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Kim Jong-Un Bans All Weddings, Funerals And Freedom Of Movement In North Korea (independent.co.uk)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Independent: Weddings and funerals have been banned and Pyongyang is in lockdown as preparations for a once-in-a-generation party congress get underway in North Korea. The ruling Worker's Party of Korea, headed by the country's leader, Kim Jong-un, is due to stage the first gathering of its kind for 36 years on Friday. Free movement in and out of the capital has also been forbidden and there has been an increase in inspections and property searches, according to Daily NK, which claims to have sources in the country. The temporary measures are said to be an attempt to minimize the risk of "mishaps" at the event, according to Cheong Joon-hee, a spokesman at South Korea's Unification Ministry. Meanwhile, North Korea has been conducting missile tests left and right, many of which have failed miserably.
Let's nuke them while their entire leadership is all in one place.
I guess you shouldn't mind being searched. You know, for Security!
Not news for nerds, stuff that really doesn't matter outside North Korea. By the way, this is only for a week, during the North Korean Party Congress. Move along, nothing to see other than a bunch of North Korean nut bars.
Actually, here's an interesting story: The North Koreans have restaurants and other businesses in China and other "friendly" countries, primarily to generate cash for Un's emmenthaler cheese addiction (look it up), and increasingly, the staff of these businesses are defecting.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
I was not aware you could keep people from dying by outlawing funerals.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!
North Korea is leftist in much the same way that the Andromeda Galaxy is gluten free.
"Awww, baby, you know I'd love to marry you, but Dear Leader says we can't."
Best. Excuse. EVER.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
When North Korea cracks down on freedom, Slashdot rushes to their defense to try to debunk the story.
That's because every story out of North Korea sounds like it was made up by someone on LSD.
I'm not 100% sure your example is right: There may be a habitable planet with something resembling wheat somewhere in the andromeda galaxy - so there may be at least some risk for a fellow traveler with coeliac disease.
At least a higher risk than finding left wing extremism like universal health care or clean drinking water in North Korea.
> ...and a single drone strike in NK could solve much of the world's conflict.
That might actually and forever solve all of the worlds conflicts.
I wonder if starting a war between the US and China really is really such a promising perspective from your mothers basement, Mr. Warrior.
If you are old enough I suggest you enlist in the army and fight and fall for some made up convincing reason in some desert instead of starting a career in politics cause further world wars.
> ...and a single drone strike in NK could solve much of the world's conflict.
That might actually and forever solve all of the worlds conflicts.
I wonder if starting a war between the US and China really is really such a promising perspective from your mothers basement, Mr. Warrior.
If you are old enough I suggest you enlist in the army and fight and fall for some made up convincing reason in some desert instead of starting a career in politics cause further world wars.
Woot! I got one!
You do know that it's the Democrats that want to take your stuff, dictate your pay, tell you what kind of car you're allowed to drive and when, while dictating what temperature you're allowed to set on your thermostat and what kinds of light bulbs you're allowed to buy, right? Difference is they do it For Your Own Good, of course.
A well-regulated incandescence, being necessary for the illumination of a free state, the right of the people to use shitty light bulbs shall not be infringed!
In the same vein, the Republicans want to take your stuff, remove worker's protections, tell you who you can have sex with and how, while dictating which deity you're allowed to pray to.
In short - both parties want to take your stuff and control how you live. We are mice voting between black and white cats.
While we're making fun of all the psychotic shit in North Korea, half of us are carrying cellphones assembled by slaves in factories with suicide nets installed under the windows.
It makes me wonder who put together my Samsung!
I don't need to "dodge responsibility" for North Korea any more than you need to do the same for Saudi Arabia. But any dunce can see that South Korea is way more liberal than North Korea.
Information about NK may be true or false, who knows? How can we have reliable sources for such a closed country?
"I wonder if starting a war between the US and China really is really such a promising perspective"
What makes you think that China still cares about North Korea?
A unified, prosperous Korea would represent an expanded market for Chinese stuff. Rotting corpses do not buy many iPhones.
Both parties want control. Of you and as much else as they can. They only give you the illusion of choice in the matters that draw in the right voters for their goals.
Silence is a state of mime.
It sets a bad precedent. And the risk of retaliation is great.
Um... retaliation from whom?
And wasn't the precedent set when we tracked down and killed Saddam Hussein? (And his "most wanted" cronies, conveniently passed out to our soldiers as a deck of playing cards?)
Or how about Manuel Noriega, who was the head of a foreign nation, and we sent in a seal team to capture him, kidnap him, and bring him to the US to stand trial?
Or how about (with help from the UK) overthrowing the democratically elected leader of Iran in order to install the Shah, who was a brutal dictator who tortured people for the next 38 years?
Or overthrowing the democratically-elected leader of Guatemala?
And that's only in the last 50-ish years, and ones that I can remember on the spot.
Bad precedent?
The US does whatever the hell it wants, and doesn't care overly much about world opinion.
What, the No True Scotsman fallacy again? Seriously, when is the Left going to start owning their ideology's problems, instead of every single time using No True Scotsman to dodge responsibility again and again?
It isn't a True Scotsman if you can single out which ones are true before one points out the flaws.
You can whine all you want about the horrors of socialism and parent can just point at the Nordic countries and claim "This is socialism done right, here is the True Scotsman"
What country are you going to point at to show capitalism done right? Do you know one that haven't turned into cronyism where the rich are above the law? One where the free market actually exists and haven't been put out of order by oligopolies?
Where is your True Scotsman?
Nope. You're thinking of authoritarian. Left wing, by actual definition, refers to political groups favouring liberal, progressive or radical views or political reform. North Korea doesn't allow for "wings" per se, but it is firmly opposed to all those principles.
It's not really No True Scotsman. The Andromeda Galaxy *is* gluten free. That's not really the relevant part of North Korea though.
North Korea is:
- Totalitarian
- Isolationist
- Cult of personality for dear leader
- Essentially a monarchy
These are not left wing ideals. They aren't right wing ideals either. They show the limitations of the one-dimensional political axis.
These things come to mind much more readily than stuff like their taxation system (I looked it up; officially they have 0 taxes but obviously in practice that's BS, still, no income taxes).
No they aren't leftists, they aren't rightists, they are a single party.
Left-right originated in the French revolution and referred to where deputies preferred to sit in the assembly. Conservatives tended to group on the right side whereas revolutionaries grouped the left side, moderates were the center. Having a left-right distinction implies an assembly, or at least some diversity of opinion.
There is no such thing in North Korea.
Nope. You're thinking of authoritarian. Left wing, by actual definition, refers to political groups favouring liberal, progressive or radical views or political reform. North Korea doesn't allow for "wings" per se, but it is firmly opposed to all those principles.
On what fucking planet can you have leftist policies without imposing them via authoritarian means? Or do you really think it's NOT authoritarian in any way to FORCE a devout Christian baker to make a cake for a gay marriage? How is it NOT authoritarian to FORCE 9-year-old girls to share a bathroom with a 35-year-old self-styled "trans" MAN WITH A PENIS
Oh, no. That's not AUTHORITARIAN at all.
Oh, right. Your planet is in the Andromeda galaxy.
And there is a risk that everything you have heard about North Korea is wrong, that all information you have about it just is propaganda so that you won't see what real freedom is like. If you go to North Korea as a tourist, how do you know that you aren't led into a fake city setup in South Korea to make North Korea look like a dictatorship?
The analogy still holds, Andromeda is gluten free enough.
If North Korea was even remotely free there would be more than one way in on a tourist trip that still makes the place look like shit. There would probably be North Koreans all over the place going on about how good it is back home. Also they wouldn't have a dead man as eternal president for ever.
Wanna buy a shirt?
https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
North Korean ideology is not "the left"'s ideology. And I think you have your fallacies mixed up.
Ezekiel 23:20
There's actually two axis when it comes to American politics; at the very least. There's the typical Left vs Right in social ideologies that everyone knows about, and then there's another that cuts through the other axis; authoritarian vs anarchist.
Life is not for the lazy.
North Korea is leftist in much the same way that the Andromeda Galaxy is gluten free.
North Korea is absolutely the end result of extreme leftism. I'm guessing you think Cuba is right-wing also?
Do you have ESP?
What is leftist about a tyrannical despot who only spends money on the military? No seriously, please explain how NK is the left's fault.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Seriously, what planet are you from where you have ANY policies without imposing them via "authoritarian" means?. (I am guessing you are claiming that all laws are authoritarian)
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
I keep thinking how the US will drone strike wedding receptions on flimsy evidence, even assassinating our own citizens and their children for even *meeting* with an alleged terrorist
Take one of the Chinese ambassadors aside, have a quiet word, get a secret "OK" from the leadership, and *BANG!*. No more fear, uncertainty, and doubt in South Korea or Japan.
You are right, that this could be done. But the situation is a bit more complex.
1) China is sincere when they say they want a nuclear free Korean peninsula, but they view all NK regime changes as bad for them with no possible good outcomes. They fear that once the peninsula is unified under a South Korean government that the US won't leave Korea and will, in fact, station US troops on China's borders. China also benefits from the current situation by, among other things, getting cut rate prices on North Korean rare earths that they in turn resell.
2) It would probably take a nuclear strike to ensure that the leadership is killed en masse. The US is hesitant to use nukes and even then, there's no telling what the remaining NK military leadership would do. They might fight to the death.
3) Seoul is unfortunately too close to the border and any surviving NK military units will probably launch devastating missile stirkes at Seoul, possibly including biological weapons. I have my doubts that NK has a rocket with a nuke on it they could possibly launch without plenty of advance detection by the US, but if I'm wrong, that would be very bad. A best case scenario for Seoul would be tens of thousands dead without any bio weapons or nukes involved.
4) Nobody really wants to pay for reconstruction once the peninsula is unified. Cost estimates are staggeringly high. You think that George W's adventures in Iran and Afghanistan were expensive? Rebuilding NK might be multiple times more costly.
Basically this is why the US doesn't take advantage of the situation to kill the leadership in one strike.
So I can only choose between being unfree "for my own good" and unfree "for profit"?
Well, then I choose those that at least PRETEND they give a fuck about me. Not to mention that if you're dealing with an oppressive regime, you sure want the one that is less efficient at it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Stop making such ridiculous generalizations. I'm sure they sound all right and dandy to you, but to anyone with more than a passing grasp of critical thinking you are raising "I AM AN IDIOT" flags left, right and center.
Who is in a position to take over North Korea if Kim Jong Un dies? Blowing up this party convention will create a tremendous political vacuum in the country and you'll quickly discover who is the best connected and most ruthless of the remaining governmental leaders.
It is seductive to think that you can assassinate a few "bad men" to solve the world's problems, but if you don't think about the fallout of your action you're more likely to make the situation worse. You transform an unfriendly country with a hateful leader into an outright angry country with an unpredictable and ruthless leader. Even if the leader was hated nobody likes some foreigners coming in and killing their countrymen.
If you're planning to assassinate a political leader you had better have either a suitable successor prepared or a full scale invasion force ready to force the successor.
I read the internet for the articles.