N. Korea Calls for Loyalty From Citizens

[True_Blue]

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea urged its impoverished people Saturday to rally around Stalinist leader Kim Jong Il, after Washington rebuffed the communist North's demand that the two sides hold bilateral talks to curb nuclear tension.

Pyongyang's state-run daily newspaper Rodong Sinmun allotted the whole front page of its Saturday edition to an editorial saying "the single-minded unity serves as the strongest weapon," said the official news agency KCNA.

"At a time like today, when the situation gets tense, no task is more important than to strengthen our single-minded unity," the editorial said.

Minju Joson, another state-run daily, said that "devotedly protecting the leader is our life and soul."

more....
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/breaking_news/10885170.htm

[oneighty]

1. Kinda like

our very own unquestioning flag wavers.

Huh?

180

[teryang]

2. The ironic thing about this dispute

...caused by the Bushite rejection of the 1994 Agreed Framework, is that imposing hardships through sanctions or other methods strengthens Kim's position. American belligerence toward Korea stengthens Russian and Chinese foreign policy positions.

It is always easy to characterize the hermit kingdom's dictator as a lunatic and a loose cannon. It is more difficult to see how American policies precipitate Northeast Asian instability and how it serves Russian and Chinese interests for the "lunatic" to lash out. Their interests are to preclude further American expansion in central and southwest Asia and at the same time preserve division of the strategic peninsula. Sunshine policies and opening the North to increased commerce, energy assistance and other aid, would actually destabilize Kim's "cult of personality" dictatorship. It is rising expectations and exposure to outside influences which will undermine the regime. National security threats actually strengthen his position.

All this can be plausibly and conveniently blamed on the "lunatic in the North Korea" whom all parties "are trying to restrain" while the American military leadership is reminded that Kim may be allowed to act out if Washington proceeds with further war plans in the mideast.

[VirginiaDem]

3. North Korea on the verge of collapse...

according to this article (which I guess is too old for breaking news). Don't know how that plays in here but it's an interesting read.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1462207,00.html

[David__77]

4. Not at all...

The only thing that would cause collapse would be a loosening of the political atmosphere. As long as they proceed in the manner they have, things are "frozen in time." If the East Germans had been Stalinists, there would still be an East Germany today. The leadership in N. Korea has "learned" the appropriate lessons, I think.

[VirginiaDem]

5. I disagree...

I'm not sure what your specific disagreements with the article are--I'll assume you haven't read it until proven otherwise. It makes some pretty interesting points, which I borrow from below.

I would agree that North Korea has hung on this long because of the very tight ship that is run up there, politically. But there have been curious signs, according to the article, that: a significant chunk of the leadership is getting while the getting is good--this is new; that another few significant chunks are physically fighting for control; that, via an underground Christian movement in SK, relatively large numbers of NKoreans are actually now making it across the borders and the populace as a whole may in fact know about the underground--this is a sign that the government is fast losing control as North Koreans have by and large not been successful at getting out; that Kim may in fact already be gone. Add all of this to the fact that NK remains economically bankrupt and you've got a recipe for collapse.

They've got money coming in from various forms of black and grey trade and from remittances from Japan and that's it. That won't last forever since that's all they got. Assuming this is all true, or close enough for government work, then world powers will be less willing to prop up the fading government with carrots and more likely to emphasize the sticks. How the NKoreans respond is the most important question to be answered.

[teryang]

8. The hermit kingdom has been on its last legs for a decade

I don't dispute anything in the article. A sunshine approach would cause it to fail earlier. A hostile approach makes it more difficult for cadre to deviate from dogma.

US policies have played a profound role in wrecking this regime. The ordinary people are suffering immensely. I think the author's perspective is somewhat time limited. This has been going on for about ten years in this vein, the desperation. It's like he just discovered North Korea. But I agree they are on their last legs.

The country was always weak. It is China that protects the country from American military attack. Always has been.

[VirginiaDem]

11. I agree with you about the sunshine policy. n/t

[applegrove]

6. Single minded unity ... didn't Rumsfield want that from Europe Yesterday?

[Rex]

7. Are they being required to fill out loyalty oaths?

Maybe Cheney can give em some pointers.

[bleedingheart]

9. Perhaps Jong will meet the same fate as Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu

It would only be fitting...

[Stop_the_War]

10. I hope North Korea and South Korea will unite themselves....

Both as a unified democratic state -- Korea.

[SheepBootHero]

12. Meanwhile...

The brainwashed military chop stepping soldiers get all the food and provisions while the NK citizens starve and feed upon the lies of their dictator.

[smirkymonkey]

13. Do they actually have a choice?