends created by imperialism?
Is being poor; not having money for food after paying for rent, utilities and using credit cards to make fast-food
restaurants rich, or is it; eating the food provided by the government for free and not thinking about “what to eat”?
Is being poor; not having money to pay for credit cards after paying for all what I listed above and then being forced to get
loans to cover the credit cards debts or is it; not having a penny debt, having a house for free and using all the utilities for
free?
Actually, what she considers as poverty is the opposite: richness.
In DPRK, nobody has debt for loans or credit cards and all the needs are provided by the government for free. What they
earn is for their extra needs and entertainment. If we consider that people in Western countries buy food with credit cards,
buy houses with 50 years payment plans, get loans for studying at a university and always have debt, I guess it is very
obvious who are really poor! On the one side there are Korean people whose needs are provided by the government for
free and on the other side there are Western people living their lives in minuses.
Ece Goksedef must understand that all what she shows as welfare are trends created by imperialists and people who don’t
follow those stupid trends are not poor. They are just not slaves of imperialism!
Do you really think that what she shows as poverty is really poverty?
The decision is yours…
I also had answers regarding the article from the Official Delegate of KFA in the UK, Dermot Hudson who has been to
DPRK for 15 times. He already had his answers as he previously participated BBC programs. I wanted to add his answers
to my reply.
They seize passports and visas of tourists at the airport.
No, this is not true . When you arrive at the hotel usually they take your passport for you to be registered with the
people’s security bureau and sometimes with the Embassy of your country (Britain wants British citizens visiting the
DPRK to register).
Seizing visa , how ridiculous !
Tourists are observed 24/7, need permission to g too toilets, are not allowed to talk to local people, are not allowed to
take photos even at the places where they are supposed to be allowed.
1. People can take photos anywhere except for military bases or high security areas. Also some Korean ladies do not
like to be photographed , this is traditional
2. How can people be observed 24/7 , it is not possible .
3. Never heard of needing permission to go to toilet . I have visited DPRK 15 times and never once had to ask for
permission to go to the toilet.
It’s forbidden for foreigners to exchange ideas with local people.
You can discuss ideas with the Korean people and exchange views but remember they are independent and have their
own ideology and also reject imperialist , bourgeois and revisionist ideas.
There isn’t equality between people, they are separated into classes.
The DPRK is the most egalitarian society in the world . Income differentials are not big. There is no capitalist or landlord
class in the DPRK . The means of production are socially owned. Officials are required to do manual labour .
People are not allowed to live in the cities unless they are successful from the birth. They need a special permission to
visit the cities even.
So why do cleaners and people with ordinary jobs live in the cities ?
Only privileged people are allowed to live in the cities, enter restaurants, go abroad. Others can’t even go out of their
villages.
Many ordinary people live in the cities , who would drive the buses, trains , etc. Yes ordinary people go to restaurant.
Only privileged people have all the rights, but others don’t.
In the DPRK everyone is legally equal and there is economic and social economic equality . Working class people are
elected to the Supreme People’s Assembly.
People starve because they can’t afford anything. The poverty is very obvious. Only privileged people are over-weighted.
Others are very skinny because the government doesn’t provide enough food for them.
On 15 visits to the DPRK I have never seen anyone starving in the DPRK . Basic food in the DPRK is very cheap ,
virtually free .Also housing is free.
People don’t live longer than 60 years. They die from starvation and bad health conditions.
Wrong . Life expectancy in the DPRK is 74.5 years . I have seen lots of old people in their 70s and 80s in the DPRK. In
fact the government has built many old people’s homes recently.
Agriculture and husbandry are very poor and not modernized.
DPRK agriculture is modernized. Tractors , rice transplanters and harvesters are used . All the countryside has electricity.
There is no lightening on the roads or villages.
Streets in the cities and some towns have lights .
Translated from http://www.kfaturkey.org/portal/index.php/2019/01/18/bbc-turkce-yazari-ece-goksedefin-yazisina-cevap/
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