North Korea

[Morrigu]

Someone should do the world and people of North Korea a favour and assassinate little kim.

Except you don't know if Little Kim is a better choice than his rivals who may actually believe the whacky press releases. The idea that NK has no factions is no doubt as false as the view that China is a narrow autocracy when it's actually a very complex spread of factions and power.

Put it this way: The deranged buffoons who predictably made an absolutely horrific mess of Iraq know infinitely less about NK.

Exactly - I have little faith in the ability of the USA to assess ANYTHING realistically ( and honestly)

Are you worried at all? I find myself a little twitchy - but I don't know enough to know if the twitches are just a seasonal itch??

[pietillidie]

^Not really, if at all. It's likely to remain a stalemate seasoned by the usual rhetorical flourishes and exchanges of fire along the maritime border. The overwhelming weight of forces (China, Japan, SK, the US, the NK ruling faction and military, and the money invested in the region) are aligned to keep things as they are or to shut down serious conflict quick smart. That doesn't mean it could never happen, but much like say terrorism in an Australian city there's no point dwelling on it if decent security measures are in place.

The media depiction of things is, as ever, hysterical, misleading and poorly thought through.

[Bruno]

I record the 7pm on the Foxtel IQ thing and watch it later on in the evening so I can fast forward through stories which don't matter.

With this in mind, the Korean situation is one of the stories I have indeed been fast forwarding through these past few nights.

I notice also that tonight it had dropped from almost leading the bulletin to being dropped down to just before Alan Kohler came on.

[Bruno]

Someone should do the world and people of North Korea a favour and assassinate little kim.

Except you don't know if Little Kim is a better choice than his rivals who may actually believe the whacky press releases. The idea that NK has no factions is no doubt as false as the view that China is a narrow autocracy when it's actually a very complex spread of factions and power.

Put it this way: The deranged buffoons who predictably made an absolutely horrific mess of Iraq know infinitely less about NK.

I'll assume when you mention the deranged buffoons who predictably made an absolutely horrific mess of Iraq you are referring to Iran and Al Qaeda.

[pietillidie]

Someone should do the world and people of North Korea a favour and assassinate little kim.

Except you don't know if Little Kim is a better choice than his rivals who may actually believe the whacky press releases. The idea that NK has no factions is no doubt as false as the view that China is a narrow autocracy when it's actually a very complex spread of factions and power.

Put it this way: The deranged buffoons who predictably made an absolutely horrific mess of Iraq know infinitely less about NK.

I'll assume when you mention the deranged buffoons who predictably made an absolutely horrific mess of Iraq you are referring to Iran and Al Qaeda.

Yes, them and their close allies in the Coalition of the Willing.

[Jezza]

Being reported in The Australian that South Korea is ready for any potential threats from the North.

Pietillidie, I'm just wondering what's the mood like around South Korea. Are people taking the threats seriously or is it being dismissed as scare-mongering?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/wo ... 6612387112

[David]

[Proud Pies]

Being reported in The Australian that South Korea is ready for any potential threats from the North.

Pietillidie, I'm just wondering what's the mood like around South Korea. Are people taking the threats seriously or is it being dismissed as scare-mongering?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/wo ... 6612387112

AUSTRALIAN Defence officials are working on plans to evacuate thousands of Australians from South Korea, as Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Foreign Minister Bob Carr head to China tomorrow to urge Beijing to take stronger action against its close and unstable ally North Korea.

better to be safe than sorry


http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/nation ... 6612720574

[David]

Jesus Christ, the Murdoch media are treating this as an active war. Look at their infographics! Ridiculous.

As always, Chris Morris did it better years ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IEwBrJzhlg

[Pi]

John S Park, usually gives a good non hysterical analysis

http://www.koreasociety.org/policy/chin ... V1u7JP-F8E

[pietillidie]

Being reported in The Australian that South Korea is ready for any potential threats from the North.

Pietillidie, I'm just wondering what's the mood like around South Korea. Are people taking the threats seriously or is it being dismissed as scare-mongering?

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/wo ... 6612387112

AUSTRALIAN Defence officials are working on plans to evacuate thousands of Australians from South Korea, as Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Foreign Minister Bob Carr head to China tomorrow to urge Beijing to take stronger action against its close and unstable ally North Korea.

better to be safe than sorry


http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/nation ... 6612720574

Thanks for asking, Jezza.

We're used to the threat-pacification cycle here and take it with a grain of salt. And I don't mean just me and I don't mean that in a careless way, it's just that the SK and US forces here are more potent than people realise, not to mention Japan is paranoid about NK and has a much bigger "purely defensive" (cough, cough) military apparatus than people realise. Add that to the fact that China is keen to keep its economic development on track and war here has been averted under much more trying circumstances over the past six decades and you can begin to see why panic is not on the agenda.

As I say, anything is possible, but so are terrorist attacks in major Australian cities.

Just looking at some of the hysterical rhetoric from the usual media sources you can see the same old creeps who benefit from war (the media, the arms companies and their parasitic ecosystems, nutter conservative authoritarians who revel in fear and chaos, etc.) are just dying to turn this into something more than the usual to and fro. Nothing gives declining media outlets and arms companies bigger boners than talk of missiles/weaponised phalluses!

[Morrigu]

[Pies4shaw]

^^^
I enjoyed that. Thanks

[pietillidie]

[stui magpie]

Interesting.

While Kim Jong-un is threatening the nuclear destruction of US cities, North Korea's elite can't get enough of US popular culture.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politi ... z2PfoZ9DdR