Huge markup on imported foods. Why?

[webfact]

Elite North Korean defector says more diplomats waiting to defect to Seoul - Yonhap

REUTERS

 

Thae Yong-ho, the former North Korean deputy ambassador to London, gestures while speaking during a news conference at the Government Complex in Seoul, South Korea, December 27, 2016. News1 via REUTERS

 

SEOUL (Reuters) - More high-level North Korean diplomats are waiting to defect to South Korea from their overseas posts in Europe, Pyongyang's former deputy ambassador to London said on Tuesday, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

 

Thae Yong Ho defected to South Korea in August last year and since December 2016 has been speaking to local media and appearing on variety television shows to discuss his defection to Seoul and his life as a North Korean envoy.

 

"A significant number of North Korean diplomats came to South Korea recently," Thae said, according to Yonhap.

 

"I am not the only one from Europe. There are more waiting to come," Thae said, speaking at an event held in South Korea's parliamentary building.

 

Thae, 54, has said publicly that dissatisfaction with the rule of young leader Kim Jong Un had led him to flee his post, but he also had two university-age sons living with him and his wife in London who were due to return to isolated North Korea.

 

He is the highest-ranking official to have fled North Korea for the South since the 1997 defection of Hwang Jang Yop, the brains behind North Korea's governing ideology, "Juche", which combines Marxism with extreme nationalism.

 

"Of all the recent high-level defectors, I am the only one to have gone public," said Thae.

 

(Reporting by James Pearson; Additional reporting by Jeong Eun Lee)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-01-17

[oldsailor35]

Just signed their death warrants with that statement.

[sawadeeken]

Yes, Indeed............... Just signed the death warrant for  all those other future defectors because all this news will be monitored by the North Koreans and now they will be suspicious and watch all those who fall in the category of potential defectors and  just kill them randomly............

Very sad that they announced and publicised this information.........

[HerbalEd]

49 minutes ago, sawadeeken said:

Yes, Indeed............... Just signed the death warrant for  all those other future defectors because all this news will be monitored by the North Koreans and now they will be suspicious and watch all those who fall in the category of potential defectors and  just kill them randomly............

Very sad that they announced and publicised this information.........

"now they will be suspicious"??? As if they were't already suspecious.

[sawadeeken]

10 hours ago, HerbalEd said:

"now they will be suspicious"??? As if they were't already suspecious.

Then lets say that they will be ever more suspicious and watching with their 'guns drawn'...................

[peergin]

On 1/17/2017 at 11:51 PM, sawadeeken said:

Yes, Indeed............... Just signed the death warrant for  all those other future defectors because all this news will be monitored by the North Koreans and now they will be suspicious and watch all those who fall in the category of potential defectors and  just kill them randomly............

Very sad that they announced and publicised this information.........

 

Most media worldwide have no qualms publishing information that will kill people. I vividly remember one very sad case that happened long ago. I believe it was an American journalist who obtained permission from Ugandan dictator/mass murderer Idi Ami to interview a few of his many wives. All of them had children and many were pregnant again, except one very young girl. She did not have any children and was not pregnant. The journalist wanted to know why she had not become pregnant because he knew that Amin denied all of his wives the use of birth control protection. The teenager replied that she managed through sheer will power. The journalist must have considered that funny because he published that information in great detail. One day later kitchen staff at Amin's palace found the girl's head in a refrigerator.

Given Amin's reputation the journalist MUST have known that the girl would be killed. In my eyes that fellow was also a murderer. He should have been prosecuted for murder and incarcerated for life.

As I said, it happened long ago but nothing has changed since. Many journalists and media sources are as irresponsible as ever.     

[Michael8511]

On 1/18/2017 at 11:40 AM, sawadeeken said:

Then lets say that they will be ever more suspicious and watching with their 'guns drawn'...................

Well said, feel bad for their relatives in North Korea. There days are also counted.

[hawker9000]

I get the animus toward the media in this case.   But was this guy forced  to hold a "news conference"?  Maybe he pretty much was in fact, but if so I doubt it was by the media.   I'm generally no defender of the mass media or the way it goes about its too typically agenda-driven business.  But if this guy set out to cheerlead for his colleagues and thereby encourage more defections, and/or stick a hot poker in KJU's eye, I'm not sure how brutal retaliation for that is the media's fault, even if predictable.  And if/when bad-haircut psychopath guy has his goons drop the hammer on someone's family for defecting, we should remain clear about who's actually responsible for such atrocities and who's merely reporting the facts!   The bigger picture is that the damage KJU does is only magnified when the media is intimidated into keeping silent.

Edited January 21, 2017 by hawker9000