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travelingfool
Joined: 10 Mar 2008
Location: Parents' basement
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 Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 8:24 pm Post subject: CNN: 5 million N. Koreans need food aid |
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Fortunately the US, UN, and N.Korea just signed a deal to bring much needed relief. According to the BBC up to 2.8 million people died as a result of famine in the 1990's in the North.
How many people have died as a result of mad cow disease from eating beef imported from the US? Exactly, zero. People are actually dying in the north. Why don't we see hundreds of thousands of South Koreans protesting in the streets like they do over US beef imports? For crying out loud their fellow countrymen are being starved to death, murdered, and terrorized by a maniacal government yet S.Koreans hardly say a word. Have there been protests over this? If so, I have never heard about them.
FT's should ask their students about this. I would really be interested to hear the responses. |
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ardis
Joined: 20 Apr 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 8:40 pm Post subject: |
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| I've been pretty interested in North Korean humanitarian issues for the past few years, so I know a lot about its history. My co-workers and I ended up talking about NK during lunch once, and they...knew nothing. Literally. They didn't know so many facts that they were pretty embarrassed. One of them eventually summed it up with, "We just don't really care to know what happens up there." |
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Faunaki
Joined: 15 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:15 pm Post subject: |
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| I think they don't want to talk to westerners about this problem. It's embarassing for them. |
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Temporary
Joined: 13 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:34 pm Post subject: |
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TBHO if their attitude sucks and they don't want to get help let them starve and die.
What puzzles me is that most Commy countries broke down or had revolutions to shed that idiot ideaology. I think N.K is doomed to extincition.
I still don't get how that little troll has lived so long with out some one whacking him.. Then looking at the confusian way I understand it..
No sense in trying to help some one that doesn't want to be helped. |
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travelingfool
Joined: 10 Mar 2008
Location: Parents' basement
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| Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Temporary wrote: |
TBHO if their attitude sucks and they don't want to get help let them starve and die.
What puzzles me is that most Commy countries broke down or had revolutions to shed that idiot ideaology. I think N.K is doomed to extincition.
I still don't get how that little troll has lived so long with out some one whacking him.. Then looking at the confusian way I understand it..
No sense in trying to help some one that doesn't want to be helped. |
They would welcome help if they weren't so brainwashed. They don't have luxury of unfiltered internet access or alternative news sources. CNN had a really interesting special on called Notes from Korea that detailed the New York Philharmonic playing in Pyongyang. They interviewed a lady who defected to the south who said she was imprisoned for 6 months for singing an old southern folk song! She sang it in the privacy of her own home! It's a total outrage that more S. Koreans aren't fuming over this. After reading about the human rights abuses up there I am almost in favor of some preemptive military action and I am a pacifist. It's that bad! I have steam coming out of my ears from reading about what happens there, and I am an evil American.
The crappy thing about things like this is that it's innocent people who end up suffering the most. South Koreans should know better. They have access to most websites, BBC, CNN, etc, but they seem to turn a blind eye to it. They are great at protesting about hamburgers but yet ignore the 800 pound gorilla in their own living room. |
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endo
Joined: 14 Mar 2004
Location: Seoul...my home
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| Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:04 pm Post subject: |
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^ You should really read Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty by Bradley K. Martin.
Everytime I hear about a protest over Dokdo or Mad Cow I too become infuruated.
Where the hell are the God damn priorities in this country?
At this moment hundreds of thousands of Koreans are being tortured and imprisioned for crimes of thought. You have generations of families being punished for the actions of their ancestors.
Over 2 million people died in 1990s in a famine created more so from incompent farming policies and the closed nature of the regime than natural factors.
So why no out cry by the masses south of the 38th?
They simply don't want to give up their quality of life. They'd rather lash out against minimal foreign nusiances than the supressing regime of Kim Jong-il.
Korean unity (jeong) my ass!
Selfish people. I loose more and more respect for this so called nation by the day.
/rant (that felt good  ) |
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ardis
Joined: 20 Apr 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:17 pm Post subject: |
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| endo wrote: |
^ You should really read [b]Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty[/b] by Bradley K. Martin.
Everytime I hear about a protest over Dokdo or Mad Cow I too become infuruated.
Where the hell are the God damn priorities in this country?
At this moment hundreds of thousands of Koreans are being tortured and imprisioned for crimes of thought. You have generations of families being punished for the actions of their ancestors.
Over 2 million people died in 1990s in a famine created more so from incompent farming policies and the closed nature of the regime than natural factors.
So why no out cry by the masses south of the 38th?
They simply don't want to give up their quality of life. They'd rather lash out against minimal foreign nusiances than the supressing regime of Kim Jong-il.
Korean unity (jeong) my ass!
Selfish people. I loose more and more respect for this so called nation by the day.
/rant (that felt good ) |
Yeah, that book is truly amazing. It's one of the few non-fiction books by which I've been fascinated. I definitely recommend it to anyone who is living in Korea, since it goes so much into the depth of North Korea's relations with the US, China, and South Korea.
And yeah, I find it weird that there isn't more protesting about North Korean issues. |
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R-Seoul
Joined: 23 Aug 2006
Location: your place
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:13 am Post subject: |
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| We all know why S. Koreans aren�t protesting about the Norks, they are scared to death of the consequences of a regime collapse/revolution in the North. Can you imagine the consequences of millions of refugees that would stream into the South? The country would be totally overwhelmed and completely unprepared to help. The economy would take a huge dive/collapse, people wouldn�t be taking to the streets of Seoul protesting about beef, they�d be protesting about unemployment, high crime, welfare handouts, & growing poverty. And do you really think that Korean�s see themselves as one? N. Koreans would be seen as pariahs and unlike the waygooks be a total drain on the Korean economy. |
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Bryan
Joined: 29 Oct 2007
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 1:07 am Post subject: |
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| Temporary wrote: |
TBHO if their attitude sucks and they don't want to get help let them starve and die.
What puzzles me is that most Commy countries broke down or had revolutions to shed that idiot ideaology. I think N.K is doomed to extincition.
I still don't get how that little troll has lived so long with out some one whacking him.. Then looking at the confusian way I understand it..
No sense in trying to help some one that doesn't want to be helped. |
Because the US and South Korea continue feeding and supporting his military with oil, food, and nuclear technology. South Korea funnels billions of dollars into that country for Kim to amass into his military and further enslave the people. All sorts of "humanitarians" advocate giving more money to the country so that the people may remain under chains for even longer.
The only way for the place to collapse is to stop giving it food, oil, and (worst of all) military/nuclear technology. Thank the "humanitarians" for the enslavement of the Korean people for this long. |
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endo
Joined: 14 Mar 2004
Location: Seoul...my home
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:37 am Post subject: |
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| R-Seoul wrote: |
| We all know why S. Koreans aren�t protesting about the Norks, they are scared to death of the consequences of a regime collapse/revolution in the North. Can you imagine the consequences of millions of refugees that would stream into the South? The country would be totally overwhelmed and completely unprepared to help. The economy would take a huge dive/collapse, people wouldn�t be taking to the streets of Seoul protesting about beef, they�d be protesting about unemployment, high crime, welfare handouts, & growing poverty. And do you really think that Korean�s see themselves as one? N. Koreans would be seen as pariahs and unlike the waygooks be a total drain on the Korean economy. |
And just how do you suggest these millions of refugees cross the most heavily fortified (and mined) border in the world?
I'm thinking that upon collapse of the regime, the South would send in their troops and work his the remaining North Korean generals who are ready to turn sides and take control of the North Korean military.
They (ROK government) would also likely ask for billions of aid from the UN and NATO. I don't think American troops would be sent in (at least immediately) although I'm sure there would be various intelligence officers sent in to gauge the situation.
Basically the ROK government would assume military rule over the regime. And I think the international community (i.e. the West) would offer up enough food and other goods to at least attempt to stabalize the situation.
It could get very messy with China who would obviously increase its troop build up along the Yalu. Japan too would become nervous at the threat of a united penensula.
But basically upon regime change, I really don't think that the South would immediatley unite itself with their brothers and sisters to the north. They'd keep the territories separted in order to first stabalize the North and then effectively acquire political, military, and commercial control.
Only after this is accomplished could the Seoul government even start to think of unification. And even that process will take years if not a decade to totally happen. |
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Bigfeet
Joined: 29 May 2008
Location: Grrrrr.....
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 4:36 am Post subject: |
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| This is like the deal with Israel and Palestine. Everybody is just drawing out the pain. I say let it all come to a head and get it over with and let's move on with life. Let NK starve to death or invade them. |
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seoulsucker
Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Location: The Land of the Hesitant Cutoff
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 6:37 am Post subject: |
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The whole idea that people up there are brainwashed doesn't hold water with me. I happen to know a handful of North Koreans living in Seoul (some for a few months, some for a few years) and they have all said that everyone up there knows how bad they have it, how isolated and desperate the regime is, etc.
However the consequences of talking about it, especially to foreign press are so harsh that no one would ever think of speaking ill of their country or the Kims.
The conversations I've had with these guys have been unbelievable. |
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