Comments on: Chosun Ilbo: North Korea Executes 12 After Currency Riot in Hamhung

By: a listener

a listener — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:44:07 +0000

^ Don’t remember writing that. Then again I don’t remember half of last night. I guess that was the brainchild of the so called internet drunk posting. Will not happen again.

By: a listener

a listener — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:00:10 +0000

When it all falls down Joshua, It is up to us Americans to catch the innocent as we always do and train them up strong. I agree with you, China is waiting in the wings to swallow the dprk, HOWEVER China knows that the American Eagle is not worth battling against. China, even though she holds the title to Mt Paekdu today only wishes to appease her greatest debtor and lender in this century 21st. The Chinese also know that we Americans not only owe them since the 70′s, but we allowed them to accumulate our debt and they agreed to. They also know that they owe us for allowing them to open up and they want the dprk to follow. The U.S. Dollar will only die if China and the United States does. And if they do then it is curtains for the globe, especially China. China will comply with a United States Executive order to Kill Bill (Kim) if needed. He knows that. I just hope he knows that the U.S. will be in bed with China after he is killed by his own. There is a reason why Chinese Restaurants in America open open on Christmas. And its not just for the Jewish kids…

By: kushibo

kushibo — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 04:50:04 +0000

Joshua, I always appreciate your updates.

By: Irene Magurany

Irene Magurany — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 02:33:28 +0000

“We are missing our chance to influence this outcome (NK regime collapse)”… – can it be more ironic that the very chance to influence this outcome is exactly what would (finally) denuclearize the Korean peninsula?!

By: Adam Cathcart

Adam Cathcart — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 01:51:29 +0000

Messianic prognostications and doomsday scenarios aside, I did find some supporting information: mainland Chinese media reports of North Korean executions of currency traders. Why is China suddenly quoting Open Radio North Korea? Perhaps Xinhua reps (as well as New York Times editors, nice work) have been reading your blog. http://adamcathcart.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/further-evidence-china-is-displeased-with-north-korean-currency-reform/

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Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:53:53 +0000

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By: Joshua Stanton

Joshua Stanton — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:29:32 +0000

Well, we’ve entered a new phase here — specifically, Phase 5 — but it’s difficult to say how quickly things move from here. States can survive years of Phase 5. Afghanistan has been in Phase 5 since Taraki overthrew Daoud and tried to impose Maoism in 1978. So if anyone claims to know where things go from here, they’re guessing. I won’t. This could end with more years of muzzled misery, with a coup, a famine, mass purges, the breakup of the country into competing feifdoms, a Chinese intervention, a long escalation into insurgency, or a combination of these things. Anything is possible.

We are missing our chance to influence this outcome, with all of its terrible possibilities. The regime’s influence over the North Korean people is vastly diminished today. Individual North Koreans have been in an ideological vacuum for years, but the openness of dissent now means that the people now know most of them are in the same ideological vacuum. People in whom ideology has been drilled all their lives suddenly have no ideology. They have lost their entire political and religious belief system to furious disillusionment. There is no way for such an event to fail to have a profound influence on people and the fate of nations. It is so dangerous because Dark times lead to dark thoughts, and the people are hungry not just for food, but for a different belief system that promises them hope.

We happen to have a basic set of not-so-dark-yet-hopeful beliefs to offer: political pluralism, tolerance, free markets, unification, and democratic self-government. Those are ideas that could catch hold, though they will not fill the spiritual void (Christianity will probably do that, though in a form far more fanatical that we’re accustomed to here). If we can show the North Korean people a vision of a hopeful, tolerant, pluralistic society in which they can invest hope, we vastly increase our influence over what North Korea will look like one, five, or ten years from now … whenever the inevitable happens. We might also diminish the scale of the vengeful bloodbath that’s certain to accompany that great change.

By: a listener

a listener — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:49:04 +0000

I know you prefer to stay away from regime collapse speculations due to numerous times they has proven false in the past, but do you feel that this time atound the wheels may really start to unravel given recent events? It just seems that finally things are happening within the DPRK that have never been reported before on such a scale.