Right - even if it is not as dramatic as imprisonment in the camps in Hamgyeongbukdo, it could mean demotion and years of sustained investigation and perhaps social ostracism.
But I think one of the other motives here is that these guys are probably getting some wild hazard pay for going to the conflict zone, and their relative wealth within North Korea as elite soldier careerists is probably quite decent as is.
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
It’s possible but it also ignores the simple reality that humans are tribalist apes and North Korea is their home, North Koreans are their people and they’ve been told their whole lives that the rest of world is the cause of N. Korean poverty.
And the thing about that is that it’s kind of true thanks to a century of embargoes of a region that has always been dependant on mining and industry and thus trade.