North Korea Teetering

[Tom Kirkham]

North Korea is on the cusp...

http://www.forbes.com/2009/12/09/nor...ia-rosett.html

[Ron61]

I saw something in one of the papers the other day that Obama is sending another delegation to North Korea. I figured it was to give them a few billion dollars more to help their military as usual. Quit pleading with them and let them get by with China's help.

Ron

[Gunner]

North Korea has been teetering on the brink of disaster since about 1954. If it doesn't collapse when the current Dear Leader drops, check back in another 50 years.

[Excaliber]

Interesting insight to NK and the current climate there.

[Jim Werth]

Protests in Iran too. Maybe there is hope. Jim

[SPF2245]

After spending two years (in the late 90s) enjoying the climate and opportunities watching the North from the DMZ...nothing there will change, period. Kim Jong-un (the current Dear Leaders nutcase of a child), will replace -il and be sure the rest of the Gov't there will support another Kim Jong-** after that. It would take removing Jong-il and his three sons, then sniping the other two heads of state before any real headway will ever be reached in turning the North around. But hey, it give Oh-no another chance to say "sorry" and get another award.

[Ron61]

SPF2245,

Where were you at on the DMZ? I was there long ago and they were still fighting daily all along the dam thing. If our country would quit giving those assholes money to pay their military and farther advance their Nuclear program, then sooner than later their own military would start to get restless with no pay. But I am sure that Obumer will bail them out instead of helping this country.

Ron

[427sharpe]

But the spineless world 'leaders' will do nothing but wring their hands, gnash their teeth, and pay the maniacal midget off yet again. The cycle never changes.

[trularin]

They can have their 1776 or 1859...depending on how you look at it.

[SPF2245]

Ron,
Camp Howze...wonderful place. I agree 100%, if all support was cut to the North, it would only be a matter of time before the collapse. The only problem with that solution is their military would fight out of anger...and they won't drive north with their last gallon of gas

[Ron61]

True, they would have to drive South as they don't have the ability to attack China. But many of their military is there only because that is the only paying job in North Korea. When I was there we had some deserters that came over because they hadn't been paid in months. And without China's backing with troops and Russian air force, their million man army would not have much success. At fires just like the last time they would overrun the forward outposts but when their supply lines got stretched, they could be cut again and the same result as before except this time I don't think the Chinese and Russians will bail them out.

Ron

[Tommy]

I'm not intimately familiar with the situation in North Korea, but the circumstances that led to the fall of the Berlin wall give me hope. I visited East Berlin during the cold war as part of a program the US Air Force had to familiarize pilots in combat units with our adversary. As our bus left bustling West Berlin with its street packed with multicolored cars and shoppers (it was just before Christmas), we entered East Berlin. The streets were empty and the few people we saw were all dressed in uniform shades of gray, black and dark brown. After our tour of depressing East Berlin, we visited a museum dedicated to all the ways people had used to escape from East to West. I made up my mind at that time that I would rather die attempting to escape from a communist country than live there.

A recent documentary on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall pointed out something I had not before heard. The wall fell because some East German bureaucrat being interviewed on state radio mistakenly said the gate between East and West would be temporarily opened the following day. When the time came, a crowd of more than 20,000 people was waiting to leave East Berlin. Guards at the wall realized they would be overwhelmed if they tried to stop the crowd, so the gate was opened. It was the beginning of the end for East Germany.

I suspect it would take only a tiny crack to break open the walls confining the people of North Korea. But as with the Berlin Wall, the crack may come about through some unexpected mistake rather than some grand plan.

[Ron61]

Tommy,

I watched that show also and that was the first time I had heard about that incident. But North Korea is a far different place once you get out of Pyongyang ( spelling ) where they have build it up for the show case area. The common villagers have nothing. Their Govt. takes everything for the military and if our Govt. would quit giving theirs money, their own troops would soon tire of not getting paid and fed. That is one reason they have such a huge army. As soon as any person there is old enough they join the military so they can have food and get paid some also. I don't know what the NK pay scale is but when I was over there the South Korea pay scale was about $100 a month for a General. Our Lieutenants made far more per month than their Generals, and I doubt id NK pays much more if as much.

Ron

[Jamo]

Originally Posted by Ron61

SPF2245,

Where were you at on the DMZ? I was there long ago and they were still fighting daily all along the dam thing. If our country would quit giving those phuking assholes money to pay their military and farther advance their Nuclear program, then sooner than later their own military would start to get restless with no pay. But I am sure that Obumer will bail them out instead of helping this country.

Ron

Ron, I can't believe I'm having to do this...but please watch your language.

I fixed it for you this time.

[Gunner]

It's not reasonable to compare East Germany with North Korea - EG was surrounded by Western Europe and the internal indoctrination was diluted at best. They were ready for life outside the wall. The people of North Korea are generations removed from contact with the outside world and have only lifetimes of internal indoctrination to serve them. They're more like Soviet Albania than East Germany - closed, extremely xenophobic, and know only that South Korea, Japan, the US etc. are mortal enemies seeking their destruction.

I think you could open the DMZ like a freeway and most North Koreans would huddle in terror. It's going to take a generation of conditioning to bring them into full partnership with the world - and that's after you figure out how to topple a government that has total control of a people that would fear anything but that control.

[Ron61]

Jamo,

Thanks for the correction. I will endeavor to use more appropriate language henceforth.

Ron