[sorcerer-mar]

> I find some people's attitude to NK hackers slightly schizophrenic: either they are a credible threat or they are amateurs. Which one is it?

I have no clue whether the proposed approach works, but there's a pretty coherent model that explains how it could, no schizophrenia needed: They are competent people in a cult.

Being unable/unwilling to diss Dear Leader even when it's advantageous to do so is very typical cult stuff. In fact, it's sort of why cults are dangerous. They compel people to do maladaptive things in service of the "ideals" of the group/leader.

This applies both to the spy directly (perhaps they would personally be unwilling to say such a thing), but also to their entire chain of command. Cults by their nature are not good at passing nuanced instruction like "you can say bad things about Dear Leader under these circumstances." Just because you're willing to diss KJU to get in the door doesn't mean you know your entire chain of superiors are cool with it.

[the_af]

So you're saying NK agents are completely different to, say, Soviet era agents, who could and would say anything as long as it furthered their mission?

Ok, fair enough. In common perception of NK, they do seem bizarre, not like the Soviets during the Cold War.

I think it's unwise to dismiss them as lunatics incapable of deceit. If I were a NK agent, I'd work towards this notion, "NK are incapable of lying if it would diss their leader, that's how we get them!". In fact, I would spread this notion in Reddit, like the OP mentioned.

By the way, this still leaves the easy way out of "why are you asking about Kim Jong Un in a job interview, is it because I'm Korean? I'd like to speak to your HR department please".

[jowea]

I'm just guessing but comparing the NK hacker to a late Cold War era Soviet professional spy is the wrong comparison. Maybe the closer comparison is asking a Soviet party member belonging to the professional middle class with a bit of spy training during the Great Purges to talk negatively about Stalin out of the blue.

[sorcerer-mar]

Yeah I never got the impression that Soviets were as successfully isolated from the world as North Koreans are. But I’m not an expert on the matter!

I mean, I totally agree that this should not be relayed as a working method to identify spies haha. Just that it’s not beyond believability it’d work in some circumstances.