North Korea - how serious should we take them?

[AJL308]

mybrainhurts said:

AJL308 said:

mybrainhurts said:

You keep saying "they".

This is a one fatty-man dictatorship who feeds his family to dogs and executes others with anti aircraft guns.

He's worshipped as a god by the populace and everybody is scared stless, lest he throws a tantrum and kills them. Look at any photograph with his generals around him. They all look apprehensive. Plenty of this on the photoshop North Korea thread.

In these circumstances, theorising about what "they" will do is a pointless endeavour.

As my previous - no he isn't. I don't believe that assertion for one second. Yes, everyone is scared stless of him but they don't see him as a deity.

Oh, FFS...this is PH, choose your words very carefully, we have an Inquisition waiting in the wings.

For the benefit of hair splitters....

The populace is required to worship him as a god...

Better now...?

It isn't 'hair splitting'. It's a very important distinction.

The population being required to worship as a God is one thing, them believing he is a God is an entirely different matter.

[AJL308]

Efbe said:

AJL308 said:

mybrainhurts said:

You keep saying "they".

This is a one fatty-man dictatorship who feeds his family to dogs and executes others with anti aircraft guns.

He's worshipped as a god by the populace and everybody is scared stless, lest he throws a tantrum and kills them. Look at any photograph with his generals around him. They all look apprehensive. Plenty of this on the photoshop North Korea thread.

In these circumstances, theorising about what "they" will do is a pointless endeavour.

As my previous - no he isn't. I don't believe that assertion for one second. Yes, everyone is scared stless of him but they don't see him as a deity.

They behave as they are expected to behave, because they know the consequences of doing otherwise. The Japanese under the Emperor weren't like that. They didn't need punishment camps to make them 'believe' that the Emperor was a living god.

In 1,000 years time Fatty's descendants may be seen as living gods but at present he's just a tyrant and his people know that.

No they really don't.

There is a growing middle class in Pyongyang that are starting to slowly see this, but 99% of his people love him dearly.

The POV is this: He, like his father and father before him has saved them. He is single handedly stopping the evil western empire of the USA from overrunning their country by developing defense systems that scare the US off.
He clothes them, feeds them, houses them, educates them DESPITE the best efforts of the US Empire to stop him.
They are the greatest nation on earth, the purest, the most untouched by the evil US empire which is arrogant and selfish, walking oer the world for their own benefit.

The only way they would know anything different is if they had perspective, which they don't.

If they did hate him so much, would they not leave!

As I say though, that isn't the impression I get from the expressions on the faces populating the (staged and massively choreographed) massed parades for significant events. When Fat Lad's Dad died those people 'grieving' were doing no such thing. They were 'crying' because it was expected and required of them. That is patently obvious.

The Japanese who turned their faces to the earth when the Emperor passed by because it was forbidden to lay eyes on a living God and who later threw themselves from cliffs or ran toward US troops with grenades did it out of a genuine belief in the Emperor's God like status.

[AJL308]

Efbe said:

Robertj21a said:

Channel 4 'Unreported World' has just had 30 mins on North Korean defectors now living in South Korea - very interesting.

It's a difficult one.

People that defect, by their very nature will have a more negative view of what they have defected from than anyone else.
But they will also have needed the means to defect, and so from a country like NK are more likely to have been from the ruling classes.

These people will also have made a career post defection of selling their story, so it has to be a good one.
There are very few defectors from NK, which I find really odd.

[i]Either NK has amazing security against defectors. I find this strange because they have quite a big fishing community, which have every option to defect to Chinese mainland.
Or, the people just don't realise how bad a situation they are in. This is much more likely. With no internet, a controlled intranet and state run media/news outlets/radio they will only ever hear the party line.[/i]

You could liken it to the fact that no British citizen has ever defected to Mars. Maybe we could, but we just don't know we can. Ok it's a bad analogy, but you get the idea.

Try this; If your boss told you that if you didn't return from your business trip next week he'd murder your family, how much consideration would you give to not coming back?

[AJL308]

gruffalo said:

Now North Korea has arrested and detained a US citizen, just to give the US a little dig in the ribs and threatened Australia with a nuclear strike if they remain an Ally of the US.

They really are trying to cause a st storm aren't they!!

"North Korea has said it is ready to sink the Carl Vinson, and on Sunday said it would strike Australia with nuclear weapons if it remained an ally of the United States."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39683518

China needs to put him back in his box and soon.

It's bullst though and the rest pf the planet knows it. I have a friend in Queensland - I'll be sure to ask her to let me know as soon as she notices any missiles approaching so I can stock up on Bundaberg rum and ginger beer.

Even if NK has the capacity to sink a US Warship (which I doubt it does) then Fat Lad would be incinerated before the Torpedo had even hit it.

It's just fluff to keep his people subjugated. There must be rumblings of his unseating in the wind (there's an image I don't need) so he needs to rattle a few sabres to keep people quiet.

[AJL308]

johnxjsc1985 said:

it just shows how useless the UN is when a little st like this can threaten the entire world's future.

He can threaten all he likes but he can do fk all to carry the threat through. Everyone knows he can do fk all about it including the Fat Lad him self.

I can threaten to nuke Australia and have only slightly less chance of doing it than Fat Boy Kim.

[hidetheelephants]

AJL308 said:

It's bullst though and the rest pf the planet knows it. I have a friend in Queensland - I'll be sure to ask her to let me know as soon as she notices any missiles approaching so I can stock up on Bundaberg rum and ginger beer.

Even if NK has the capacity to sink a US Warship (which I doubt it does) then Fat Lad would be incinerated before the Torpedo had even hit it.

It's just fluff to keep his people subjugated. There must be rumblings of his unseating in the wind (there's an image I don't need) so he needs to rattle a few sabres to keep people quiet.

Fatty Kim managed to sink a RoK corvette by torpedo and the response of the RoK government amounted to the diplomatic equivalent of a stiffly worded email.

[anonymous-user]

AJL308 said:

Try this; If your boss told you that if you didn't return from your business trip next week he'd murder your family, how much consideration would you give to not coming back?

I'd come back alright, he wouldn't be breathing for very long when I did.

[mybrainhurts]

AJL308 said:

johnxjsc1985 said:

it just shows how useless the UN is when a little st like this can threaten the entire world's future.

He can threaten all he likes but he can do fk all to carry the threat through. Everyone knows he can do fk all about it including the Fat Lad him self.

I can threaten to nuke Australia and have only slightly less chance of doing it than Fat Boy Kim.

You forget that Kimmy baby won loads of olympic gold medals and can fly a MIG 29 and got bored with golf because he could only score holes in one....

We're talking about the NK Superhero No 1 here.

I'd be a bit careful about slinging insults around, if I were you.

[bristolracer]

mybrainhurts said:

AJL308 said:

johnxjsc1985 said:

it just shows how useless the UN is when a little st like this can threaten the entire world's future.

He can threaten all he likes but he can do fk all to carry the threat through. Everyone knows he can do fk all about it including the Fat Lad him self.

I can threaten to nuke Australia and have only slightly less chance of doing it than Fat Boy Kim.

You forget that Kimmy baby won loads of olympic gold medals and can fly a MIG 29 and got bored with golf because he could only score holes in one....

We're talking about the NK Superhero No 1 here.

I'd be a bit careful about slinging insults around, if I were you.

Yes but he does have a large conventional army,and if he does decide to he can do a lot of damage in a very short time with it.
I read an estimate of 150,000 SK casualties in one hour if he decides to let his artillery loose over the DMZ.
Yes he will get slaughtered pretty quickly afterwards,but in the meantime he can cause a lot of casualties without any nukes at all.

[DAVEVO9]

bristolracer said:

Yes but he does have a large conventional army,and if he does decide to he can do a lot of damage in a very short time with it.
I read an estimate of 150,000 SK casualties in one hour if he decides to let his artillery loose over the DMZ.
Yes he will get slaughtered pretty quickly afterwards,but in the meantime he can cause a lot of casualties without any nukes at all.

This is why I think there could be a pre-emptive strike. How much of his hardware is able to be taken out in one go though?

Nuclear sub just arrived in SK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39701481

[Likes Fast Cars]

Fat Boy's been at it again with Australia, some comments regarding the US's approach and the likely implications if FatBoy loses it totally:

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/devastating-dea...

[p1stonhead]

DAVEVO9 said:

bristolracer said:

Yes but he does have a large conventional army,and if he does decide to he can do a lot of damage in a very short time with it.
I read an estimate of 150,000 SK casualties in one hour if he decides to let his artillery loose over the DMZ.
Yes he will get slaughtered pretty quickly afterwards,but in the meantime he can cause a lot of casualties without any nukes at all.

This is why I think there could be a pre-emptive strike. How much of his hardware is able to be taken out in one go though?

Nuclear powererd sub just arrived in SK.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-39701481

ETA

It doesnt mention if it has Nukes on board.

Albeit there are probably US nuclear subs everywhere, they just arent ever seen or known.

[DAVEVO9]

Likes Fast Cars said:

Fat Boy's been at it again with Australia, some comments regarding the US's approach and the likely implications if FatBoy loses it totally:

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/devastating-dea...

Subscription required

[jmorgan]

Are they sure the sub is there? Not some other port like Southend?

[Likes Fast Cars]

p1stonhead said:

ETA

It doesnt mention if it has Nukes on board.

Albeit there are probably US nuclear subs everywhere, they just arent ever seen or known.

The article says it is "nuclear powered' an refers to Tomahawk missiles which are conventional as far as I'm aware. There are indeed nuclear-armed submarines which have more lethal payloads.

[Likes Fast Cars]

DAVEVO9 said:

Likes Fast Cars said:

Fat Boy's been at it again with Australia, some comments regarding the US's approach and the likely implications if FatBoy loses it totally:

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/devastating-dea...

Subscription required

sorry about that, I forgot, it's the only bloody thing Rupert gives away so I subscribed for free a while ago, I'll try to do it another way so you can read.

[karona]

DAVEVO9 said:

Likes Fast Cars said:

Fat Boy's been at it again with Australia, some comments regarding the US's approach and the likely implications if FatBoy loses it totally:

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/devastating-dea...

Subscription required

Also triggers spyware warnings in Bitdefender

[Likes Fast Cars]

DAVEVO9 said:

Likes Fast Cars said:

Fat Boy's been at it again with Australia, some comments regarding the US's approach and the likely implications if FatBoy loses it totally:

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/devastating-dea...

Subscription required

headline and first paragraph for you (which I'm allowed to cut & paste):
Devastating 100,000 death toll the reason behind US exploring diplomatic options before military action

ABOUT 100,000 people would be dead within just 48 hours if North Korea unleashed its arsenal of rockets and artillery, a chilling intelligence assessment has warned.

[Sylvaforever]

Ozzie Osmond said:

North Korea = Israel

The local nutters in their repective regions, in each case silently backed by a superpower. They are never told to stop misbehaving because their "masters" find them convenient.

Why don't you just say what you really think?

[Likes Fast Cars]

karona said:

DAVEVO9 said:

Likes Fast Cars said:

Fat Boy's been at it again with Australia, some comments regarding the US's approach and the likely implications if FatBoy loses it totally:

http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/devastating-dea...

Subscription required

Also triggers spyware warnings in Bitdefender

Probably scanned the reference to North Korea