They would if the horse wasnt too emaciated to get anything done.

Maybe they bought tractors from Belarus?

They probably would eat the horse long before trying to use it to pull a tank.

Wasn't the biggest worry, that they'll manage to cause quite a bit of civilian casualties with their artillery placements? Not to mention their chemical weapons if they shell with them.

if they dont have oil for tanks, how could they have oils for tractors?

That country does not exist.

edited 11th Feb '16 9:07:43 AM by Achaemenid

I still don't understand that joke after the last time you used that image.

There's a huge slush fund operated by Office 39. Outside of China, they've had dealings with Syria, Iran and Russia, so I wouldn't be surprised if black market oil was all that is keeping them afloat.

Essentially, ignore it long enough and it will go away from the Internet.

edited 11th Feb '16 9:15:54 AM by TerminusEst

Ah.

Also, black market oil? Isn't oil cheap enough that that shouldn't be all that solvent right now?

Is it cheap relatively to North Korea?

The size of the Nork black economy, and the "grey market" (combination of both legal and illegal) apparently easily outstrips the official GDP. One of the reasons why they can keep funding all their shenanigans and a headache for everyone trying to stop them from doing just that.

It's like reverse world that operates on a different set of rules from the rest of the planet. Except it's still higher on the Press Freedom Index than Eritrea. Go figure.

edited 11th Feb '16 9:30:14 AM by TerminusEst

Ah....

IIRC the Norks have money laundering schemes, insurance and credit card fraud, currency counterfeiting and synthetic drugs productions on their black market income.

But for oil, it is a bit hard to get, it isn't like North Korea has an oil pipeline coming from China or oil tankers would go unnoticed by the everyone's navies making sure no one tried to break the sanctions.

Probably, Middle Eastern oil through Russia and China. I believe they had a very lucrative oil smuggling business for a while as well. Probably didn't like ISIS disturbing that.

Ironically, they apparently do have excellent rare earth material, oil and gas potential. They just don't have infrastructure to really get the most out of it. That we know of at least. The recent missile and nuclear leaps have apparently taken intelligence officials uncomfortably unawares.

EDIT: Why North Korea will benefit from Seoul's great leap backwards

edited 12th Feb '16 1:07:23 AM by TerminusEst

When a paranoid nuclear armed North Korea collapses: The Nukes come out? Quite frankly if I were South Korea I would prefer war to this scenario,with or without the US. A nuclear North Korea not only presents an existential risk, but makes it all but impossible to unite the Korean peninsula under Democratic rule.

North Korea halts inquiry into abductions of Japanese citizens.

Honestly, I don't think it was really worth expecting positive developments from this. Maybe if a citizen was imprisoned now and news made public, there would be widespread calls to release the nationals until Kim decides to voluntarily let them go for some reason. But secret abductions from years or decades ago are less likely to be reversed. Maybe under the previous leader, who sought out concessions from other countries. Not Kim the 3rd.

An offensive war would mean either the destruction of South Korea or WW3, as China would back North Korea if it was attacked. Plus it's not war or a nuclear North Korea, North Korea is already nuclear, what's in question is its capabilities.

Oddly enough Obama may have actually done a lot to limit that, by bringing Iran in from the cold over its nuclear issue he's effectively cut North Korea off from a potential development partner and friend, if he can get Cuba relations to continue to improve then that's enough ally North Korea will have lost.

In the end a democratic peninsula isn't the aim of the South Korea government, the aim is South Korea not bring destroyed, either physically or possibly even economically by a mass of refuges.

edited 12th Feb '16 7:58:21 PM by Silasw

South Korea claims that 70 percent of North Korean worker wages at the Kaesong Industrial Zone were diverted to North Korea's weapons program or to buy luxury goods for Kim Jong-Un.

That's got to be at least four dollars that he stole. What a jerk.

So let's put the Kaesong industrial closure in perspective.

Some are saying that South has shot itself in the foot with this move, having spent a strong card, and the results having South take a hit on its economy while North tries to seek alternative sources of cash. It's true that South will have to bear the brunt of the impact here (unlike 2013 closure when North withdrew first and South was able to pack up before leaving, this time North quickly seized the region and its assets) at the moment. But the question is whether this will contribute to depriving the North of what it needs for its nuclear and missile programs in the long term.

South has previously said China can't expect to stop North's activities if it's supporting North and I've seen in some news that South closed the Kaesong region to stay consistent with that argument, since Kaesong is a form of direct support.

Obviously people from some of the companies that were operating in Kaesong expressed discontent about the sudden closure without prior notice given to them. But honestly, they should have been aware of the risks when they were setting up their business in a place like North Korea. They would have legal recourse within South Korea, but if North Korea tells the businesses to leave North Korean territory and take over the city, there's not much the companies can do to fight that, even with South Korean government's support under the inter-Korean agreement.

edited 14th Feb '16 9:19:03 AM by Trivialis

Well it is not like South Korea doesn't have other industrial parks to absorb the losses of that closure, unlike North Korea.

So I don't think the effects will be long lasting and severe for South Korea, meanwhile it was a net source of legitimate income for the Kim's.

Some earlier article on The Guardian said that the only problems is that, opening Kaesong was a big diplomatic victory for the president of South Korea. The complete 180 in this case might work for the Norks, since Kim Jong-Il warned Un, that it's nothing more than an attempt by the South to undermine the North.

EDIT: North Korea’s Kim orders more rocket launches

edited 15th Feb '16 3:29:56 AM by TerminusEst

I watched a bit of South Korean president's speech at the legislature's chamber (I guess an annual address to the parliament and country), and the number one issue seemed to be dealing with North Korea. She emphasized that continuing the same as before isn't going to work.

I do agree with her that you can't give support to a regime like this and expect things to get better when that support just goes into nukes, missiles, military, and luxury for the leadership. People in South Korea need to wake up and see that this is one of the worst regimes at the present and it doesn't make sense to lend support to it.

Well there's nothing to do that won't end in the immediate nuclear destruction of South Korea.

We've just gotta wait for Best Korea to run it's course and die on it's own. Won't be too much longer.