Could Trump Reignite the Korean War?

[Tony Stark]

Uh...

He had his ex girlfriend and a bunch of pop singers executed for violating pornography laws:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...ng-uns-ex-lover-executed-by-firing-squad.html

Executed his education minister for not sitting properly:

https://www.theatlantic.com/news/archive/2016/08/another-government-execution-in-north-korea/498149/

Executions are evidently a constant.

Let's not forget his dad invented the cheeseburger. He wanted to raise giant rabbits to end the famine, so he bought 6 from a seller. Before the seller could get to NK to teach them how to breed the rabbits, Jong-il had eaten all 6 of them.

Jong-un jailed an official for not sufficiently grieving at his father's funeral.

He expresses all the classic murderous paranoia of the worst dictators. I mean, what are you looking for?

Hell, thinking it's a good idea to antagonize the most powerful military in the history of the planet is pretty nuts. He's just relying on the (previously safe) bet that we care more about lives in South Korea than we're interested in shutting him up.

I would say executing people to help consolidate power is perfectly rational if keeping power is your main concern.

 

[Eddie Dane]

This is the time of year where North Korea does its annual provocation.

Yes, and the rational response is sending them some rice and kicking the can down the road.

It's probably best to wait until the NK's rise up and hang the Kims.

However, Kim's nuclear brinkmanship is concerning. There is a logic to hasten his demise before he has a nuclear rocket that can reach the US.

I think Kim might have been better off holding SK hostage with his artillery.

The way he's going, even China might be getting sick of his ****.

 

[Belz...]

Back when his father, worlds best golfer, was still alive.

I think he meant in the US.

 

[TraneWreck]

I would say executing people to help consolidate power is perfectly rational if keeping power is your main concern.

The pop starts were about to lead a coup?

I think it's fair to call Stalin a madman. His paranoia was legendary. He slaughtered millions of people in a BELIEF that they would seize power from him.

The North Korean Dynasty exhibits those same traits. I would call folks like that "Madmen," but if you have a different term, fine. The fundamental point is that their decision making process is going to be a bit perverse.

 

[Belz...]

The pop starts were about to lead a coup?

Pop Tarts were going to grab power in Korea?

 

[Tony Stark]

The pop starts were about to lead a coup?

I think it's fair to call Stalin a madman. His paranoia was legendary. He slaughtered millions of people in a BELIEF that they would seize power from him.

The North Korean Dynasty exhibits those same traits. I would call folks like that "Madmen," but if you have a different term, fine. The fundamental point is that their decision making process is going to be a bit perverse.

I'm not sure if there is any way for us to know the truth about the pop star story given the nature of North Korea.

Anyway, Stalin held on to power until he died a natural death. So did Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung. Kim Jong Un is trying to do the same thing. I don't think that trying to do this by whatever means necessary is irrational, especially if it works. Just evil.

 

[PhantomWolf]

Anyone, if they make noise that they might use their nukes.

Does this apply to any Nuclear Power who suggests that using nukes is acceptable?

 

[TraneWreck]

I'm not sure if there is any way for us to know the truth about the pop star story given the nature of North Korea.

Anyway, Stalin held on to power until he died a natural death. So did Kim Jong Il and Kim Il Sung. Kim Jong Un is trying to do the same thing. I don't think that trying to do this by whatever means necessary is irrational, especially if it works. Just evil.

I think our disagreement is just semantic. By "Madman" I don't mean a guy that sees fairies and hurls his own poo around a padded room. I mean that he exhibits the cruel paranoia of classic strong men. That may keep him in power, but world history is replete with these sorts of folks vastly overestimating their power and launching ill-advised military missions.

I do think it's entirely possible that North Korea believes it has a path to gobbling up South Korea. These sorts of strong men typically have a vastly over inflated notion of their own power and the strength of their military.

I also doubt Kin Jong-un receives reasoned, well-researched intelligence about his potential adversaries. My guess is that the official telling Jong-un, "Yeah, bro, if we attack South Korea we are going to get stomped into dust," would find himself next to a couple of pop stars in a shallow grave.

So, even if you think he has a rational self interest and is reasonable gifted at consolidating his rule in North Korea, he can still be making ridiculous decisions based on bad information.

 

[TraneWreck]

Pop Tarts were going to grab power in Korea?

Well, like the cheeseburger, they may have been invented by the Jongs...

 

[Belz...]

Well, like the cheeseburger, they may have been invented by the Jongs...

Didn't they create the earth or something?

 

[TraneWreck]

Didn't they create the earth or something?

I do know that the birth of Kim Jong-il was heralded by a talking ice-berg:

North Korean schools teach children that Jong-il's birth was "supernatural." He was born in a log cabin inside a secret base on the sacred Mt. Paekdu, the story goes, and his arrival was accompanied by the apparition of a new star. The seasons then spontaneously changed from winter to spring, and a double-rainbow appeared, followed by a talking iceberg. (Western accounts say he was born in a guerrilla camp in Russia.)

http://gawker.com/5869210/giant-rab...s-the-10-most-insane-delusions-of-kim-jong-il

 

[Belz...]

I do know that the birth of Kim Jong-il was heralded by a talking ice-berg:

http://gawker.com/5869210/giant-rab...s-the-10-most-insane-delusions-of-kim-jong-il

I'd say that it's insane that people believe nonsense like this but then plenty of Christians believe in talking whales and donkeys, so yeah.

 

[TraneWreck]

I'd say that it's insane that people believe nonsense like this but then plenty of Christians believe in talking whales and donkeys, so yeah.

Indeed.

There is something about the specific stories the North Koreans tell that I find infinitely amusing, though. Like, if you wanted people to think you were a demi-god, wouldn't you claim that you invented computers not ... the cheeseburger?

It would be a deeply entertaining place if wasn't for all those pesky human rights violations.

 

[Belz...]

Indeed.

There is something about the specific stories the North Koreans tell that I find infinitely amusing, though. Like, if you wanted people to think you were a demi-god, wouldn't you claim that you invented computers not ... the cheeseburger?

And wouldn't you prefer to claim that you were a science genius rather than say you always made holes-in-one at golf?

It would be a deeply entertaining place if wasn't for all those pesky human rights violations.

The two aren't mutually-exclusive. Un's hair is both entertaining and a human rights violation.

 

[jimbob]

And wouldn't you prefer to claim that you were a science genius rather than say you always made holes-in-one at golf?



The two aren't mutually-exclusive. Un's hair is both entertaining and a human rights violation.

I am not sure that testing nerve agents on families is particularly entertaining.

 

[Belz...]

I am not sure that testing nerve agents on families is particularly entertaining.

I see you've never worked with Smilex gas.

 

[Eddie Dane]

I'd say that it's insane that people believe nonsense like this but then plenty of Christians believe in talking whales and donkeys, so yeah.

I'll believe anything that stops me from being starved to death in a uranium mine.

 

[Eddie Dane]

I am not sure that testing nerve agents on families is particularly entertaining.

You're just not the target demographic. Stop hating on other people's entertainment.

 

[Eddie Dane]

Let's hope the NK generals freak out so badly by Trump's war drums that they send Un's head in a box to Washington to appease the US.

But even if that happens, Trump will be emboldened and just move on to the next hornet's nest to kick.

 

[dudalb]

Trump just announced a strategy of North Korea of 'Maximum Pressure and Engagement" which sounds a lot like Obama's strategy of dealing with NK, just with more macho rhetoric.
The more things change...