I picked a clearly anti-communist and anti-DPRK source to prove a point but there are many more from research papers to articles.
Defector testimony is not self-validating. There is serious reporting and academic work on the South Korean defector industry and the incentives surrounding it: selection bias, monetary incentives, media sensationalism, translation problems, trauma-related memory issues, political pressure, cases of embellishment and recantation, and demand for defector-activists who reproduce the narratives Western and South Korean audiences expect. For many defectors, this can also become an income stream in a society where they are otherwise economically marginalised.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/13/why-do-north-korean-defector-testimonies-so-often-fall-apart
I picked a clearly anti-communist and anti-DPRK source to prove a point but there are many more from research papers to articles.
Defector testimony is not self-validating. There is serious reporting and academic work on the South Korean defector industry and the incentives surrounding it: selection bias, monetary incentives, media sensationalism, translation problems, trauma-related memory issues, political pressure, cases of embellishment and recantation, and demand for defector-activists who reproduce the narratives Western and South Korean audiences expect. For many defectors, this can also become an income stream in a society where they are otherwise economically marginalised.