Is North Korea really this suicidal?

[Bahadur]

Bahadur, you say the sweetest things sometimes!

Thanks!

"Stop trying to make sense of them and just accept the fact that they're crazy."

Yet another myth. That's what the North Korean regime would like the rest of the world to think (the whole "bad cop" routine).

The fact is that they can be quite predictable. But the leadership is not irrational. It wants to survive and it wants to continue to rule (barbarously, I might add).

Its actions are simply those of a desperate and tyrannical regime that are trying its best to make the "best" out of unfavorable circumstances (collapse of the Eastern bloc, economic malaise and resurgent American power post-Vietnam War).

At times unpredictable, but hardly surprising or crazy.

 

[Bahadur]

I would submit that the PLA and it's 'militia' supporters (all 200 Million of them) circa 1978 (well prior to the invasion of Viet Nam) was actually very similar to what anarcho-libertarians wish for the United States.

I am not an anarchist (just a social-economic libertarian with "conservative" foreign policy-national defense policy views).

I tend to think that anarchism does not remain anarchic very long - those with the means (arms) and motivation to organize soon develop coercive oligarchic powers. Soon, private property is no longer private.

However, I want to address this point: "And the results of the Vietnamese punitive expedition clearly demonstrate why that sort of nonsense does NOT work in real life."

I'd imagine that anarchic societies don't go about launching "punitive" expeditions (or expeditions of any sort, for that matter). They are content to defend themselves when invaded directly. So, they are actually more like Afghanistan c. 1979 and on.

 

[Gary H]

agricola:

Your point is valid. I think that most countries abide by rulings from the U.N that they like and ignore the rest. It is mostly a feel good society and seems to be useful only after the fact to organize humanitarian and health related aid.

China has a long term strategy for ridding Asia of U.S. influence. They also want to trade with the United States. This makes North Korea a convenient client state which can move China towards its goal of Asian hegemony.

 

[another48hrs]

I meant that China was so interersted in developing the bomb that Mao Zedong felt it was more important than the starving people in the country side. People still have memories of eating leaves and other inedible plants while Beijing newspapers said that the harvest was meeting quotas.

 

[ahadams]

4570Rick: now imagine living in a country where your leader had a haircut like that and the safest way to live to your next paltry paycheck was to model yourself after your leader. yep - a whole country that thinks that Kim Jong Il's hairstyle is the coolest thing going. Now if you don't find that scary...well heck *I* find that a little scary if for no other reason than I no longer *have* that much hair to cut like that!

Bahadur wrote:

I'd imagine that anarchic societies don't go about launching "punitive" expeditions (or expeditions of any sort, for that matter). They are content to defend themselves when invaded directly. So, they are actually more like Afghanistan c. 1979 and on.

Initially that's probably true, but as you also pointed out:

I tend to think that anarchism does not remain anarchic very long - those with the means (arms) and motivation to organize soon develop coercive oligarchic powers. Soon, private property is no longer private.

Thus except in extreme circumstances such as those present in Afghanistan (remote area, low technology level, low overall education level, etc) anarchic conditions will inevitably eventually devolve into a situation similar to the PRC at the time of the Great Leap Sideways.