[soarfourmore]

It’s likely true that defectors (by reason they defected) have legitimate stories to tell and they are both paid & given a platform to tell their stories by governments. Giving someone a megaphone doesn’t make their story less true does it?

[vkou]

When you can make a living telling stories about how awful the country you defected from is, it probably makes sense to embellish at least a few of them. It's not like anyone's going to be able to tell the awful and true ones apart from the awful and untrue ones.

[liversage]

I once listened to an interview with the head of the Seoul office of the U.N. Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, and if I remember correctly she said that they had to be careful to base their work on reports from defectors because they were aware that some reports might be exaggerated or made up.