General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCan someone please tell me exactly what N.Korea wants ?
I just don't have a clue.....food, land, dominance ,more Beyoncé records ????
I'm very serious.
Kaleva
(36,327 posts)BannonsLiver
(16,439 posts)cyclonefence
(4,483 posts)is for the United States and South Korea to stop having annual joint military exercises.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Hell Hath No Fury
(16,327 posts)Pretty much no one gave a shit about Pakistan or India for decades. They get a nuke and suddenly the world takes notice-- they MATTER. They become world players who are listened to, accommodated, and invested in. That's what NK wants -- they want a seat at the Big Boys Table a nuke would give them.
underpants
(182,868 posts)nolabear
(41,990 posts)Hell, talk to them. I have no use for stupid pride and dick waving endangering millions of people. Make them act like adults and accept restrictions as we all have.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)panader0
(25,816 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Strelnikov_
(7,772 posts)Context for the young-uns.
yuiyoshida
(41,835 posts)Kaleva
(36,327 posts)NobodyHere
(2,810 posts)marylandblue
(12,344 posts)underpants
(182,868 posts)Now I'm not soft pedaling this - the Kims are nuts. Both father and son. They live in a vacuum/bubble that even Trump would think is too much.
They've been our adversaries for almost 60 years now. They also probably seen themselves as China's little brother. Since they cant get respect from the world community they ruthlessly imprison and kill their own people. They build fake cities merely for their need to seem important. They have a whole media infrastructure only meant to praise themselves.
That would be my guess.
Nevernose
(13,081 posts)Last edited Tue Aug 8, 2017, 10:06 PM - Edit history (1)
Independence and non-interference. They're never done a single thing to the US. Ever. They're not doing anything that we ourselves have not done, and we're punishing them because they're not all aboard the America Express. We can't even claim it's because their government is evil, because we prop up arguably as bad/worse governments, so that's not it.
LexVegas
(6,091 posts)Nevernose
(13,081 posts)Specifically.
LexVegas
(6,091 posts)Independence?
Nevernose
(13,081 posts)And the US has propped up as many murderous tyrants as we've opposed. In fact, SOUTH Korea was a military dictatorship for 45 of its 65 years and we propped them up with no problem.
We lack the moral, ethical, or legal authority to be North Korea's judge or keeper.
BzaDem
(11,142 posts)More generally, how is our behavior relevant in the first place, when judging whether a threat deserves to be eliminated? A certain segment keeps touting this line of thought as if it is some sort of argument, without ever bothering to explain why. It is certainly relevant to some people's sense of moral superiority, but that is separate from whether it is related to what action makes sense for the U.S. to take.
When a young child says "but he started it!" as an excuse for unacceptable behavior, their parent would calmly explain that what "he" supposedly "started" at some other point is not relevant to the acceptability of the behavior. Yet when it comes to matters of life and death, some people seem to revert to this kind of childish Whataboutism.
To be clear, I do not actually accept your premise or your "we are the problem" worldview. (The idea that "they are not doing anything that we ourselves have not done" is laughable to the extreme.) But I am, for the sake of argument, assuming your premise, and asking, "so what?"
marybourg
(12,634 posts)WhiskeyGrinder
(22,395 posts)J_William_Ryan
(1,756 posts)dont want anything.
The West and the United States in particular is trying to understand NK in the context of a Western worldview, such as NK wanting something; thats the real problem and why sanctions arent going to work.
tblue37
(65,483 posts)Boxerfan
(2,533 posts)Strelnikov_
(7,772 posts)They are living in a cold-war world that no longer exists. The dance ended long ago.
NK is like the ex-con aunt that lives down the block with five pit-bulls, a gun fetish, and in the initial stages of dementia.
Eventually, the white collar gangster neighbor, or the pit-bulls, will finish her off. Only course of action is to bide our time . . . and leave the occasional food offering on the doorstep.
defacto7
(13,485 posts)olddad56
(5,732 posts)come to think of it, maybe the US should have at least given the confederates their independence after the war. Is it too late now. We could even throw in our fake president to make the south great again.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)And it looks very close. We may have a resolution to this.... No, wait, I'm getting intelligence reports confirming that tRump is now demanding that he is the most popular person of all time and is willing to nuke everyone who refuses to believe him.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)SoCalDem
(103,856 posts)Kurovski
(34,655 posts)A repeat of Libya after they turned in their weapons program.
BzaDem
(11,142 posts)Rhiannon12866
(205,839 posts)That's what Jimmy Carter determined when he negotiated successfully with North Korea on behalf of the Clinton administration in 1994. Madeline Albright continued the face-to-face diplomacy. It all fell apart in 2002 when George W Bush included them in his "Axis of Evil."
betsuni
(25,598 posts)Rumor has it that Kim Jong-un is addicted to it, gave him gout. Fondue diplomacy is the best bet to calm things down, but nobody listens to me.
Dave Starsky
(5,914 posts)Most syndication packages ship with only the color episodes.
Seriously? Kim Jong needs to keep his people scared. The Big Orange Loser wants the same for us.
MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)He's basically a laughing stock of the world, and this bravado is a way to make himself feel relevant and important. But really IDK what that fool is all about. How can any rational person make sense of his behavior?
haveahart
(905 posts)And the US military out of the region.
It always escapes me that we seem to believe that other nations that are surrounded by nukes from our allies should not want and are not entitled to have nukes of their own or even a nuclear program for domestic purposes.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you seems to mean nothing to so-called Christian nations.