Apologia and even the term apologize meant something more like "explain" rather than "ask forgiveness," but the term apologia was of course how certain groups characterized making excuses and lies (like how "hasbara" literally means explaining and is indeed excuses and lies), so it came to just mean that instead.

While this website overwhelmingly redwashes the DPRK, liberals will never approach presenting a criticism where that sort of thing is even relevant, because all they can think to do is complain about Warmbier or demand that a country that the US is one of the most hostile toward should get rid of its nukes as though the DPRK has any chance of using them aggressively and the US wouldn't immediately topple the country like Libya if it made the inconceivably disastrous mistake of disarming.