Korean Job Discussion Forums

On the other hand · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Location: I walk along the avenue

JinJu wrote:

Bulsajo · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

On the other hand · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Location: I walk along the avenue

Bulsajo · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

Yeah, it wouldn't be quick or easy, but then what else has worked better in the last 53 years?
Returning to a failed policy certainly isn't the way to go, jinju.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

I think the North needs the carrot and the stick. The North currently gets anything it wants from the South. In fact, more it struts around and embarrasses the USA, the more South Korea seems to reward it.

If there's to be one Korea, the North needs to get its economy in order. We're talking a 50 year project there. The people in charge aren't going to give up the reigns of power willingly, for the greater good. They need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the light.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

jinju · Joined: 22 Jan 2006

On the other hand · Joined: 19 Apr 2003 Location: I walk along the avenue

jinju · Joined: 22 Jan 2006

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

I think you are short-changing the Chinese on patience and 'generosity'. They, along with the Soviets, subsidized the North all during the Cold War. And that was when the Chinese were broke. Now they ain't.

I do agree that the Dear Leader will not threaten China. It is not in his interest to do that.

Nor is it in China's interest to a) have collapse and chaos on their border; b) subsidize the Norks any more than they have to to prevent 'a'; c) slap the North in to line as long as the US supports Taiwan; or d) encourage or discourage reunification as long as the South is allied to the US.

The South is no longer willing to have a confrontationist policy. Not only didn't it work before, the South is too comfortable to risk war to change things. The only alternative is some form of Sunshine Policy.

Bulsajo · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

The Chinese will let the Norks be as crazy as they wanna be, just for leverage on ROK and Japan, not to mention the US.

"KJI may be a sunnufabitch, but he's OUR sunnufabitch"
- HU Jintao

rapier · Joined: 16 Feb 2003

North Korea has been abducting South koreans steadily for the past 50 years! Fishermen taken from boats and islands..and so on. Its been going on for a long time, in a steady trickle, while the south Korean Govt has played it down and done nothing.

"South Korean statistics claim that 486 Koreans have been abducted by North Korea since the end of the Korean War. Most of them were captured while fishing near the DMZ, but some were abducted by North Korean agents in South Korea."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_abductions_of_South_Koreans

only difference is, this time they would've bitten off too big a chunk to get away with.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

If North Korea fell apart tomorrow, it's not hard to believe some Chinese backed North Korean government asking Chinese troops to come in and help "stabilize" the situation. Now North Korea is a Chinese province. Doesn't it say that right in history that North Korea has always been part of China?

The South has to walk two fine lines: 1) getting the North to pull up its socks so the South isn't destroyed economically trying to install flush toilets 2) Establishing its exclusive claim as protector and peace keeper in the North in the event of a sudden collapse. If the North has always relied on China for its aid, then the rest of the world wouldn't really care too much if the Chinese dealt with the problem.

And there's gotta be elements of the South Korean government that feels their john thomases gain a full inch every time a brother Northerner acts like a petulant school child before the mighty USA.