North Korea, Sanctions, and Kim Jong-un

Stockholm Syndrome is rare. It happens when an individual begins to sympathise, then empathise and ultimately identify with the plight of their captors.

What is happening in North Korea is far more simple - and far more sinister. The country exists in a void. It has no real connection to the outside world; what connections it does have are tightly controlled. And in this void, one man has complete control over the media. Ordinarily, we use the media to inform ourselves about the world. There are things going on that are important to us, things that affect us - but we are unable to experience it for ourselves, and so we rely on the media to provide us with the information we need.

But in North Korea, one man controls everything. If you think of history as a narrative - and what happened two minutes ago is history - then Kim controls that narrative. And with no alternative source of information, Kim can dictate the terms of that narrative. The people will believe what he tells them to believe, not for fear of reprisals (although that is a very real thing), but because there is no alternative and no reason to question what they "know".

It's not Stockholm Syndrome, and it's not brainwashing. It's the complete control over everything that the people know.
 
While the world was watching to see who won the French presidential race, the South Koreans held a presidential election of their own, with a liberal candidate winning office:

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-...er-moon-vows-to-unify-bruised-country/8512604

Interestingly, he is pushing for an open dialogue between the North and the South (alongside tighter economic sanctions) as he believes it will be the key to security in tge region, and has gone on the record as saying that the South "must learn to say no" to America, particularly when dealing with the North.
 
While the world was watching to see who won the French presidential race, the South Koreans held a presidential election of their own, with a liberal candidate winning office:

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2017-...er-moon-vows-to-unify-bruised-country/8512604

Interestingly, he is pushing for an open dialogue between the North and the South (alongside tighter economic sanctions) as he believes it will be the key to security in tge region, and has gone on the record as saying that the South "must learn to say no" to America, particularly when dealing with the North.
I wish him well. As a leftish nationalist with an affinity for kin in the north, he seems much preferable to the other choices.

Moon's policy seems to be in direct contradiction to Trump's. They can't both be right, can they?
 
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Even if every single american wanted to kill him, would the US or any other country extradite them to the DPRK?

Yeah no.

OK maybe china or russia.
 
I stopped following the news for North Korea a few weeks a go. I thought ww3 was going to happen and we were going to get nuked. Love not having to here about NK everyday.
 
I stopped following the news for North Korea a few weeks a go. I thought ww3 was going to happen and we were going to get nuked. Love not having to here about NK everyday.

Yeah it seems the children had their little tantrums and are now doing other things.
 
I stopped following the news for North Korea a few weeks a go. I thought ww3 was going to happen and we were going to get nuked. Love not having to here about NK everyday.
By North Korea? Even if they had missiles that could reach us, I doubt they could avoid our defense system. Mainland NA would have to be warmed with hundred of missiles for a couple to land. Maybe thousands. Wouldn't work with a North Korea as they usually broadcast their sentiments before they do things.
 
Told y'all we need to do something before he gets things developed.
Yeah lives are going to be lost, but it's better to keep it to a minimum.
He gets them developed a lot more lives will be lost.
 
Told y'all we need to do something before he gets things developed.
Yeah lives are going to be lost, but it's better to keep it to a minimum.
He gets them developed a lot more lives will be lost.

I see that you're back to your "preventative maintenance" shtick again. Which reminds me, I never got an answer from you the first time I asked you about it:

What if any of the other countries who think that Trump is dangerous would similarly like to take care of some "preventative maintenance?"

You good with that?

If not, why? What can you take from that and apply to this North Korea situation?
 
I see that you're back to your "preventative maintenance" shtick again. Which reminds me, I never got an answer from you the first time I asked you about it:
Assassination has been practiced for thousands of years. It has been practiced by the US, as has been US interference in elections in many other countries. Would it not be hypocritical to complain overmuch of an assassination, or of election interference by a foreign power?
 
Assassination has been practiced for thousands of years. It has been practiced by the US, as has been US interference in elections in many other countries. Would it not be hypocritical to complain overmuch of an assassination, or of election interference by a foreign power?

Of course it would. Not that that would stop anybody, or even slow them down.
 
Apparently the attacks have raised only $60k so far. That's not going to get you much missile. A decent fireworks display, but very little ICBM.
So the so-called greatest global cyber-attack ever amounts to virtually nothing? Talk about fake news! It seems only a few isolated hermits relying on ancient Microsoft gear are affected. And then only to the tune of few hundred bucks traded against the loss of a few unimportant files. Ho hum.
 
So the so-called greatest global cyber-attack ever amounts to virtually nothing? Talk about fake news! It seems only a few isolated hermits relying on ancient Microsoft gear are affected.
One of the theories that I have heard is that the attack was designed to fail because making money wasn't the point - but alerting the world to the potential for this kind of attack was. It has been speculated that the exploits used in the attack were found or developed by the CIA and/or NSA, and unearthed when Wikileaks posted the Vault 7 files. However, the method of stopping WannaCry was surprisingly simple; when an infected device was started, it tried to make contact with a server through a unique domain name. When that failed, it was activated. However, when the domain was registered, the device could get through to the server, stopping the programme from running.
 
It seems only a few isolated hermits relying on ancient Microsoft gear are affected.

The increasingly trollish tone of your posts (in my opinion at least) is becoming a little tiresome. We know that the infrastructure of several large companies and government organisations were affected, all of whom presumably have Enterprise licences.

This was hardly the localised attack on one man's shed computer that you seem to be implying.
 
One of the theories that I have heard is that the attack was designed to fail because making money wasn't the point - but alerting the world to the potential for this kind of attack was. It has been speculated that the exploits used in the attack were found or developed by the CIA and/or NSA, and unearthed when Wikileaks posted the Vault 7 files. However, the method of stopping WannaCry was surprisingly simple; when an infected device was started, it tried to make contact with a server through a unique domain name. When that failed, it was activated. However, when the domain was registered, the device could get through to the server, stopping the programme from running.

That could have been a small oversight by who made the worm or they released it before they could get the domain name, but then again getting a domain name leaves a trail which can be traced back to a person.
 
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