Trogdos! posted:

Oldsmobile posted:

This is also an excellent, quite a candid documentary worth watching. The guy is I guess, upper middle class by North Korean standards. Still he seems to have had it rough during the famine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LY0Wlk1BtXA

E: Maybe he hurt his leg really bad and had to leave the country to get it fixed? Like China maybe. Certainly plausible.

WarpedNaba posted:

Somebody is paying them, I believe.

Dusty Baker 2 posted:

I wouldn't doubt it. There are a few countries still using the T-34 today, along with one or two that use the M4 Sherman as well.

LGD posted:

Well North Korea just announced they tested a thermonuclear device, so I expect we're in for another round of the usual nonsense (but moreso).

zimboe posted:

That in the long run, we're probably hosed.

Weapons get used. ALWAYS. Sooner or later.
...
And your gold earrings were forged in the heart of an exploding star like Thor's hammer.

-Troika- posted:

More likely some crazy idiot will sell a nuclear weapon to Hamas or Hezbollah or something and it'll get set off in Israel. And then the entire rest of the Middle East gets melted into slag by a vengeful Israel.

fishmech posted:

The good news for us is they're incapable of that until they stop being broke as hell. And if they stop being broke as hell they probably won't give that up to commit suicide by attempting to nuke Seoul.

zimboe posted:

Yah. My worry exactly.

If a nuke producer sells a bomb to some proxy in secret there is now plausible deniability which will delay any counter strike- as the injured party tries to figure out who to hit.

But in the case of Israel they may just choose to pull down the whole temple and glass everybody nearby- the so-called Sampson Option- as a sort of payback for the Holocaust.

zimboe posted:

Because NK is run by a nutcase. With nukes. Nutcase + nukes = a Bad Thing.

Re Tom Clancy: You better hope life doesn't imitate art in this case.

Grouchio posted:

1. I partially ask out of concern; I mostly ask out of seeking a group-based inquiry.
2. Most of the concern part stems from thinking about what they may know that we don't.
3. That infernally short game Homefront has never entirely left my mind.

Badger of Basra posted:

They don't have the heavy lift capacity to invade the west coast of North Korea.

Cliff Racer posted:

They don't know poo poo and they are never, ever going to just start a nuclear war over nothing with the current power structure in place. Feel free to never bother asking uless KJU is deposed.

Switzerland posted:

NK's greatest weapon are Dear Leader's tanks and bazookas, replete with fake, History-Channel-esque post-production sound effects added!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIM0qEHNih4

Discendo Vox posted:

And here we go.

Grouchio posted:

No it's just the godamn EMP satellite from Homefront stubbornly looping in my head.

WarpedNaba posted:

If they didn't like it, they shouldn't have set up the Norks in the first place. Sleeping in the bed they made and all that.

Phlegmish posted:

Are these purges just the result of Stalinist paranoia or are there really people openly not 'on his side'? Which seems like a really bad idea.

Juffo-Wup posted:

Oh my.

sincx posted:

Looks like China finally got pissed enough at Kim the Third and/or is sufficiently bothered by THAAD.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-nuclear-usa-idUSKCN0VY0ET
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35664794

The new sanctions, among other things, bans shipment of all aviation and rocket fuel, and also bans Air Koryo from flying internationally.

Cliff Racer posted:

Well, South Korea is like the US in that its got a president, who is still in office, even though her party is now the minority in the Korean parliament. There's actually multiple left-ish parties so the fact that they are only behind by one seat (yeah it was a real close one) is actually far worse than it sounds. This basically means that she will have trouble getting her economic agenda passed. If all you care about is NK/SK relations not much will change immediately buy it has big effects on economic and social policy and all. And of course maybe she'll work out some sort of corrupt bargain or whatever, I don't really follow Korean politics well enough to say.

This is also very unexpected, most people thought that the Saenuri party would loose seats, and maybe even lose their majority, but actually coming in second was not what people expected to occur.

Majorian posted:

I expect they have an "understanding" with many of Kim's generals already. It's definitely strong language from China, but the target audience is almost certainly its partners in the Six Party Talks, meant to reassure their governments that Beijing's not loving around. I'll admit, I'm pleased to hear them say it.

Ragingsheep posted:

Wait, so communists in Western countries still look towards North Korea as something they admire?

forkboy84 posted:

Tankies love the North Koreans. Most of the rest of the left regards them somewhere between an embarrassment & hellish dystopian nightmare land.

Popular Thug Drink posted:

so what exactly do you think would happen if north korea launched a couple of nukes at japan or the us, that somehow didn't malfunction. what would happen afterwards? why would north korea do this in the first place?

Nckdictator posted:

Shockingly it turns out fringe groups can be astoundingly stupid.

http://www.workers.org/2016/05/11/solidarity-with-peoples-korea/#.V7fUH61ceUk

Halloween Jack posted:

Not really.

For a long time, North Korea scholarship in the U.S. was split along a right-left divide. In the 50s many criticized the DPRK as an autocracy and a Soviet puppet--not without reason, but of course there were also the people who regard communism as literally Satanic. The left-liberal response to this was to say, hey, Korea has a long history of foreign occupation, the United States has its own legacy of imperialism to own up to, and North Korea has good reason to fear Western imperialism. Whether they toed the Soviet line or departed from it, either could be explained as a more-or-less rational actor playing both sides to protect its independence.

Now that we have access to a great deal more information about the regime than we did in the 1970s, this sympathetic left-liberal view of North Korea doesn't hold up (not that a simplistic right-wing view of the country does either). You can still find sympathies for North Korea among people I'd wouldn't classify as "loony left," but I think that's more often based on ignorance or an outdated viewpoint rather than earnest conviction, e.g. this idiotic political stunt. But what these liberals have in common with fringe tankie parties is that they're mostly old, and formed their views of North Korea in the 60s and 70s when American politics were rife with Red Scare bullshit.

Halloween Jack posted:

That makes sense. Improving the lives of the privileged class gains him political capital, whereas investing in improving the lives of the average Korean does not.

I recently watched a Victor Cha lecture where he was asked about Kim Jong Un's new ski resort. He pointed out that while this benefits the elite, his last trip to China included visits to several high-tech initiatives. China wants him to tone down military provocations and focus on economic development, and it doesn't seem to have influenced him at all.

Eifert Posting posted:

In the case of an actual collapse South Koreans I've spoken to are hesitant regarding unification and absolutely delusional regarding Chinese expansionism.

"South Korea can't unify, it would destroy our economy."

"So you're OK with China taking over the territory outright or installing a puppet government?"

"Why would they do that? It's Korea, not China."







Had that conversation with a couple dozen people, including my very plugged in wife.

Eifert Posting posted:

Yeah, it wouldn't be awful to us but South Koreans would be apoplectic. My own wife shouted me down for pointing it out.

Cliff Racer posted:

Well why on earth would it influence him? He and the current power-holders make enough money to live a life of luxury while having complete control. Yes, going in a China-like direction will enrich the country and ultimately its leaders too, but it would also lead to many of them losing power or losing it relative to a new class of ambitious people from outside the system. It might seem impossible for us to imagine that a North Korean book-keeper could see the status quo as being "okay", let alone "good," but that is exactly what the situation seems to be.

Kurtofan posted:

censored Jane Eyre? holy poo poo

Jazerus posted:

Why would a bunch of South Koreans die in a war against the starving North Korean military which is primarily equipped with vehicles that were the state of the art in 1985 (at the latest)?

The whole idea of NK being a meaningful threat to SK is overblown, not just the artillery strikes. They used to be, but that hasn't been the case for a while.

The only thing keeping anybody from rolling in and deposing the Kim regime is that nobody wants to be stuck with reconstruction.

Ardennes posted:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/09/north-koreas-growing-ambition-nuclear-arsenal-force-us-negotiating-table

According to the Guardian, it seems like it was successful and they may have at this point a compact fission device small enough to fit on a theater-range missile. The yield is still fairly small according to other powers (10-20 kt range) but that is enough to be a threat. There is no way it is was an actual fusion device but it does look like they have been making progress.

It may actually be too late to take out Kim with force at this point.

Charlz Guybon posted:

The government is melting down like you wouldn't believe. The country has basically been ruled for the past four years by President Park's friend who sunk her claws into her 30 years ago by convincing her that she could channel the spirit of her dead mother. Nancy Reagen, eat your heart out, this poo poo is crazy!

The country is going nuts over this. The media is throwing around accusations that this cult leader was basically running Park’s flagship culture program and in charge of hundreds of millions in spending, and that's the tip of the iceberg. She's apparently had access to all classified documents.

These rumors were always there since the 80s but no one believed. It's like America waking up to find out that Obama really was a secret Muslim all along, or the Labour party discovering that Harold Wilson really was a Soviet spy.

Tir McDohl posted:

I heard about this last night from my friend but then he added on international conspiracy stuff like how Choi is a member of a secret group of 8 who are all controlling puppet governments in and around Asia and then George Soros is involved etc

Story is crazy enough as it is from that NYT article.

ThisIsJohnWayne posted:

Imagine L Ron Hubbard loving the President. And this is still ...somehow.... worse


Because now, the ferry catastrophe that managed to kill 300 children on L Ron's death-day, might have been a human sacrifice to best korea L Ron.

This is now not impossible

u brexit ukip it posted:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/18/world/asia/north-korea-china-coal-imports-suspended.html?_r=0

China is stopping all coal imports from North Korea.

dinoputz posted:

This poo poo just keeps getting crazier and crazier...

chitoryu12 posted:

Trump planning to make US sailors see a second sunrise.

WarpedNaba posted:

Any likelihood that the Norks will take the bait? For once, they're not the only irrational actor in this.

Teddybear posted:

Those sabers, get them a-rattlin'.

https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/852648458402115587

To be clear, this refers to their next nuclear test. Which is rumored to be Saturday.

SKULL.GIF posted:

https://twitter.com/mhanham/status/853083302307086336

https://twitter.com/mhanham/status/853083360708616195

https://twitter.com/mhanham/status/853083408989175809

https://twitter.com/DaveSchmerler/status/853083499225415682

https://twitter.com/DuitsyWasHere/status/853083633946476545

https://twitter.com/mhanham/status/853083900536475649

https://twitter.com/mhanham/status/853084196679499777

OhFunny posted:

Edit: http://www.scotsman.com/news/world/korean-crisis-trump-sends-in-three-aircraft-carriers-1-4421659

Citing South Korean Yonhap news agency who are citing a South Korean government source.