Pener Kropoopkin posted:

There's an American guy who defected to the North all the way back in the Korean War, and they've used him as a propaganda mouthpiece ever since. Gave him a wife, a decent apartment, and all the amenities. He even denies that the famine happened during the 90s, probably because they shielded him from it.

Pener Kropoopkin posted:

Yes. The new policy is that defectors get some money and featured on North Korean television. They've also extended this to double-defectors, which is why lately there's been a few people who have gone back to the North.

There's an American guy who defected to the North all the way back in the Korean War, and they've used him as a propaganda mouthpiece ever since. Gave him a wife, a decent apartment, and all the amenities. He even denies that the famine happened during the 90s, probably because they shielded him from it.

jarofpiss posted:

he seems like a nice guy, better than some posters itt

Pener Kropoopkin posted:

According to the direct quote that's the North Korean assumption, that the inherent superiority of Juche Thought will conquer the hearts and minds of the South and wipe it from the map under communist direction.

The South Korean Left wants reconciliation with the North, and an end to chaebol rule.

Ace of Baes posted:

love 2 support fascist military dictatorships that starve their population while generals live like kings

Heaven Spacey posted:

What is the situation with the left in SK? From my very limited understanding of SK politics it definitely seems like a very heavily right-wing country between the now-impeached Park leading a very strongly authoritarian government, and the amount of influence the chaebols wield. Also, I didn't think there was actually any support for reunification in SK... it seems like any families split up by the war would have very few surviving kin remaining on the other side of the border, and the economic burden of helping NK recover would be tremendous.

Fast Luck posted:

What my post presupposes is... maybe they don't?

Scrub-Niggurath posted:

Lmao if you think North Korea has any goal other than indefinitely sustaining the regime

Pener Kropoopkin posted:

There's an American guy who defected to the North all the way back in the Korean War, and they've used him as a propaganda mouthpiece ever since. Gave him a wife, a decent apartment, and all the amenities. He even denies that the famine happened during the 90s, probably because they shielded him from it.

Azathoth posted:

My favorite (possibly apocryphal) story about him is that he ruined a class of spies because the NK government used him to teach them English and he imparted his thick southern drawl to all of them, essentially ruining their ability to blend in.

Also, he apparently was in a bunch of films and was the go-to guy when they needed someone to play a Buck Turgidson-like American general.

Fiction posted:

Their goal is to not let us install a puppet dictator in Korea like we did in the fifties. The fact that their leader is already a dictator is nonwithstanding because they've been a pariah state due to our constant meddling in Korean affairs ever since WWII and the Kims have stopped the country from being invaded since the war ended. That is NK's viewpoint. They would not greet us as liberators.

Also lol at Hamprince selective memorying the "axis of evil" poo poo we did right after invading Iraq. Great historical materialism dumbass

Pener Kropoopkin posted:

I can't believe people think the Gulf War was bad while Iraqi soldiers were throwing Kuwaiti babies out of incubators.

Pener Kropoopkin posted:

Reconciliation doesn't necessarily mean reunification. There's also been a strong left wing current in the south compared to areas closer to the border, which have been suppressed before with American assistance, either by supporting a junta, installing a puppet or direct suppression.

It's American and corporate interests that tip the balance in favor of right wing politics. The Park administration is a major fuckup, so who knows how the next election will turn out.

gobbagool posted:

does it ever get tired, carrying the water for every horrifying regime on the planet? I'm beginning to think you're not a very good person

Fallen Hamprince posted:

SK pursued a pro-reconciliation 'sunshine policy' with the north during much of the 2000s and it went absolutely nowhere because the drpk leadership does not want reconciliation

Pener Kropoopkin posted:

Does it ever get tiring going to war on false pretenses? You all never fight in them, so I guess not.


There isn't room for reconciliation while the United States still occupies the South.

Pener Kropoopkin posted:

Does it ever get tiring going to war on false pretenses? You all never fight in them, so I guess not.

quote:

There isn't room for reconciliation while the United States still occupies the South.

Fallen Hamprince posted:

pretty hard to go to war on the 'false pretence' that north korea has nukes

quote:

reconciliation step 1: make it way easier for us to beat u in a war

quote:

also somebody should tell germany that they're under US 'occupation', i bet they'd be pretty mad if they found out

Pener Kropoopkin posted:

Germany is still occupied by the United States. Do you think that US forces being deployed to Korea hasn't created any problems?

Fallen Hamprince posted:

SK pursued a pro-reconciliation 'sunshine policy' with the north during much of the 2000s and it went absolutely nowhere because the drpk leadership does not want reconciliation

Bro Dad posted:

agreed, its really tragic how american imperialism is preventing the peaceful reunification of germany

Pener Kropoopkin posted:

It's cool how normal it is now to just occupy foreign countries long after even nominal reasons no longer apply.

Pener Kropoopkin posted:

It's cool how normal it is now to just occupy foreign countries long after even nominal reasons no longer apply.

Azathoth posted:

Yeah, reconciliation necessarily has, at some point in the process, increased travel between the two, and it's hard to see a way that that doesn't turn into a refugee crisis, an internal revolt, or both, with a disordered collapse of the government happening along the way.

The population of the North knows, by and large, that things are better in the South (and the rest of the world), so the government has sold the public on the reason that it's worse for them being that America and it's puppet, the South, are holding them down.

It's hard to see how they could walk that back in a way that doesn't result in the house of cards collapsing.

Bro Dad posted:

.....you do realize where the word tankie comes from right?

Fallen Hamprince posted:

would you consider east germany to have been under military occupation by the soviet union during the cold war?

Fallen Hamprince posted:

soviet heavy tank being used to break up a workers strike, a totally normal part of stationing troops in a foreign country that i'm sure happens all the time in south korea

Sun Wu Kampf posted:

North Korea is objectively pretty evil though

they mass produce meth, their leaders have pretty girls they see on TV kidnapped so they can rape them, and you and your family can be tortured to death for not saluting a picture of a fat midget

also people starve in that country so often that the populace in general is around a foot shorter than all of their neighbours

Pener Kropoopkin posted:

This whole line of argumentation doesn't even make sense, because the Soviets DID quit occupying Eastern Europe. They wouldn't even force the SRs to stay while they all declared independence one by one.

But it's cool to still have the American military deployed to Germany because...?

jarofpiss posted:

sounds like they're exactly the same as us just shorter (and without advertisements on every surface imaginable)

gobbagool posted:

oh hey look one of peners fellow travellers/edgy internet anime marxists comes to white knight another lovely regime. do you at least get points on your panera card like you did for 'correcting the record'? Or perhaps vouchers for glorious North Korean vacations where you get your own 12 year olds to rape?

Pener Kropoopkin posted:

This whole line of argumentation doesn't even make sense, because the Soviets DID quit occupying Eastern Europe.

jarofpiss posted: