North Korea - what the hell is happening?

[Nick Armstrong]

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... )

[Serial_Apologist]

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.

[Richard Tarleton]

(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.

[Serial_Apologist]

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.

[Dave2002]

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?

[eighthobstruction]

don't panic....

[Anna]

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 ......

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

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 ....

[BBMmk2]

Strutting his stuff that he is dioing toi show the world what NK is cabale of?

[Richard Tarleton]

Missed that/her. Is it on iPlayer? Also msg 4 documentary?

Here she is. There's lots more on You Tube.

[teamsaint]

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.....

[Anna]

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?

[ahinton]

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.

[eighthobstruction]

mere blister and rhetoric.

If it is I suggest the protocol should be to proudly pop the protruding protype protagonist pronouncement in Pyongyang....

[teamsaint]

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....