All Things North Korea Thread

[visionary]

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/114018

Gates Says U.S. Prevented S. Korea Air Strike on North

 

South Korea declined to comment Wednesday on revelations that the United States talked it down from launching a retaliatory air strike on North Korea in 2010.

 

The claims were made in the newly published memoir of former U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates, in which he also describes former South Korean president Roh Moo-Hyun as "probably a little bit crazy.”

 

The 2010 incident followed the North's surprise shelling of a South Korean border island in November of that year.

 

The attack triggered what Gates labeled a "very dangerous crisis", with the South Korean government of then-president Lee Myung-Bak initially insisting on a robust military response.

 

"South Korea's original plans for retaliation were, we thought, disproportionately aggressive, involving both aircraft and artillery," Gates wrote in his memoir.

 

"We were worried the exchanges could escalate dangerously," he added.

 

Over the next few days, Gates said he, U.S. President Barack Obama and then secretary of state Hillary Clinton had numerous telephone calls with their South Korean counterparts in an effort to calm things down.

 

"Ultimately, South Korea simply returned artillery fire on the location of the North Koreans' batteries that had started the whole affair," he said.

 

The South Korean government declined to confirm Gates's version of events.

 

"We have no comment," a defense ministry spokesman told AFP.

[egtuna]

Anyone read "The Orphan Master's Son"? It won the pulitzer for fiction in 2012. It's about one man's ups and downs (mostly downs) living in North Korea and holding various positions. It's really powerful, and even if the North Korea depicted is only 50% accurate, it's totally insane.

Edited January 15, 2014 by egtuna

[SKINS@THEGOALLINE]

N. Korea warns South, US over 'provocative' drills

"We sternly warn the U.S. and the South Korean authorities to stop the dangerous military exercises which may push the situation on the peninsula and the north-south ties to a catastrophe," the North's KCNA state news quoted a body in charge of efforts to promote Korean unification as saying.

Similar bellicose rhetoric from the North set South Korea, the United States and Japan on edge a year ago. As a result, Washington flew Stealth bomber missions over South Korea and strengthened its military presence in the South, where nearly 30,000 U.S. troops are based.

http://news.msn.com/world/n-korea-warns-south-us-over-provocative-drills?ocid=ansnews11

[SKINS@THEGOALLINE]

Dennis Rodman

North Koreans Plied Him With Booze

Dennis Rodman's alcohol-fueled meltdown was caused by North Korea ... so claim the people who got the former Hall of Famer into rehab.

Sources connected with Rodman -- the ones who convinced him he needed to check into rehab after his controversial trip -- tell TMZ, from the minute Rodman landed in North Korea he was plied with alcohol.

Rodman claims his bizarre -- arguably unpatriotic comments -- were the result of alcohol abuse and he says the pressure he felt before doing his disastrous interview is why he landed in rehab.

But people close to him say ... the mucky-mucks in the North Korean government were more than happy to supply Rodman with endless amounts of alcohol ... to the point his mind was poisoned.

Read more: http://www.tmz.com/2014/01/20/dennis-rodman-north-korea-alcohol/#ixzz2qxUEvEm8

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

Yes, because the North Koreans forced him to go there. Then then they tied him down, pried his mouth open, and dumped alcohol down his throat.

Wonder how little dick feels about Rodman throwing him under the bus. As much as I'd love to see this regime get their asses bombed, Rodman is at complete fault for his addiction.

[Bang]

Not sure if serious....

 

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/35032/north-korea-confirms-it-has-landed-a-man-on-the-sun/index.html#F8kQeCMdRYzYoMCJ.01

 

North Korea has landed a man on the Sun

A North Korean central news anchorman said during a live broadcast: "We are very delighted to announce a successful mission to put a man on the sun. North Korea has beaten every other country in the world to the sun. Hung Il Gong is a hero and deserves a hero's welcome when he returns home later this evening".

 

Hung is expected back on Earth in just a few hours time, where he will be greeted by his uncle, and supreme leader: Kim Jong-un. Hung traveled in the cover of darkness, as it would protect him from the harsh, and extreme temperatures of the Sun. Hung will also be bringing back some sun spot samples for his uncle, which I'm sure he will show off to the world in a short amount of time.

 

The North Korean central news agency is calling the 18-hour mission the "greatest human achievement of our time" - and so they should, landing a man on the Sun, a trip that took 18 hours return, is quite the achievement, all things considered. I wonder if Dennis Rodman considered this a slam dunk for the country.

Read more at http://www.tweaktown.com/news/35032/north-korea-confirms-it-has-landed-a-man-on-the-sun/index.html#tsxR8oXiXqt8O8Q2.99

 

 

~Bang
 

[No Excuses]

It's satire that was originally posted on the Irish version of The Onion. Still, it's sad and funny that one could legitimately believe that NK WOULD make that claim.

Edited January 24, 2014 by No Excuses

[Bang]

thanks... like i said,, with them, who knows.

 

~Bang

[Cyclops]

Kim Jong-un 'executes direct relations of purged uncle'

 

The direct relatives of Jang Song Thaek, Kim Jong-un's recently executed uncle, have all been put to death upon the orders of the North Korean leader, it was reported yesterday

Entire families closely related to Jang, who was purged by the Pyongyang regime in December for allegedly plotting its overthrow, were executed including children and grandchildren, "multiple sources" told South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.

Among those allegedly executed were Jon Yong-jin, Jang's brother-in-law and the country's ambassador to Cuba, and Jang Yong-chol, Jang's nephew and ambassador to Malaysia, the anonymous sources said.

The killings were reported to have taken place after Jang's own execution on December 12 and "mean that no traces of him should be left", a source told Yonhap. The agency reported that while some of the relatives who had resisted arrest had been "shot to death by pistol in front of other people", others related to Jang through marriage had instead been exiled to remote villages with their maiden families.

More at link

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10598247/Kim-Jong-un-executes-direct-relations-of-purged-uncle.html

 

He is getting out of control. Well even more so

Edited January 27, 2014 by Cyclops

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

Executing children, huh?

I want my tax money to go to the warhead that slams in to his window.

[Cyclops]

Executing children, huh?

I want my tax money to go to the warhead that slams in to his window.

All it takes is one sniper. I don't know how it hasn't been done yet.

[zoony]

Kim Jong-un 'executes direct relations of purged uncle'

 

More at link

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10598247/Kim-Jong-un-executes-direct-relations-of-purged-uncle.html

 

He is getting out of control. Well even more so

 

 

this has been commonplace since Kim Il Sung.  There are families who are third generation camp dwellers, all because of the deeds of a grandfather or grand uncle

 

So, no more out of control than his dad or grandfather.

[Cyclops]

this has been commonplace since Kim Il Sung.  There are families who are third generation camp dwellers, all because of the deeds of a grandfather or grand uncle

 

So, no more out of control than his dad or grandfather.

I'm a young whipper snapper so I don't remember too much of the previous regimes. It may be memory but this seems worse.

[G.A.C.O.L.B.]

All it takes is one sniper. I don't know how it hasn't been done yet.

well for starters, it's illegal to assassinate foreign leaders. Been that way for awhile.

And this really is just more of the same. Been going on for 60 years now. Might just seem worse because there was some hope when he took over that he'd be a moderating force, finally. All those hopes are dead.

[Cyclops]

well for starters, it's illegal to assassinate foreign leaders. Been that way for awhile.

And this really is just more of the same. Been going on for 60 years now. Might just seem worse because there was some hope when he took over that he'd be a moderating force, finally. All those hopes are dead.

Well duh its illegal. Example A would be Franz Ferdinand starting world war 1. There has to be some sort of end game other than war though. I know China is souring on NK. 

[Predicto]

Kim Jong-un 'executes direct relations of purged uncle'

 

More at link

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10598247/Kim-Jong-un-executes-direct-relations-of-purged-uncle.html

 

He is getting out of control. Well even more so

 

I wouldn't assume that this is correct (or incorrect).  There is a segment of South Korean media that makes up a lot of sensationalist stories about North Korea.  Why they bother, I don't know - the reality is bad enough.

All it takes is one sniper. I don't know how it hasn't been done yet.

 

Well, because they have nukes.  

And a lot of innocent South Koreans right across the border,

And no one has a clue what would happen if Kim got killed by an enemy sniper and the remaining fanatics in NK wanted to get revenge.  

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

I'm a young whipper snapper so I don't remember too much of the previous regimes. It may be memory but this seems worse.

 

I think the hundreds of thousands who died in the mid 90s famine may disagree.

 

North Korea has been on a slow, steady march towards total systemic collapse for 60 years. Somehow, it never actually gets to the end game. And that's probably a good thing, because it could pretty easily take the entire Korean peninsula and parts of Japan with it.

[zoony]

I think the hundreds of thousands who died in the mid 90s famine may disagree.

 

North Korea has been on a slow, steady march towards total systemic collapse for 60 years. Somehow, it never actually gets to the end game. And that's probably a good thing, because it could pretty easily take the entire Korean peninsula and parts of Japan with it.

I have found it very interesting to learn more about the history of North Korea, especially that until the 1970s the standard of living in the north was higher

Here is a random hypothetical question that might be fun to answer: if you could pick one US TV show to hijack the North Korean broadcasting system for 1 hour on a prime time slot to clearly illustrate they are being lied to, what would you choose? It has to be an existing show.

I would choose an episode of the Wire. When they see that our poorest of the poor are fat and well fed, that just might do it

Also, on another note, I always think of the "Chinese Mother" thread we had on hear a few years back when North Korea comes up. I'm convinced that this kind of complete control and obedience just isn't possible outside of Asia. The Chinese kids here who get beat with a stick and have to play their violin 3 hours a day and maintain a 4.0 GPA to avoid being disowned by their parents, IMO, shows that this kind of control is systemic in Asian Culture

Probably not a popular opinion but I think it has merit

[Predicto]

I have found it very interesting to learn more about the history of North Korea, especially that until the 1970s the standard of living in the north was higher

 

 

That is because 1) until the 1970s, the Soviet Union propped up the North Korean economy even more than it did the Cuban economy,

 

2) from the mid 50s to the early 70s represented the earliest stages of North Korean industrialization, which appears to be the only economically useful period in the evolution of communist states,

 

 and 3) in the early 70s, North Korea adopted the "juche" concept, which essentially means "self reliance is more important than trade."   Which in the modern world is an absolutely guaranteed recipe for economic failure.  

[zoony]

That is because 1) until the 1970s, the Soviet Union propped up the North Korean economy even more than it did the Cuban economy,

 

Not entirely true, as NK enjoyed on again off again relations with the Soviet Union. The senior Kim was a master at planting the Soviets against the Chinese

Also, with state controlled regimes, recovery after disaster is much quicker and more efficient. capitalism is a mess in such instances

I have read 3 books on North Korea in the last few months, I cannot get enough. Pretty fascinating

[Predicto]

Not entirely true, as NK enjoyed on again off again relations with the Soviet Union. The senior Kim was a master at planting the Soviets against the Chinese

Also, with state controlled regimes, recovery after disaster is much quicker and more efficient. capitalism is a mess in such instances

I have read 3 books on North Korea in the last few months, I cannot get enough. Pretty fascinating

 

It is fascinating.  I assume you read "The Cleanest Race."    Goebbels had nothing on the North Koreans.

[skinsfan1523]

Not entirely true, as NK enjoyed on again off again relations with the Soviet Union. The senior Kim was a master at planting the Soviets against the Chinese

Also, with state controlled regimes, recovery after disaster is much quicker and more efficient. capitalism is a mess in such instances

I have read 3 books on North Korea in the last few months, I cannot get enough. Pretty fascinating

What are some of these books? North Korea fascinates me too for some reason, I'd like to read them.

[zoony]

What are some of these books? North Korea fascinates me too for some reason, I'd like to read them.

The two I would recommend are Nothing To Envy and North Korea

NTE is well written. North Korea is written by a former Soviet exchange student to North Korea. His book isn't written that well but he does a great job of presenting the entire history and psychology of the regime

As with most things, once you do a little digging you find out that these despots are all pretty much the same

[pjfootballer]

Killing off potential heirs. Hmmmm.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Here is a rarity: Me admitting that I don't know something.

 

When did the world determine that North Korea was a complete and total basket case of a country as opposed to just your typical dictatorship built around a cult of personality (like Cuba or Lybia)? I say this because I remember reading articles in the mid to late 80s on the brutal military rule in SOUTH Korea but don't really remember anything about North Korea.

Killing off potential heirs. Hmmmm.

 

I think you can drive yourself crazy trying to view these events rationally. This is probably your regularly scheduled purge that any new dictator has to have.