North Korea

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/world/asia/north-south-korea-olympics.html

North and South Korea will march together at the Olympics (!)

wow... that's never happened since the war, right?

Folks in the pub today thought it was a ridiculous idea, but I couldn't get a reason why...

north and south talks are a good thing folks

reunification, though an admirable and great idea, is less likely to happen

but anything that will subdue tension and promote camaraderie between the two koreas is always a good thing

maybe a north korean athlete will do something so athletically impressive that both countries will just put all their differences aside and agree to unite in their honor

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-american-scientist-whos-seen-north-korea-nuclear-secrets/

^ This is exactly the kind of reporting that every American needs to see x100. It portrays DPRK's nuke program in the correct frame of reference, as a rational deterrent to attack and a blue-chip insurance policy against getting Saddamed by the USA. Next step is to get someone talking about how to prevent DPRK from selling its nuclear technology, by giving it an easier path to respectability and inclusion by the global community.

Also I’d like more Americans to see the point he makes about how stereotypical thinking might be informing a lot of the underestimation of NK’s capabilities.

wow... that's never happened since the war, right?

this did happen at the OS in 2006 Turin as well....

This is unsettling, to put it mildly. Victor Cha is quite conservative, but apparently Trump is demanding someone who is genuinely nuts. https://t.co/0bplSQuVmC pic.twitter.com/9KrYqTNb1C

— Jon Schwarz (@schwarz) January 30, 2018

Apparently Cha was asked if he would be ready to help manage evacuations of American citizens in South Korea and expressed reservations about a strike.

so we gonna lose seoul tokyo and LA and set off a massive humanitarian crisis on the peninsula or what

the bigger humanitarian crisis is going on in china and hardly any news site in the west is talking about it

what do you mean? (there are a lot of things you might mean by that)

this belongs in a china thread but since you asked

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/25/at-least-120000-muslim-uighurs-held-in-chinese-re-education-camps-report

uighurs?

yeah, the uighur situation has been fucked up for a loooooong time

when i briefly lived in shanghai i saw a crowd of people surrounding a uighur man who was on his knees, accusing him of stealing something. it was fucking awful

unfortunately uighurs don't have the correct religion for people in the western world to care about them

anyway yeah, wrong thread for this

Also China has a lot of money.

What the fuck—had no idea about the situation with the Uighurs and I read the news for 18 hours per day.

American news?

it has a long, long sad history. it's not covered here.

the thing about north korea is that sure its gov't isn't helping more than half of that country's population (due to other, more developed countries cutting off economic ties with them) but sanctions make helping the people who need help way worse

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-28/nail-clippers,-shovels-banned-under-north-korean-sanctions/9367858

more on sanctions

http://imperialmilitarywatch.com/read.php?my_data=70299

The findings of another, larger study "utilizing time-series, cross-national data for the period 1981—2000" suggested that "economic sanctions worsen government respect for physical integrity rights, including freedom from disappearances, extra-judicial killings, torture, and political imprisonment." The study concludes that "economic coercion remains a counterproductive policy tool, even when sanctions are specifically imposed with the goal of improving human rights."

That's always the argument against economic sanctions, back to South Africa and beyond. (xp)

Hankyroeh: "Matthew Pottinger was reported as saying in a recent closed-door meeting with US experts on Korean Peninsula issues that a limited strike on the North 'might help in the midterm elections.'"https://t.co/zm8QrkfRrD

— Jonathan Cheng (@JChengWSJ) February 2, 2018

*gulp*

tremendous

Cool election strategy, I guess votes don't really matter if we are all dead.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/09/kim-jong-uns-sister-arrives-in-south-korea-for-winter-olympics

First member of the Kim family to visit S.Korea since the war.

Incredibly awkward to snub her at the pre-ceremony dinner, only to sit next to her at the ceremony

Well, she is a woman who is not his wife...

omg, you're right

was pence's wife with him? i mean, i think you're joking, but that's real, and...

jfc

Was joking, but who knows?

oh wait, pence's rule is that he can't have dinner with a woman alone without his wife being present as well. and there were other people at this dinner table to protect pence from the temptation of sex with the sister of kim jong-un. ok, we're all good here, eveything is normal

i bet they still fucked though

i think we’d all fuck mike pence given the chance

this deserves either to be posted in its own thread or in a better thread than this but i don't know the better option so here it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG-ivV-ps50

S Korea's Munhwa Ilbo reports Seoul and Pyongyang plan to announce an end to the military conflict between the two countries at the inter-Korean summit, citing an unidentified diplomatic security official https://t.co/R1c56pCvTh

— Joseph Kim (@josungkim) April 17, 2018

Wow

i mean this is just some random tweet, idk how reliable it is

It's about time, nobody wins in the current situation.

It's a lovely thought. I await confirmation.

I want to believe, there have been some signs lately that something like this could happen.

Good for Korea, but I'm sure Pyongyang would demand U.S. base closures. Less good for stated U.S. policy (at least under Obama) of pivoting to the Pacific/China.

Are we witnessing the rise of the new East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere?

https://msh-1984.wikispaces.com/file/view/world1984.gif/305533582/704x352/world1984.gif

trump's done it again lads, credit where credit's due