North Korea

The North Korean government will deploy its usual propaganda tool and say they are all poisoned (it claims leaflets are poisoned/infected with bioweapons). Could work though.

Carpet Bomb North Korea with Cadbury's?

Finally a good post that includes the phrase "carpet bomb".

The Bourneville Blitz.

xLots

Should have said "one of", my slip up. Apparently ArcelorMittal in Luxembourg is the top producer.

@Hostess Fruit Pies: Hey, it works in the comic book world...

Clearly; they've got some dozen major plants worldwide with how many other subsidiaries scattered around. They produce steel the way the US hoards guns.

edited 6th Jul '14 2:24:40 PM by chi_mangetsu

ArcelorMittal are only in Luxembourg for tax reasons. They don't actually make the steel there (mainly because most steelworks are bigger than Luxembourg itself).

Re. bombarding North Korea with Choco Pies - here you go.

From Achaemenid's link: "Now businesses give worker sausages, instant noodles, powdered coffee, cold noodles or chocolate bars instead. Some even wanted to be paid in U.S. dollars."

The last one I think would be richly ironic, if the DPRK was trying to remove corrupting Western influences from its beloved population.

edited 6th Jul '14 3:20:37 PM by betaalpha

According to Lankov, the North Korean dark economy now de facto uses three currencies: NK won for day-to-day stuff like groceries, clothes, etc. Chinese yuan for white goods and higher-value moveables like furniture. US dollars for real property.

edited 6th Jul '14 3:24:11 PM by Achaemenid

Considering how commonplace the dark economy is, what if the government were to just legalize everything? Would it destroy the system? Most would say yes, but I'm not so sure, precisely because it IS so commonplace...

I think this is going to get spun to make it look like they're floating bombs over the border. Or possibly that they're laced with some sort of secret American mind-control drug.

edited 6th Jul '14 3:42:04 PM by Deadbeatloser22

I'd be cautious of mistaking the minutiae of capitalism - ie retail and barter - for the serious machinery of it. North Korea might have lots of illegal foreign currency and private sales going on, but it does not have the systems of investment and finance that advanced economies do. No banking sector, no private investors, no stock market, no significant employers outside state control, no significant real estate market et cetera. I think it'd be chaos - like shock therapy but much worse, since unlike the RSFSR in 1990, North Korea produces almost nothing anyone with a choice would want to buy. All they've really got going for them is coal and their human resources.

edited 6th Jul '14 3:50:21 PM by Achaemenid

Could always under-cut china's labor cost. They'd steal some manufacturing jobs.

Fair enough.

Not too hard to do these days. NK would be competing with a good many other countries doing the same thing for less investment and less headache.

RT: ​Pyongyang calls for Koreas’ federalization & reunification without outside interference

Wait, what?

edited 7th Jul '14 1:15:53 AM by Deadbeatloser22

I suspect North Korea's definition of "federal" is "you let us do what we're doing while giving us money". Though it's interesting if they're backing away from unification rhetoric, which is a keystone of the regime's internal propaganda.

Then again there could be RT spin involved.

I think agreeing to a federal union with North Korea would be an unbelievably stupid and irresponsible thing for a democratic government to do.

Federal or not federal, that is going to make sure the ROK's economy dies and not get better (Wait, is that their goal after all?). And I think the Chinese would probably veto such a decision, presumably by force...

Pretty sure the South Korean public, assuming the government's average IQ drops 90%, would put a stop to any discussions about unification that doesn't involve the North's government going down.

Best Korea just releases that kind of stuff so they can later play the "victims" after they do some big fuck up and do some awful crap.

"We tried to be reasonable and start peace talks! They refused us! You bloodthirsty bastards!"

Apparently Kim Jong Un has some sort of limp.

It is a day of mourning in North Korea today, marking 20 years since the death of Great Leader, Eternal President Kim Il-sung. Kim Il-Sung was the first and longest-lived President of the DPR Korea. He invaded South Korea, beginning the Korean War. Everything went swimmingly as his forces swept over the ill-equipped and trained South Korean armies and their US allies, until Douglas Mac Arthur got fed up with his shit and landed behind him at Inchon. In the resulting chaotic retreat, the Chinese, leery of a US ally on their border, decided to bail him out, eventually fighting their way down the Peninsula to the 38th parallel. He was also, supposedly, an OK-ish anti-Japanese guerilla leader, though he again had to be helped, this time by the Russians.

Kim Il-Sung initially, using Chinese and Russian money, managed to rapidly industrialize his shattered country, until that money ran out and South Korea industrialized even faster, only without the totalitarian repression. By the time of his death, North Korea lagged well behind the South in quality of life and found itself diplomatically isolated, reliant on China for its defense and protection. During his reign, he is estimated to have killed over one million of his own citizens and imprisoned hundreds of thousands - some of whose descendants still live in North Korean prison camps, condemned by the country's system of blood guilt.

Charming fellow.

Achimeunpin Kim Il-sung dongji! Kim Il-Sung! Kim Il-Sung! Manse! Manse!

Huh, blood guilt is a real thing? I thought that was confined to the realm of fiction...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sippenhaft

Huh, I was aware of such things, but did not assume it had an ideological basis (my biggest exposure to this in fiction is in One Piece, where they follow what the wiki article listed to the letter, down to the justification). I knew about stuff like threatening to kill Rommel's family, but assumed that was a more practical extension of the age-old hostage system, not a belief that a person's "badness" could be down in their blood and transmitted to descendants