Let's discuss North Korea

[badger]

There's so much to discuss, but I'll start with this: They're threatening South Korea over UN sanctions. (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/25/us-korea-north-idUSBRE90O0AJ20130125)

Of course, North Korea could never invade South Korea. All of the soldiers would drop their weapons, surrender and then try to stay down there :D

[KABOOKIE]

I say leave the punks alone until they do something. All this saber rattling is just that. Plus I think many SK's need a good ole NK invasion to remind them the difference between imperialism and the US defending freedom. Some of the young have gotten a little pansy liberal soft in my mind.

[FaninAma]

I say leave the punks alone until they do something. All this saber rattling is just that. Plus I think many SK's need a good ole NK invasion to remind them the difference between imperialism and the US defending freedom. Some of the young have gotten a little pansy liberal soft in my mind.

I agree. I don't think they will follow through on any of their threats.

Personally, I don't think anybody should have nuclear weapons...it is immoral. But why is there a distinction about who we allow to develop nuclear weapons? Do we really think that a nation would commit certain suicide by attacking a country with a vastly superior nuclear arsenal?

[KantoSooner]

There are only two scenarios in which NK attacks SK.
1. They think they've figured out a way to 'end it' within 72 hours and force the US to accept a fait accompli.
2. They think that they're going down anyway, nothing to lose.

In both the key is what they are thinking. And, really, the only people with much insight into that are the Chinese. We have to make the Chinese care about what happens there. And how, you might ask, do you do that? Well, you might encourage the Japanese to do a satellite launch sometime soon. Something that requires insane accuracy and control. The Chinese will not be so mentally slow that they don't figure out that space rockets become ICBM's with nothing more than a software upgrade.
And the Chinese really don't want a Japan bristling with nuclear tipped ICBMs, no do they. But, sadly, <sigh>, that's what might result if someone friendlty to the NK's didn't calm them down a bit.

[badger]

I don't know whether to believe this story or not... actually I do: Starving North Koreans reportedly eat their children (http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/342266)

The reason I believe this very ridiculous and awful sounding story is because, well, it's North Korea, and also because 60 minutes talked to a former North Korean prison camper (http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18560_162-57556662/north-korean-prison-endured-for-23-brutal-years/) who had no family relationship with his mother and brother, to the point that he turned them in to a guard when he overheard their escape plans... for the chance to get food.

What a messed up world they live in :(

[KantoSooner]

Can't say for sure, but it's pretty well documented that NK women have begun the practice of eating their own placentas following birth to get the protein and nutrients.

And SK exports food. Off of less land and with twice the population.

The shortages are not natural, they are created through epic stupidity.

Now, let me buff my nails and await your congratulations. Japan yesterday launched two 'intelligence' satellites into very tricky orbits.

I invite you to reread my post above from last week.

God Dayum! but I'm good.

Thank you, thank you very much.

[cleller]

How's healthcare in NK?

[KantoSooner]

If you're the Dear Leader? Excellent.
Otherwise? Absent, I would presume.

[badger]

They seem to be going more insane the longer they live there...

(the city missile attack starts at about 2:05)
HKWJSKYBDXE

I don't know Korean either, so here's the video overview. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/05/north-korea-video-us-city-flames)

I think these people's perspectives of reality are so far off that they don't realize what they're up against.

[SoonerorLater]

Insane, megalomaniac dictator with nuclear weapons. Probably nothing to be overly concerned about.

[olevetonahill]

Gooks is Crazy mother ****ers.

[KABOOKIE]

They only need to nuke LA or NYC and the pubs will easily get the white house.

[Soonerjeepman]

wow...the soundtrack is "We Are the World"...remember in the 90's...all the lib artists got together..world hunger or something..

[Bourbon St Sooner]

I hear their hookers are skinny.

[olevetonahill]

I hear their hookers are skinny.

And they have slanted *******

[ouwasp]

heh... showed the video to my jr high students today...timing was perfect, because we just discussed the NK situation yesterday in a Jr Scholastic magazine. My students were very underwhelmed with the threat posed by the NKs, and even less so of their animation talent.

It is difficult to take those knuckleheads seriously. But I'm glad the Pacific is between us and them! They remind me of the punk kid that sits in the corner...mouthy, not gonna do his work...dresses like crap and has multiple piercings... has a white-trash mom that will take up for him in every case...and absolutely refuses to be ignored. <sigh>

[KantoSooner]

Show your students one of those nighttime shots of the Korean peninsula. SK is blazing, NK is a sea of darkness. Then show, I'll try to find it, there's a picture of an NK young woman standing next to an SK young woman. The one from the South is literally about 8 inches taller. And the genetics are identical, so it's 100% the result of malnutrition.

[ouwasp]

yeah, we did the satellite images yesterday on the smartboard... that always grabs them, after all, a picture is worth a thousand words. But that pic of comparative nutrition sounds like something also very interesting... I tell the kids we are blessed to be born in the US quite often. Thanks for the idea Kanto...

[8timechamps]

I say leave the punks alone until they do something. All this saber rattling is just that. Plus I think many SK's need a good ole NK invasion to remind them the difference between imperialism and the US defending freedom. Some of the young have gotten a little pansy liberal soft in my mind.

THIS.

They want to be relevant on the world stage, and that's about all there is to it. Even if NK developed a ballistic missile capable of reaching the continental US, it would never make it through the missile defense system. By the time NK has a nuclear weapons program capable of threatening the US, technology will have made their systems useless. As loud as NK screams and cries for attention, they know what awaits should they decide to launch a nuclear attack on any NATO country. Nobody in NK wants that.

Iran on the other hand...there's some bat-**** crazy going on there.

[olevetonahill]

Tell the Kids to remember the USS Pueblo
**** them gooks.

[KantoSooner]

Flip the thing on its head and look at it from NK's point of view. They're in an awful neighborhood. They've got China, who'd gobble them in an instant given the chance (and has several times historically), the Japanese who happily enslaved them for the first 50 years or or of the 20th century (and it was their third invastion that I can think of), the Russians...yeah, that's enough right there. And their own, dear brothers in the South. Yikes.
And yet they've held on, played all sides off against the middles, maintained something of independence and the ruling family is still in charge. From the point of view of La Familia Kim, thing's are peachy. They live like kings. All they have to do is stay just relevant enough to get treated seriously and then balance off those neighbors. We're in this game simply because we're the big bad wolf to the Chinese and Russians and Big Brother to the South and Japanese.
They are utterly amoral/evil men, the Kims and their henchmen, but they are neither stupid nor out of touch (the people are another story). They've taken a really terrible hand of cards and played it perfectly for close to 70 years (more if you count great grandpa's rather trying years of being Mao and Stalin's fair haired boy (now, THAT is one murderous management committee to keep happy, no?).
We have less to worry about from them than from the more ideological Iranians. (I would argue that the Kims are simple autocrats and if understood to be first, last and foremost interested in maintaining their rule are quite 'workable'. Doesnt make 'em nice. Makes 'em comprehensible, though.)
Seen through this prism, the little video, the nuke test, and the missile launch were all ploys to keep the region watching them and to placate various military constituencies (who are the only 'rivals' for power) domestically. Though they can do real harm, make no mistake, that is not their primary purpose.

[badger]

Heh... looks like NK stole the "American city" footage from Call of Duty MW3:
(start at about 2:10)
6-xc7h6VaP0