...seems to hurt. NK is a joke, I hope we're all laughing when they get their comeuppance.

Even if NK reformed and unified with SK peacefully there is an entire population of peoples who have been subjected to some of the worst conditions modern society has seen. We see with the fall of Eastern Germany (peacefully) there remained a sort of nostalgia for East German communism (a term coined for it as "Ostalgie&quot . And we know that NK defectors (term?) have had a very hard time coping with SK culture and development. It will be a hard time either way.

And if NK ever does fall you can expect the leaders to wisk away to some country that will have them, taking a chunk of wealth with them. So comeuppance isn't really in their future.

It will cost trillions of dollars to upgrade North Korea to become productive. I read somewhere that 750,000 peacekeepers would be needed on the ground if North Korea collapsed. The DMZ would have to remain completely intact during the transition which could take decades. China would have to stop North Koreans from flooding into their country (I suppose it's even possible some could try to go to Japan on rafts Haitian style). It would be a mess on all sides.

The geopolitical situation would be a nightmare with China as they would probably try to claim some of North Korea as their own.

The South Koreans aren't real enthusiastic about the possibility of it happening. In fact most South Koreans are more or less apathetic about North Koreans.

How did you come to such conclusions in your statements? " An entire population of peoples who have been subjected to some of the worst conditions modern society has seen." Really, like what? What does East German Communism have to do with North Korean Communism?

South Korean Culture, what is the culture and when did it come about? And why do you think North Korean Leaders would be wisked away from their own homeland? Did the same happen to Germans after World War II?

Why does half the South Korean population follow no religion and the other half is divided between Protestant and Catholic? Was this always the case in Korea? I'm, curious on who is really being indoctrinated?

According to a government survey conducted in 2005, more than 29% of Koreans identified themselves as Christian (18.3% Protestant and 10.9% Roman Catholic), while 22.8% were solidly Buddhist.
http://spice.stanford.edu/docs/religions_of_korea_yesterday_and_today/

...then you're running your mouth from a position of extreme ignorance.

and my personal observations of other communist countries there is no comparison between what is happening in North Korea and other communist states.

Josh is correct.

NK is fundamentally a slave state.

And the role of dear leader within it...NK has nothing at all to do with even old fashioned Stalinism

I did not intend to compare them as being equally "bad." The point is that you had an entire population in East Germany who had a different way of life. The same is true between NK and SK. As far as living conditions, we know what the conditions are like from defectors.

And yes, some Germans in WWII did go to Latin America and hide away. Most of the top tier people in NK know what western lifestyle is like and enjoy it to a degree. So the whole idea of them attacking must be predicated on their desire to continue living that lifestyle elsewhere. This is why, btw, they are highly unlikely to attack.

to man the ranks of the early CIA. Even though we had just defeated the evil Fascists our government considered them valuable, and on our side, in the fight against our wartime ally, the Soviet Union.
While it is difficult to imagine any country thinking that offering refuge to North Korean elites would enhance their own social, political, economic situation there might be somewhere that is open to such an arrangement.
Those in the ruling classes see the world differently than the rest of us.

After all, the DPRK states that they are now at war with ROK, so now is as good a time as any to shut it down. Why should the ROK provide financial assistance to the DPRK when the DPRK says they are now at war with them?

Edit to add: This is one heck of an ethical dilemma. The people in the DPRK are very badly treated and one seemingly bad word about the leadership of the country can get you into a whole lot of trouble. Most seem to me to be literally starving. Any food aid that gets sent seems to go to the military first. But this is what happens in war - either the citizens leave the war zone asking for refuge elsewhere... or the country toughs it out and works out how to handle food shortages. With the DPRK seeking refuge elsewhere is not an option. And the country has done an awful job of toughing it out.

If the ROK shuts down the factory NK will probably take that as a provocation.

The real insults are coming from the North who has declared war pretty much everyday this week. South Korea should shut it down not only to eliminate the financial gains by the North, but also to protect the workers who travel up to Kaesong everyday.

They'd just eliminate money they are getting from South Korea. The only reason they'd shut it down is if they were going to attack.

to nuking everyone. You really can't top nuking everyone.

if these interviewees are actually serious or are simply parroting what they've heard all their lives, or are saying what they know they'd better say (if they know what's good for them). Their comments seem (to me) to be so anachronistic, almost cartoonish.

As do ours. Just look at the rah-rah attitude on this supposedly Democratic forum. Television is poison.

posing as ordinary citizens.

I don't know anyone who would consider the North Korean government right wing.

With dear leader acting as a living god, with a few shades of badly interpreted Marxism.

For once, I don't think they actually belong on a standard right left table, though they are a militarized, police state.

But serious, they defy things

I invite you to broaden your education on the subject, rather than be dependent on what other people 'consider' to be fact. Better that then to be leashed, collared and led around by the talking heads on television. Those same people 'consider' the Nazis to be left leaning because they had socialist in their name. The truth is that they could not have be more hard line conservative in their thinking and policy. North Korean politics is also dominated by hard-line conservatives.

South Korea was too, actually, until the late eighties when they overcame it after many decades of struggle, no thanks to Reagan's stalwart defense of the prior dictatorship. Not that prior administrations were guiltless either.

. . . some observers think the open and operating plant complex makes the recent volley of threats less likely to be carried out.

Which is scary because a nation is making it.

PB

I thought drugs were illegal there!

It must have been an incredible diplomatic effort to do this. Kind of boggles my mind, really.

They have a lot to gain (including cheap labor). We have an active prison industrial complex of our own going on here. The advantages of a closed and hard line Communist regime participating in a capitalist enterprise are less obvious, but probably can be reduced to "cash".

I blame Obama.

'Axis of Evil'. Bleh!

What a couple of stupid worthless words.
Who gives a flying god damn about insults!
Who gives a shit about dignity?

There is no useful purpose for those words other than to define a psychological, neurotic condition.

Ditch those concepts and maybe there would be less of every kind of war and suffering we as humans create for each other.

Reply to those concepts with laughter! Humor! Humility! Join the human race where all of us err now and then. We aren't gods.

Part of the US nuke stockpile consists of these weapons, and it would be a benefit to some of the MIC to see how they fare in a real conflict.

South Korea is a very prosperous country. They can afford to absorb the consequences of shutting it down. From what I read, North Korea cannot. Seems their fat boy ruler is not all that bright.

I wanted to find out amore about the joint factory.

What a letdown.

that the joint factory doesn't actually produce joints.