North Korea - what the hell is happening?

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  • Nick Armstrong
    Host
    • Nov 2010
    • 26511

    North Korea - what the hell is happening?

    Is this heading for war? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22037008

    I wonder what our diplomatic correspondent Mr Vin Teuil thinks about it...

    Is the stretched twig of peace ..... at melting point? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3BO6GP9NMY (see esp. 2' 50" onwards... )
    Last edited by Nick Armstrong; 05-04-13, 16:36.
    "...the isle is full of noises,
    Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
    Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
    Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."

  • Serial_Apologist
    Full Member
    • Dec 2010
    • 37556

    #2
    I think the big problem for the West is finding anybody of sufficient credibility to the N Koreans to persuade them to come back in line with US resolutions. Mandela is too frail to be expected to intercede. Raul Castro is the only possibility I can think of.

    Comment

    • Richard Tarleton

      #3
      (Pending the thoughts of our diplomatic correspondent...) It seems that what N Korea really wants is to be recognised on full and equal terms in peace talks to end the Korean War, and reckons that threats of Armageddon are what are needed to bring the USA to the conference table and resume the flow of aid (in so far as there is a rational thought process going on)....the role of China deeply depressing. A major question seems to be - are the Korean leadership suicidal as well as insane? The N Korean defector on Newsnight said the whole population was brainwashed. It's baffling that the new guy was educated in Switzerland....

      Having said which I do enjoy the completely deranged N Korean lady newsreader. I'm just trying to imagine Huw Edwards or Sophie Raworth....no, forget it.

      Comment

      • Serial_Apologist
        Full Member
        • Dec 2010
        • 37556

        #4
        The other thought being expressed by western commentators and diplomats seem to be that Kim Jong-un needs to prove himself to the military that he is equal to his dad.

        How far the entire population is brainwashed, I'm not so sure about that, recalling the charming, subtly nuanced reply given by one of the female minders to a reporter doing a TV documentary on life in the country, when posed an "awkward" question, a few years ago.

        Comment

        • Dave2002
          Full Member
          • Dec 2010
          • 18008

          #5
          Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View Post
          Having said which I do enjoy the completely deranged N Korean lady newsreader. I'm just trying to imagine Huw Edwards or Sophie Raworth....no, forget it.
          Missed that/her. Is it on iPlayer? Also msg 4 documentary?

          Comment

          • eighthobstruction
            Full Member
            • Nov 2010
            • 6425

            #6
            don't panic....
            bong ching

            Comment

            • Anna

              #7
              Originally posted by eighthobstruction View Post
              don't panic....
              I'd just assumed it was Kim "Fat Boy" Jong Un projecting his violent video X-Box games habit ..... some sort of weird rite of passage stuff to prove himself? Quite honestly, anyone who has a haircut like that and a paunch at that age has to prove something ......

              Comment

              • aka Calum Da Jazbo
                Late member
                • Nov 2010
                • 9173

                #8
                i don't suppose any one knows who is not inside the N Korean command circle ..... but i have had a bad feeling about this for some time now ....
                According to the best estimates of astronomers there are at least one hundred billion galaxies in the observable universe.

                Comment

                • BBMmk2
                  Late Member
                  • Nov 2010
                  • 20908

                  #9
                  Strutting his stuff that he is dioing toi show the world what NK is cabale of?
                  Don’t cry for me
                  I go where music was born

                  J S Bach 1685-1750

                  Comment

                  • Richard Tarleton

                    #10
                    Originally posted by Dave2002 View Post
                    Missed that/her. Is it on iPlayer? Also msg 4 documentary?
                    Here she is. There's lots more on You Tube.

                    Comment

                    • teamsaint
                      Full Member
                      • Nov 2010
                      • 25190

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Anna View Post
                      I'd just assumed it was Kim "Fat Boy" Jong Un projecting his violent video X-Box games habit ..... some sort of weird rite of passage stuff to prove himself? Quite honestly, anyone who has a haircut like that and a paunch at that age has to prove something ......
                      Anna,do you work for Fox or Sky news on the quiet?!:smiley:

                      No doubt dave and all the other immature idiot leaders are loving this.....
                      I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

                      I am not a number, I am a free man.

                      Comment

                      • Anna

                        #12
                        Originally posted by teamsaint View Post
                        Anna,do you work for Fox or Sky news on the quiet?!:smiley:
                        No doubt dave and all the other immature idiot leaders are loving this.....
                        Never seen Fox, nor do I have Sky. To be honest, the N. Koreans seem mad as a box of frogs but then, I know nothing about the Korean War and what that was all about, it was so long ago. I shall have to read up about it. But, in the meantime, I really don't think we should worry, it's all bluster and rhetoric.
                        Incidentally, are not the population of N. Korea supposed to be starving, and yet they do this?

                        Comment

                        • ahinton
                          Full Member
                          • Nov 2010
                          • 16122

                          #13
                          Originally posted by Anna View Post
                          Never seen Fox, nor do I have Sky. To be honest, the N. Koreans seem mad as a box of frogs but then, I know nothing about the Korean War and what that was all about, it was so long ago. I shall have to read up about it. But, in the meantime, I really don't think we should worry, it's all bluster and rhetoric.
                          Incidentally, are not the population of N. Korea supposed to be starving, and yet they do this?
                          As far as I know, most of the population of that state is indeed starving, or at the very least gravely undernourished and poverty-stricken, not least because so large a proportion of its GDP is spent on defence. Whatever's going on there and why, I just hope that it doesn't end in something going off there, if you see what I mean; I hope very much that what we see of it is indeed no more than mere bluster and rhetoric.
                          Last edited by ahinton; 05-04-13, 20:11.

                          Comment

                          • eighthobstruction
                            Full Member
                            • Nov 2010
                            • 6425

                            #14
                            Originally posted by ahinton View Post
                            mere blister and rhetoric.
                            If it is I suggest the protocol should be to proudly pop the protruding protype protagonist pronouncement in Pyongyang....
                            bong ching

                            Comment

                            • teamsaint
                              Full Member
                              • Nov 2010
                              • 25190

                              #15
                              Too much money spent on arms, rather than social needs? Leaders with no real work experience who bluster, and provoke in a nationalistic way?
                              all sounds horribly familiar....
                              I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

                              I am not a number, I am a free man.

                              Comment

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