North Korea -- What should be do?

Quote: Evenbob

Now Russia is warning N Korea, as well
as China. What is Kim's end game, he's
a pipsqueak in a game of giants. He'll
get it from all sides. China, Russia and
the US are all too deeply enmeshed
economically to ever let N Korea mess
it up.

The same as his dad and granddad before him. Act crazy to get some kind of aid or concessions. All kinds of warnings over decades and no action. Worst case to him is his people starve for 5 years again. If the past is any guide.

Now, he may not be able to play the game as well. It is a dangerous game for him as to lose is to die. It is really up to China, they get serious it is game over.

I saw where a guy from N Korea escaped to
see relatives in S Korea to warn them about
the evil US. He was shocked at how good
they have it in S Korea, it took him weeks
to adjust to N Korea being the bad guy and
the US being good. The Kim family has the
whole population thinking this way, they
worship him like a god.

Quote: Evenbob

I saw where a guy from N Korea escaped to
see relatives in S Korea to warn them about
the evil US. He was shocked at how good
they have it in S Korea, it took him weeks
to adjust to N Korea being the bad guy and
the US being good. The Kim family has the
whole population thinking this way, they
worship him like a god.

It is a crazy society. I was watching some YT videos on NK, like one on a fast food place there. You do not even need to speak Korean to tell the stress in their voices, how it is all a show. It could take 100 years to get that society to normal if they fall.

Quote: AZDuffman

It is a crazy society. I was watching some YT videos on NK, like one on a fast food place there. You do not even need to speak Korean to tell the stress in their voices, how it is all a show. It could take 100 years to get that society to normal if they fall.

South Korea has a formal program to integrate North Korean defectors into S. Korean society. It has had limited success. Adjusting to modern capitalism is often too difficult, even with a common language and cultural history

Quote: JimRockford

South Korea has a formal program to integrate North Korean defectors into S. Korean society. It has had limited success. Adjusting to modern capitalism is often too difficult, even with a common language and cultural history

Not a surprise, look at multi-generational welfare here in the USA. I remember during the welfare reform of the late-1990s. They said 1/3 were simply never, ever going to function. Now that is in the USA with no real barriers. Some brainwashing here, but nowhere near what the average N Korean has.

Though my favorite is still when some USSR high-level guy came to the USA. He was ferried by chopper out of NYC and saw all the houses. He asked how on earth so many houses could be built. Host explained how a developer buys the land, builds, and sells at a profit. His response was, "In my country, such a man would be shot!"

And that is what socialism/communism does.

If you had a relatively peaceful takeover of N. Korea (seems unlikely) probably the best thing to do is operate their system under a military rule with as few changes as possible at first. And do the transition slowly.

Quote: rxwine

If you had a relatively peaceful takeover of N. Korea (seems unlikely) probably the best thing to do is operate their system under a military rule with as few changes as possible at first. And do the transition slowly.

Sounds good on paper, but slow transitions have not worked in the past. Critical mass builds and societal order collapses.

Quote: AZDuffman

Sounds good on paper, but slow transitions have not worked in the past. Critical mass builds and societal order collapses.

We have to convince China that it is in their best option to take over the country.

Quote: AZDuffman

And that is what socialism/communism does.

I remember when Russians would get
in the 80's. They were dumbfounded
by our supermarkets crammed with
things they could only imagine, in
endless supply. Many of them could
never be convinced we weren't
hoarding just for ourselves while
the rest of world starved. The concept
of capitalism was foreign to them.

That was at the time that Russian comic
was a big hit here, Yakov Smirnoff. He
made a living in the 80's comparing the
US to life in the Soviet Union.

Quote: Evenbob

That was at the time that Russian comic
was a big hit here, Yakov Smirnoff. He
made a living in the 80's comparing the
US to life in the Soviet Union.

He's still working as a comic, and he's an adjunct professor in some college in Pennsylvania.