North Korea

That would have been Japan refusing to legitimize North Korean kidnapping of its citizens (though it probably would jeopardize any Japanese hostages still in the country), frankly I have nothing against countries breaking faith with North Korea as the Kim regime has repeatedly proven that it can't be trusted.

edited 13th Jul '15 4:09:24 PM by Rationalinsanity

Wonder why more people don't flee to the South via the sea? Too well patrolled? Like, folks could bribe fishermen to take them out, then they get into a rowboat or dinghy, swim south and hope like hell? Hazardous, but so is every other route.

I believe that the area is full of sea mines, fishermen likewise will have their families held hostage for if they either flee or help others flee.

Plus I susspect that fishermen are righteously checked for loyalty, the same way that anyone who has near access to the outside world is.

For the same reasons why immigrants don't cross the border through the sea lines.

There is nothing between you and the horizon, getting a sea worthy boat is hard without getting noticed, all they need to spot you is a chopper or any other low and slow flying aircraft, when they come after you there is nowhere to hide and you only have two choices when things go wrong, sink or swim.

^ More like "Sink or Sink", really. It's not like NK is exactly known for being gun shy about... well, shooting guns, and adjusting the lead is about the only issue for shooting at a swimmer (especially an NK one, which has a good chance of not being in the best of shape due to malnutrition).

Actually, there's a question. How many recorded attempts are there of seaborne escapes or defections?

There are a few cases of direct boat rides to Japan, according to Wikipedia.

If you're taking the sea route it might be easier to head to Japan instead of to South.

So remember the Women Cross DMZ that happened? The article titled Women Activists Defend North Korea Trip On Capitol Hill explains how Christine Ahn is responding to criticisms of her group's actions, and also explains what others think of the group.

Here's my response. US and other countries are trying to engage with North Korea - that's in fact, for instance, the essence of Obama's strategic patience, where you're willing to take one step if North likewise takes a meaningful step and you're patiently waiting for that. The problem is on North Korea for being a stubborn and ruthless regime. The only rapprochement North is interested in is at appeasement level, not an exaggeration.

Her group needs to take heed when other human rights activists and the North Korean defectors themselves are telling them this.

The Sukarno Education Foundation has awarded Kim Jong-un a peace prize. Me neither.

I know we're not supposed to ridicule people, or resort to name-calling in the OTC threads and try to analyze things as objectively as possible in order to see the opposite side's view of things... but there comes a point where you just gotta call a person an idiot, and this is it.

EDIT: And even if this is just pure political posturing, it's not gonna gain her points in the long run. It just makes Indonesia and herself look hypocritical. Nobody believes the propaganda North Korea is spewing; even Russia at this point is has quietly admitted that it's just pure realpolitk that's making them continue supplying arms and supplies... well, at least to foreign groups. Can't say the same about their media.

edited 3rd Aug '15 4:49:06 AM by SgtRicko

At the beginning and middle of the Cold War there was the "useful idiot", Westerners whose activism helped sell the party line to the west.

The problem is that Christine Ahn and her like either are blind to the fact that they are being used, or their worldview is such that they prize "peace" at any price.

It's funny that her group accused their critics of "red baiting" when the US just normalized relations with Cuba and has been doing business with China for decades.

Their is a difference between "peace" and peace becuase of the absence of war. The sooner Christine Ahn wakes up to that the better.

edited 3rd Aug '15 11:48:53 AM by TairaMai

Can she add more buzz words on her speech? I'm sure there are more empty words to describe how the morally decadent evil west is and compared to the pure, selfless and great North Korea.

There's also the claim that the human rights abuses are "western propaganda", so I've almost got a "the west is all powerful and responsible for all bad things" bingo.

Man I wish we could pull of that kind of shit, we're not actually that powerful.

Oh, for spanish-speaking users, it saw a page who said something amount the líneas "north korea dosent have racism, EEUU therefore North korea is good" I will pull the lin soon to behold

Which is rather hilarious, considering that North Korea's ideology is, basically, ethnic nationalism, taken to extremes in that special North Korean way (i.e., forced abortions for North Korean women who have mixed-race children with ethnic Chinese citizens). There's also that former Cuban ambassador to North Korea who had to be rescued by security forces after he was mobbed. (He was black.)

Generally, ethnic frictions tend to be more pronounced in authoritarian states than in democracies, since the authoritarian ruler has a political incentive to urge the population to pile onto the Other. (Stalin's "national terrors" of the 1937-1938 period come to mind: the supposedly internationalist USSR going after ethnic citizens.) There are exceptions, but the political incentives are grim for minorities.

North Korea is moving back to the pre-Japanese time zone. Except that it's called Pyongyang time now, because the imperialists cannot be forgiven.

Good move.

Ethnic frictions are most pronounced when order breaks down and the society "tribalized", see what happened at the end of Yugoslavia and the USSR.

http://www.theladbible.com/articles/kim-jong-un-claims-north-korea-have-discovered-a-unicorn-lair-underneath-a-temple-and-we-completely-believe-him

North Korea just discovered Unicorns.

My theory on North Korea is that they actually don't want to be taken seriously. That way, they can play up an image as Ineffectual Sympathetic Villians rather than a horrifying Dystopian regime.

They want to have it so that people are too busy laughing at them to gasp in horror.

edited 11th Aug '15 12:22:25 PM by Protagonist506

Did this unicorn thing not come up with his father too

Hasn't North Korea discovered unicorns several times now?

The only logical explanation is that North Korea is planning to invade America using Unicorn Cavalry.

Gasp! That's like normal horse based cavalry but with one single additional pointy object!

Just send the MLP fans towards them and the Norks are going to deeply regret sending the unicorns.

Article: North Korea's Addiction to Provocation

Featuring: a North Korean land mine that badly injured South Korean soldiers a week ago, even leading to amputations.

South Korean MOD is gonna respond to them. For obvious reasons, the MPAF is not saying anything about this.