KR North Korea Megathread - Dear Leader and his shenanigans

MOD NOTE:

There's so much news about North Korea right now and what Un is doing, I got a suggestion for a NK megathread, so here it is. Post the world's greatest nation's antics here. I'm merging a few of the more recent threads to continue discussion.

ORIGINAL POST:
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https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/south-korea-planning-war-decapitation-132232777.html

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has pushed for a new plan for a rapid war with North Korea and an overhaul of the country's defense industry to overwhelm and crush the North's government, the South Korean newspaper The Chosun Ilbo reported Tuesday.

Moon took office in May promising to attempt to engage diplomatically with North Korea and seek peace, but in the months since, the North has provoked the international community with missile tests at a blistering pace.

For some time, South Korea has been training a "decapitation force," reportedly with the help of the US Navy's SEAL Team 6, but now an increasingly bold North Korea may demand quicker action.

South Korea's new plan identifies more than 1,000 targets for precision missile fires and sites for marines to drop in and quickly kill North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the paper reported.

The plan represents a more independent version of South Korea's current plan, which relies on support from US aircraft carriers. As it stands, no major military commander recommends military action against North Korea, which has a staggering array of conventional — and potentially nuclear — weapons pointed at Seoul, where 26 million call home.

But South Korea's new plan to quickly and decisively dominate the North relies on reforming the defense-acquisition process and cutting out wasteful spending to wield the full might of its economic dominance against Pyongyang, according to the report. For that reason, don't expect the plan to take effect anytime soon.

 

[Dysnomia]

This is sad watching this, honestly and this isn't the first time I've watched it.
It's sad for a lot of the usual reasons like KJU popping up every 2 seconds and people having to talk about him favourably, (There was one specific lady's testimonial for KJU's almighty power that could rival the bad acting in American Infomercials) and seeing how fat that cunt is compared to everyone else.
But also because you have this broadcast style, which is really similar to community tier 90's Japanese/Korean television (the echoing sound effects, the borders, the PIP style, the quivering voices) demonstrating the amazingness of KJU's North Korea... which is just depressing to think families are watching it whilst starving around a single bowl of rice. Dying in a blaze of Napalm and being reincarnated as a toad would be much better than that.

It reminds me though that Norks are going to be hard to integrate anywhere because everyone looks like they have rickets and North Korean dialect is fucking horrible. They all sound like 80's era Beat Takeshi.

The level of propaganda in that broadcast is just surreal. Is this their only channel?

 

[CWCissey]

The level of propaganda in that broadcast is just surreal. Is this their only channel?

Yep. The Norks get by on that and whatever DVDs and flash drives the Souks float over the border.

 

[January Cyst]

The level of propaganda in that broadcast is just surreal. Is this their only channel?

Best channel.

 

[MG 192]

The problem is that they're doing it when it's getting closer and closer to the point where Fatty irreversibly fucks up and nukes up any city (and I did say any, even NK's own cities are at risk here). If they were wise, they'd try to do it much sooner, such as when KJI died and Un entered office.

One thing that I think is important is the consequences of radiation damage that will arise if Fatty nukes a city. It was horrible with Hiroshima and Nagasaki's bombing and if North Korea drops a 100-150 kilometers bomb, it will be worse than that.

I just noticed that Kaesong is right on the border to South Korea and Seoul is extremely close to the border as well. If Jong-Un is open to bombing his own citizens, he could be looking to bomb Kaesong in order to spread radiation throughout South Korea (particularly Seoul) in order to paralyze the country's economy.

Feel free to correct me on any of this (and if I overestimate the size that the radiation could spread to), but if I am right, this is concerning because North Korea could kill hundreds of thousands of citizens on its own land, kill many South Koreans through radiation poisoning, weaken South Korea, and potentially get away with it because the bomb wasn't placed in Seoul.
---
In other news, Chosun (a conservative South Korean newspaper) claims that Pyongyang is westernizing:

The lifestyles of the North Korean elite in the capital Pyongyang are becoming westernized despite international sanctions, according to a researcher.

Cho Jeong-ah at the Korea Institute for National Unification said in a report, "Pyongyang and cities on the border have become much more westernized since Kim Jong-un came to power."

Cho added that the pace of westernization "belies the fact that North Korea is the target of tough economic sanctions by the international community."

Based on in-depth interviews with a dozen North Korean defectors from Pyongyang and the border cities, Cho learned that new mega shopping malls have opened in Pyongyang that house restaurants, swimming pools, coffee shops and skincare parlors, while the capital also has new ice and roller-skating rinks, a natural science museum and a zoo.

High schools in the North now spend more time teaching English than Korean to students. Mobile phone ownership and solar panels at homes have spurred increased access to South Korean TV shows and music, and young people learn the latest dance moves and South Korean-style slang.

Some 60 percent of Pyongyang residents between 20 to 50 use mobile phones and apparently enjoy watching South Korean soaps and music videos on tiny SD cards that come with their handsets.

Starting in 2013, the regime has encouraged people to install solar panels in their homes to meet their own power needs amid a chronic power shortage.

Cho attributed the changes to thriving open-air markets that began to crop up in 2000. "In spite of international sanctions, North Korea has nurtured its domestic economy through open-air markets that have created new wealthy class of people who can enjoy leisure activities," she said.

 

[CWCissey]

Mad Dog ain't fucking about now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41140621

One thing that I think is important is the consequences of radiation damage that will arise if Fatty nukes a city. It was horrible with Hiroshima and Nagasaki's bombing and if North Korea drops a 100-150 kilometers bomb, it will be worse than that.

I just noticed that Kaesong is right on the border to South Korea and Seoul is extremely close to the border as well. If Jong-Un is open to bombing his own citizens, he could be looking to bomb Kaesong in order to spread radiation throughout South Korea (particularly Seoul) in order to paralyze the country's economy.

Feel free to correct me on any of this (and if I overestimate the size that the radiation could spread to), but if I am right, this is concerning because North Korea could kill hundreds of thousands of citizens on its own land, kill many South Koreans through radiation poisoning, weaken South Korea, and potentially get away with it because the bomb wasn't placed in Seoul.

Kaesong is one of those joint cities (basically South Korean conglomerates profit off cheap Northern labour) so that shit won't stick either.

Also fallout is highly dependent on wind conditions. That radioactive cloud could float back over the North, it could float into China, it could literally go anywhere.

 

[Ravenor]

The level of propaganda in that broadcast is just surreal. Is this their only channel?

Yep NK has only one channel, I saw a documentary that said they only have two controls on them - Volume and On / Off and you HAVE to use the electricity ration for them on some occasions and they will have officials coming around and randomly checking that you have the TV on.

The TV's are made to be nearly impossible to retune and your not supposed to get TV's within 100km of the north or south borders to stop TV signals in the same range overpowering the cast off 50's Soviet Broadcast towers they use. They bought the TV designs from Eastern Germany as well because they lacked the technical understanding to make TV's but they also modified them rather ham-fistedly and they are even by standards of the time the design was modified they are really power inefficient.

 

[CWCissey]

Yep NK has only one channel, I saw a documentary that said they only have two controls on them - Volume and On / Off and you HAVE to use the electricity ration for them on some occasions and they will have officials coming around and randomly checking that you have the TV on.

The TV's are made to be nearly impossible to retune and your not supposed to get TV's within 100km of the north or south borders to stop TV signals in the same range overpowering the cast off 50's Soviet Broadcast towers they use. They bought the TV designs from Eastern Germany as well because they lacked the technical understanding to make TV's but they also modified them rather ham-fistedly and they are even by standards of the time the design was modified they are really power inefficient.

I think I saw that one. Was that where the minder claimed that North Korean agriculture is totally self-sufficient while standing in front of a tractor that had a massive EU flag on the door?

 

[Ravenor]

I think I saw that one. Was that where the minder claimed that North Korean agriculture is totally self-sufficient while standing in front of a tractor that had a massive EU flag on the door?

I think so I have seen it in a few NK hidden camera doc's and it's been mentioned in one of the many books on NK I've got I think it was in cleanest race, there is also a good really good long shot of one of the few American Defectors to Korea with a TV in the background and there was only one button if I'm recall it correctly and the only reason he get's a TV because he's been a good little stooge and plays the evil yankie in all the propoganda films.

 

[whatever I feel like]

In other news, Chosun (a conservative South Korean newspaper) claims that Pyongyang is westernizing:

The elites have gotten that type of special treatment for decades. It used to be more focused on Soviet/Eastern European type stuff but after the collapse it switched more to aping South Korean/Chinese trends. Those shopping malls on the other hand are just show pieces, they have no inventory and no customers. If you were to try to buy things from them they would refuse to sell all but the one or two items they actually have in stock.

Its also easy to miss but they aren't so much "westernizing" as they are "globalizing"- its not like cell phones and shitty dance music are the sole domain of whitey. When you look at the way they have rolled out phones and internet, it was through partnerships with every dictator's favorite corporation, Orascom, and even then they ditched the Egyptians as soon as the infrastructure was in place.

Oh and not that they'd be purposely spreading fallout on their own land anyway but Kaesong was shut down two or so years ago after one of the north's previous tantrums and not even the current government would reopen it (not that it even could- North Korean dickery prevented the previous tenants from ever turning a profit on it so there's no one left who is gullible enough to open a factory there.) Ironically enough the best way for the north to make a profit off of South Korea would probably be to allow the Chicoms to build a railway to the south through their land. But that will never happen and even if they did the North would make sure that none of the users actually makes any money off of it.

 

[cypocryphy]

It's a shame his generals don't kill him and then begin a peaceful process of reunification with the Korea Republic.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

One thing that I think is important is the consequences of radiation damage that will arise if Fatty nukes a city. It was horrible with Hiroshima and Nagasaki's bombing and if North Korea drops a 100-150 kilometers bomb, it will be worse than that.

I just noticed that Kaesong is right on the border to South Korea and Seoul is extremely close to the border as well. If Jong-Un is open to bombing his own citizens, he could be looking to bomb Kaesong in order to spread radiation throughout South Korea (particularly Seoul) in order to paralyze the country's economy.

Feel free to correct me on any of this (and if I overestimate the size that the radiation could spread to), but if I am right, this is concerning because North Korea could kill hundreds of thousands of citizens on its own land, kill many South Koreans through radiation poisoning, weaken South Korea, and potentially get away with it because the bomb wasn't placed in Seoul.
---
In other news, Chosun (a conservative South Korean newspaper) claims that Pyongyang is westernizing:

I was going on the factor of one of the tests backfiring greatly and annihilating a NK city, actually.

 

[whatever I feel like]

They don't test near cities and other countries have laid enough of the ground work that they aren't going to be setting the thing off right on top of central command. There is a possibility that any one test might partially fail but there's no possibility of them being over-successful. When reading those old cold war stories its important to remember that there's a big difference between us or the Russians doing something for the first time ever back in the 60s and a smaller country replicating that same science today.

 

[Trilby]

Yep. The Norks get by on that and whatever DVDs and flash drives the Souks float over the border.

Pretty much the reality here. KCTV alone operates like a Soviet Bloc network during the 70's and there's still only 2 or 3 channels available in Pyongyang. Comparing this to what is available in South Korea or in China and it's night and day.

Yep NK has only one channel, I saw a documentary that said they only have two controls on them - Volume and On / Off and you HAVE to use the electricity ration for them on some occasions and they will have officials coming around and randomly checking that you have the TV on.

Radios mounted in Pyongyang apartments also have a similar control. You can turn the volume up or down but never off.

The TV's are made to be nearly impossible to retune and your not supposed to get TV's within 100km of the north or south borders to stop TV signals in the same range overpowering the cast off 50's Soviet Broadcast towers they use. They bought the TV designs from Eastern Germany as well because they lacked the technical understanding to make TV's but they also modified them rather ham-fistedly and they are even by standards of the time the design was modified they are really power inefficient.

I've read newer TV's that feature digital controls have a sticker placed over the channel buttons so you couldn't change outside the government approved station. If they see that the sticker was tampered with, that was automatic prison sentence, or even death.

I think so I have seen it in a few NK hidden camera doc's and it's been mentioned in one of the many books on NK I've got I think it was in cleanest race, there is also a good really good long shot of one of the few American Defectors to Korea with a TV in the background and there was only one button if I'm recall it correctly and the only reason he get's a TV because he's been a good little stooge and plays the evil yankie in all the propoganda films.

Oh yeah, that doc was about James Dresnok, who crossed over to the north while stationed at the DMZ in the 60's. I see he finally passed away last year.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joseph_Dresnok

The elites have gotten that type of special treatment for decades. It used to be more focused on Soviet/Eastern European type stuff but after the collapse it switched more to aping South Korean/Chinese trends. Those shopping malls on the other hand are just show pieces, they have no inventory and no customers. If you were to try to buy things from them they would refuse to sell all but the one or two items they actually have in stock.

Its also easy to miss but they aren't so much "westernizing" as they are "globalizing"- its not like cell phones and shitty dance music are the sole domain of whitey. When you look at the way they have rolled out phones and internet, it was through partnerships with every dictator's favorite corporation, Orascom, and even then they ditched the Egyptians as soon as the infrastructure was in place.

Oh and not that they'd be purposely spreading fallout on their own land anyway but Kaesong was shut down two or so years ago after one of the north's previous tantrums and not even the current government would reopen it (not that it even could- North Korean dickery prevented the previous tenants from ever turning a profit on it so there's no one left who is gullible enough to open a factory there.) Ironically enough the best way for the north to make a profit off of South Korea would probably be to allow the Chicoms to build a railway to the south through their land. But that will never happen and even if they did the North would make sure that none of the users actually makes any money off of it.

Pretty much, yet even when it wasn't about getting paid in case, this was where the obsession the Norks have with Choco Pies came into the fold. I've read there was a big underground market for buying/selling Choco Pies due to Kaesong's use of giving the North Korea workers those snacks.

 

[Asuka]

It's a shame his generals don't kill him and then begin a peaceful process of reunification with the Korea Republic.

Ironically, when both Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong died their successors purged anybody that were connected with the really atrocious things they did such as Stalin's Great Purge and Mao's Cultural Revolution. Both countries have seen increasingly "progressive" leaders constantly veering off the "Lenin-Marx" path of Communism and conforming more into capitalistic ideas. Nobody really wanted to try and kill either of them because they feared the repercussions, but you can clearly tell a lot of their staff found them fucked up when they tried to reverse everything they did. It's different in North Korea's case because this is the unique case of a "Communist dynasty"; the Kims have established themselves as the permanent cult of personality and I bet if one of their generals tries to take them out another fucked up Kim would replace them. They have virtually no signs of rising progressive/"Western" rebellion within their state.

 

[whatever I feel like]

Pretty much, yet even when it wasn't about getting paid in case, this was where the obsession the Norks have with Choco Pies came into the fold. I've read there was a big underground market for buying/selling Choco Pies due to Kaesong's use of giving the North Korea workers those snacks.

I think you might have been misunderstanding the chocos. It was not like cat food in District 9 so much as it was like cigarettes in prison. Given that they were pretty much the only thing a worker could actually earn they ended up being treated like an unofficial currency by the workers. I had sort of assumed that it all went away when Kaesong closed down (and the best workers were constantly being rotated out anyway, least they become contaminated with capitalism.)

 

[Trilby]

I think you might have been misunderstanding the chocos. It was not like cat food in District 9 so much as it was like cigarettes in prison. Given that they were pretty much the only thing a worker could actually earn they ended up being treated like an unofficial currency by the workers. I had sort of assumed that it all went away when Kaesong closed down (and the best workers were constantly being rotated out anyway, least they become contaminated with capitalism.)

Thanks for the correction.

 

[Asuka]

I just realized, if something did happen to Kim Jong Un now (be it assassination or premature death) then there really wouldn't be anybody from the Kims that they can put on to rule. Apparently Un has a brother, Kim Jong-Chul, who was supposed to be the Heir Apparent to rule when Kim Jong-il died. But Il treated him like shit and I think told the Party that Chul should never take the stage as "Supreme Leader", instead grooming Un. Whether the Party will follow the advice of a dead guy is anybody's guess. As for Un's other male relatives, he had his half brother Kim Jong-nam assassinated in Malaysia last year. Nam does have a son, Kim Han-sol, but he is now a refugee on the run from his own uncle trying to kill him. The rest of Un's choices for heirs are either women (such as his daughter Kim Ju-ae) and two sons that are well below the age of 4 I think. He really fucked the dynasty up by him and his dad killing or dismissing a lot of the family. His only choice now is to potentially live a very long time to when his sons are at least in their 20s to rule, otherwise there will potentially be a very interesting power struggle inside the Worker's Party. (On another note, this is potentially a reason why Kim Jong-un had his uncle, Jang Song-theak, killed in 2013 because there might have been an opportunity for him to seize power if something happened to Un)

 

[CWCissey]

Isn't it rumoured that Kim Jong-chul is gay, and that's why he would never rule North Korea?

Jong-nam was the heir apparent until that business with Disneyland if I recall correctly.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

I just realized, if something did happen to Kim Jong Un now (be it assassination or premature death) then there really wouldn't be anybody from the Kims that they can put on to rule. Apparently Un has a brother, Kim Jong-Chul, who was supposed to be the Heir Apparent to rule when Kim Jong-il died. But Il treated him like shit and I think told the Party that Chul should never take the stage as "Supreme Leader", instead grooming Un. Whether the Party will follow the advice of a dead guy is anybody's guess. As for Un's other male relatives, he had his half brother Kim Jong-nam assassinated in Malaysia last year. Nam does have a son, Kim Han-sol, but he is now a refugee on the run from his own uncle trying to kill him. The rest of Un's choices for heirs are either women (such as his daughter Kim Ju-ae) and two sons that are well below the age of 4 I think. He really fucked the dynasty up by him and his dad killing or dismissing a lot of the family. His only choice now is to potentially live a very long time to when his sons are at least in their 20s to rule, otherwise there will potentially be a very interesting power struggle inside the Worker's Party. (On another note, this is potentially a reason why Kim Jong-un had his uncle, Jang Song-theak, killed in 2013 because there might have been an opportunity for him to seize power if something happened to Un)

I seriously hope something like that happens. Hell, with the amount of tries they've had from inside the country already, I'd argue it's about time one of their future attempts succeed.

 

[repentance]

I just realized, if something did happen to Kim Jong Un now (be it assassination or premature death) then there really wouldn't be anybody from the Kims that they can put on to rule. Apparently Un has a brother, Kim Jong-Chul, who was supposed to be the Heir Apparent to rule when Kim Jong-il died. But Il treated him like shit and I think told the Party that Chul should never take the stage as "Supreme Leader", instead grooming Un. Whether the Party will follow the advice of a dead guy is anybody's guess. As for Un's other male relatives, he had his half brother Kim Jong-nam assassinated in Malaysia last year. Nam does have a son, Kim Han-sol, but he is now a refugee on the run from his own uncle trying to kill him. The rest of Un's choices for heirs are either women (such as his daughter Kim Ju-ae) and two sons that are well below the age of 4 I think. He really fucked the dynasty up by him and his dad killing or dismissing a lot of the family. His only choice now is to potentially live a very long time to when his sons are at least in their 20s to rule, otherwise there will potentially be a very interesting power struggle inside the Worker's Party. (On another note, this is potentially a reason why Kim Jong-un had his uncle, Jang Song-theak, killed in 2013 because there might have been an opportunity for him to seize power if something happened to Un)

http://www.news.com.au/finance/work...e/news-story/f2a05f51e2814c7f21bdbfeb8ffa37b2