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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.
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.
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.
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?
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
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.
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.