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© 2012 AFPN Korea says it needs nuclear weapons to deter U.S.
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© 2012 AFP
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OssanAmerica
That's the basic lie. North Korea needs to keep the public in a constant "state of war" in order to maintain it's authoritarian system and control over it's people. Missles? Nukes? Space satellites? How about feeding your people so they aren't stunted? How about the 250,000 or so people in re-education camps, some of them entire families accused of such horrroble crimes as "listening to a South Korean Radio Program"? If there ever was an evil government that should be wiped out to liberate it's people, it's North Korea and the silly Kim dynasty. The US does not need nuclear assets to wipe North Korea off the face of this earth. Therefore North Korea does not need nuclear weapons to attempt to defend itself.
paulinusa
The NK government wouldn't have a reason to exist without the paranoia they constantly push on their population.
Crystalyle
N. Korea needs a reality check. There's nothing to deter really. N. Korea you simply don't get it.
N.K has absolutely NOTHING we want. You don't sit on oil or rich minerals. You don't even have beachfront property. Your neighbors aren't very nice and your borders are hard to defend. Lets not forget the harsh seasonal conditions. All the combined literally makes N.K => Baltic Avenue.
Pfft!! NK focuses on us cause they are simply jealous of the West. If NK buys nukes for any reason it'll be to threaten Japan. In a true nuclear war, America could obliterate NK with only 1 sub.
But I say again, NK really has nothing we want. We don't even want the land. We know what good property looks like.
gaijinTechie
And yet it seems that NK is difficult to leave alone. They live rent-free in a lot of people's heads.
Although I think having rockets and nukes but no food has equal value as prosperity as Japan's habit of concreting up it's nature, history clearly shows that if you want U.S to listen, speak softly and have a nuclear weapon.
Tension with NK has nothing to do with land, living space nor resources, and everything to do with "they have different political system than us, we hates them, hates!".
nath
This is really all about North Korea trying to look mire important that they are. This has always been the story with them.
timtak
Paul may well be right. But at the same time, there is an extent to which US could replace NK in the above sentence, and that is the reason why the North Korean's at least are right to feel afraid.
North Korean land is worth nothing, but North Korea is worth something as "an axis of evil," a tool or sound bite for increasing paranoia, defence spending, an certain political votes at home in the US.
YuriOtani
If the USA took North Korea, they would go bankrupt trying to give them a decent standard of living. It would help if America stopped the useless talk.
paulinusa
"...a tool or sound bite for increasing paranoia, defence spending, an certain political votes at home in the US."
timtak: I've got news for you,at this time 99% of the American people couldn't give a crap about North Korea.
jforce
Paranoia to control the people? Gee USA, it's the ol' pot calling the kettle black. eh. North Korea is a useless place and should be ignored. You can't win them all over so why bother.
Green Panda
Maybe we should stop giving them money and leave the problem child at China's doorstep. There are better ways to spend the money. My suggestion is use it to pay off the national debt. A drop in the bucket yes, but more useful than sending it to North Korea.
paulinusa
" North Korea is a useless place and should be ignored."
Ok, but tell that to Japan and South Korea. The US position is more to back up and satisfy those two countries.
gaijintraveller
That's the basic lie. North Korea needs to keep the public in a constant "state of war" in order to maintain it's authoritarian system and control over it's people.
The same lie is used by the U.S. with the War on Terror.
SimondB
Whilst I understand that most americans are brainwashed into believing who their enimies are -Vietnam, Panama, Iraq to name a few - the NK's have a good point. After all, would america be threatening all sorts of wrath to Iran if they were nuke armed? I think not.
So please, thumbs down if you will, but what I say is true.
Bgood41
N.Korea leadership behaving like criminals who always have reason to justify their crimes. Abusing their own peoples not enough, their next target is the rest of the world. Stop enticing them or reasoning with their worthless words, for one day they will pay for their criminal activities and I will have a glass of champaign then. Cheers.
Feihu
You always need somebody to hate and for the US NK fills the bill perfectly. NK on the other hand, is using another age old tactic. Keep your people looking outside of their own borders so they don't see the mess they are living in. It's all politics that do not benefit the people in any way. Machiavelli said it long ago "Politics is a necessary evil." and that is obviously still true today.
OssanAmerica
Wrong. The US ahnd other nations have actually been attacked by terrorists and the threat continues to this day. North Korea has not been attacked since the armistice was signed. That's 61 years ago.
SuperLib
All they have to do is join the international community and they'll have more food and security than they can handle......but a very small group of men just want the country to themselves.
Tiger_In_The_Hermitage
No need to fear NK, last time they tested their rocket, the media here in Japan went crazy about the threat but when NK actually test fired the rocket / satellite, it fell right back down. If NK fires a rocket / nuke or arrow, the SK's have more to fear. By that I mean NK aim at US or Japan but due to tech issue lands on SK. As the American's all it "collateral damage".
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timtak
Paul
Well, here we are reading and commenting on a headline news article about North Korea. Perhaps we are the 1%?
(I am from the UK, I admit).
paulinusa
tim: NK is way down the list of what Americans care about (I'm sure this is also the case in the UK). Is it an international issue for the US government? Absolutely. But you have to look at the bigger picture. Japan and SK are strategic US allies in Asia and as such they get full support from the US. And of course NK is more of a concern for their domestic populations, but not the US's though.
m5c32
Yeah, but 95% of GDP isn't diverted into the military ala NK.
Another thing is the "war on terror" is something the people tell the gov't to be prepared for, on the other hand in NK, it's the military who tell the people that they must be prepared for war.
Elbuda Mexicano
My friends back in Hawaii say they can not sleep worrying night and day about the DPRK, yeah right!
Laguna
The sole option the majority of NK prisoners - eh, citizens - are provided with is bark or grass.
Tom Webb
If DPRK want a nuke, let them make it. Hopefully they will blow themselves up.
billyshears
North Korea couldn't survive without China and wouldnt exist if it werent for China. A unified Korea could help bring a lot of peace to this part of the world. If China wanted to, it could adopt a much more cooperative attitude with its neighbors and create a healthier economy for all the countries concerned, consequently imbuing the whole area with a much friendlier atmosphere (at least, initially, at a governmental level). Why doesn't the Chinese government want to go this route? Because once peace begins to spread throughout the area, it spells the beginning of the end for the present Chinese political system. The Chinese government maintains public support by using bombast and bravado on its controlled and brainwashed citizens that it will protect them and their lands from all its "enemies" without. It needs those "enemies". Paradoxically, it even needs U.S. troops in Australia, Japan and South Korea.
Tom Webb
Well folks, I would have commented on China but I figured you all know that China will break wind and s..t in its trousers if North Koreans ever got nukes. You don't think the North asked China decades ago how to make nukes? Why do you think the North is still exploding duds?
mrmalice
@ossanamerica at the risk of being called anti america again, by now since the sixties, how many years would you say the U.S. has kept its population in 'a constant state of war' as you call it ?
lucabrasi
I seriously doubt that America would ever seek to bring a bunch of bat-sh*t crazy fascists from North Korea into their nation. They've already got the Tea Party to deal with :)
maglev101
true that, but the military industrial complex does. more reason to channel $ into weapons projects. it's not enough that the u.s. spends (or wasted) more $ than the rest of the world combined.
just-a-bigguy
I am sure the remarks was given by their 28 year old supreme dear marshal comrade, he has guts and many countries applaud his vision! Including many people in South Korea!
Shimagaicha
This is what happens.
The US has nuclear weapons, loves to flash its weaponry around, and generally creates an unsafe atmosphere.
Then other countries like North Korea feel that they have to protect themselves against the U.S.A. So they feel the need to beef up their weaponry too.
We had all this with the USSR/U.S.A. "cold war."
You don't solve international problems with force of arms.
You solve problems by understanding.
And to get that, real TWO WAY (i.e. listening as well as speaking) communication is needed.
BertieWooster
A unified Korea could help bring a lot of peace to this part of the world.
It certainly would.
But I think it would take AN AWFUL LOT of doing.
Both North and South have had two generations of heavy propaganda against the other. It's not like East and West Germany.