Is anyone going to watch this? It seems like they smuggled video in from N. Korea. I don't really ever see too much out of N. Korea, so this should be interesting. Airs on CNN tonight (11/13) at 8pm I believe. I have a lot of work to do tonight so I may not catch all of it, so discuss if you're going to watch.

11/13/2005 2:51:16 PM

the children dance in fountains and it rains chocolate there...whatever the quote is, you get the point.

11/13/2005 3:23:06 PM

wah

11/13/2005 3:26:22 PM

will cnn have an online video option for this?

11/13/2005 3:31:44 PM

yeah, i want to watch that

11/13/2005 3:39:45 PM

They're showing a sneak preview for it. Just go to the main page and watch the video provided. It says..."video shows public executions in N. Korea".

11/13/2005 3:40:10 PM

yeah, ill be watching.

whats the over/under on the number of people who will say "omg why didnt we attack N. Korea instead of Iraq!?!" after seeing it.

stalinism sucks.

11/13/2005 4:07:46 PM

They don't have stalinism, they have kimilsungism. Which, admittedly, is way harder to say.

11/13/2005 4:18:10 PM

havent heard that term, but yeah, i guess its more fitting.

plus theyd probably be making more stuff if they had stalinism.

11/13/2005 4:21:05 PM

I watched what I guess was a preview of this segment online at CNN.com several months ago, and they were talking to this woman who runs a little museum where people from all over the world send cards expressing their support for Kimilsungism.

Then they ask her if she's under the impression that most Americans are interested in Kimilsungism, and she says, "Well, obviously."

11/13/2005 4:22:49 PM

I personally think this is asia's main problem. We should let asian countries try to solve the problem that is N. Korea, but we shouldn't take a leadership role. We're stretched thin as it is.

11/13/2005 4:23:06 PM

well, Japan isnt going to fuck with them. they know better.

i dont think China really cares.

let them self-destruct.

[Edited on November 13, 2005 at 4:28 PM. Reason : .]

11/13/2005 4:27:48 PM

bttt

Yeh I guess...I'm not sure what China thinks. I'm sure they have a secret pact with Jong Il Kim.

11/13/2005 7:34:50 PM

This is very interesting.

Public executions.

Underground movements that are very well organized (or so it would seem).

They're definitely trying to make it look like there's growing popular support for an uprising.

11/13/2005 8:16:10 PM

stay for jimmy carter

11/13/2005 9:03:08 PM

That was good.

11/13/2005 9:03:12 PM

i admire jimmy carter, bad presidency or not.

the only exemplery christian to hold the presidency in the 20th century.

[Edited on November 13, 2005 at 9:15 PM. Reason : .]

11/13/2005 9:14:47 PM

the only exemplery christian to hold the presidency in the 20th century.

11/13/2005 9:18:37 PM

That was surprising. I had goosebumps at times. Carter = Dem =

11/13/2005 9:20:17 PM

if only he didnt have to deal with nixon/ford's mess and he had acted on the economic crisis in the late 70s...

11/13/2005 9:21:27 PM

Quote :

"if only he didnt have to deal with nixon/ford's mess and he had acted on the economic crisis didn't have his hands tied by Congress in the late 70s..."

11/14/2005 10:22:36 AM

Quote :

"Yeh I guess...I'm not sure what China thinks. I'm sure they have a secret pact with Jong Il Kim."

Most analysts agree that it is against China's national interests to get rid of North Korea. While the Chinese don't need a strong North Korea causing trouble, they don't want the country to collapse either for two reasons. For one, a collapsed North Korea is going to send millions of refugees into China, a strain that they don't want to deal with. Also, China doesn't want North Korea to collapse because that would bring a democratic American-ally, South Korea, right up against their border.

Quote :

"let them self-destruct."

I don't think that China or even South Korea would allow that to happen. Many of the younger generations in the South, as much as they keep preaching "Tong-il!" (Reunification!) are not keen on the idea of reunification after watching all the crap that happened with Germany. Considering that the economic disparity is even greater and the South Korean economy is more fragile, it's a very scary prospect. I think the policy of both is to keep North Korea propped up, encourage them to reform economically (a la China), and then go from there.

Regardless, all the major players in the region, including the United States and Japan, are uneasy about a total North Korean collapse because of the sheer chaos it would cause; at very least, North Korea's disappearance would completely upend the current, delicate strategic balance in the region. I think everyone is just quietly hoping that the current regime will simply be replaced by a newer, more reasonable one.

As for North Korea's government, I just think of them as an old-school absolute monarchy complete with divine authority and everything.

11/14/2005 10:23:33 AM

^ I watched the CNN special and I found it very interesting. As I am not very educated on the situation in N. Korea (I know the basics but thats about it) I am curious to know what you mean when you say "North Korea's disappearance would completely upend the current, delicate strategic balance in the region"? From the special and the basic reading I've done, I got the impression that N. Korea is an alienated country (politically, economically, socially) and if this is the case, what influence does it have to the point that it will disrupt the "current delicate strategic balance in the region" if it does in fact collapse?

11/14/2005 5:41:10 PM

Quote :

"what influence does it have to the point that it will disrupt the "current delicate strategic balance in the region" if it does in fact collapse?"

You are correct in that North Korea is an alienated country and a classic pariah state. Outside the capability of burning Seoul to the ground and dropping chemical weapons on Tokyo (the NK suicide option), it really doesn't have much influence.

Yet its very presence has been one of the cornerstones of security planning for the last fifty years. If North Korea were to collapse tomorrow, it would bring about dramatic change:

1) The United States justification for maintaining troops on the Korean penninsula suddenly disappears. The United States presence in South Korea has always been justified as a deterrence against the North. Without North Korea, the United States would probably be forced to leave, removing tens of thousands of American soldiers from the region. American military influence in South Korea and the region as a whole would wane dramatically.

2) The anarchy created by the sudden collapse of North Korea would send millions of economic refugees into China and South Korea, a heavy financial burden for both nations to bear. While I believe the Chinese might be able to handle it, the South Korean government and economy is not ready to absorb such a backwards country into its system.

3) Just the simple fact that you remove a government which employed 1.2 million highly trained (5th largest globally), extremely hardened soldiers and their equipment can't be good for a region.

4) It raises a very big question to the political future of South Korea. For the last fifty years, it's entire identity has been defined against North Korea. While economically and socially its starting to move away, from a foreign policy and military perspective, it's still defined by the relations with the North. That future is a big question mark for the ROK government. It is afterall, the 7th largest military; a military designed completely around defending the South from North Korea.

5) On the bright side, the removal of North Korea would be the elimination of one of the two, very real flash points in the region. As quiet as the border has been over the last fifty years, you can't line up 1.8 million soldiers against each other on a two hundred mile border and not be a little nervous about what's going to happen.

In many ways, you can think of it as a miniature version of the Cold War. As grateful as everyone will be that North Korea has disappeared, it will leave a huge security vacuum and force all the major players to reconsider their foreign policy in the region. For the United States, China, South Korea, Japan, and to a much lesser extent the Russians, a large part of their entire defense strategy and foreign policy has been planned around this complex balancing act and potential war starring North Korea. Suddenly, defense planners and military officials are left without a war to plan for. Everyone is left scratching there heads as to "What now?" That is the big question.

11/15/2005 6:21:24 PM