Given that situation, and the stigma/stereotype that would come attached with being NK male vs. female, I think being Nork male vs. Nork female is going to be very different, as opposed to just the general assumption that yes, Norks in South Korea will likely experience some discrimination.

Just taking the piss.

Then I would point out regionalism and other obvious forms of discrimination, and people would move on and change the subject. After around 1998, I found people I talked to not dismissing the notion of a clear, gendered social hierarchy so quickly anymore.

I posted about it in 2006, which is the earliest I can refer to anything I’ve publicly written about it. And now, we have the first signs that this is actually going down that road.

Hence, the post, link, and smug bit of self-satisfaction at what is, however, an unfortunate-but-predictable turn of events.

‘Marry a North Korean woman! Confirmed identity. Compare them with foreign women…’ (from the advertisement)

When and how can customers inspect the product - in this case, a human female offered by brokerage for marriage - in order to provide a firm basis for comparison? May the product be use-tested? How is their identity confirmed?

Indeed, where is the product? Are customers actually being afforded the opportunity to compare?

And, regarding the old 남남북녀 saw, I’d always heard that it was a maxim about the optimal relationship. Another such maxim holds that personal relationships are best when the woman is four years younger than the man.

However, I’ve always heard of both as being simply old wisdoms. These days, such proverbs regarding marriage are suggestions, not directives.

Note: abcdefg can feel free to jump in here and explain the proper use of ‘maxim’, ‘proverb’ and ‘old wisdom’, so that these terms are not misused in future.