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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| North Koreans said to be ’ready to revolt’ |
| 2004-03-08 |
| by Julian Ryall for The Scotsman Hat tip: Brothers Judd EFL ORDINARY people in North Korea are ready to revolt against dictator Kim Jong Il, according to three fishermen who risked their lives to flee the country three decades after being abducted by its agents. . . . Lee Jae Keyn, whose trawler was seized by a gunboat in April 1970 and who was forced to spend the next 30 years in the north, said: "The top ranks of the military believe very strongly in Kim and will protect the regime, but the ordinary people are saying things about him behind his back. They’re very dissatisfied with the regime and, if the leadership believes its grip on power is beginning to slip and starts to turn on the people, they will definitely rise up and attack the military at the local level. There are 1.2 million people in the North Korean armed forces who will fight for Kim Jong Il, but the people won’t." The problem for the people is the same as in any police state: everyone may desire in their heart of hearts to overthrow the government, but talking openly about it risks a trip to the gulag. That’s why spontaneous rebellions against police states are so rare. . . . Lee believes the only way that reform will be possible in the north is for the United States to become more involved, possibly militarily, and suggested that the easiest way for change to be brought about in the near future would be for Kim Jong Il to be assassinated. Works for me. A B-2 or two, and a few thousand-pounder JDAMs. Sleep well, Kim Jong Il. |
| Posted by:Mike |
| #11 Good question B .... and thanks for your reply Jen, perhaps you are right and mabey the whole Iraq issue is just a smoke screen, to give the impression that we are blind to their antics.... I hope for our sake that they are taking into account ALL scenarios and will not have to live with more "9/11" hindsight and regret. |
| Posted by: Susan 2004-04-30 2:33:29 AM |
| #10 Susan, you raise some important issues... Remember President Bush put the NorKs in the "axis of evil." I'm sure we're fully aware of the human rights abuses. And it's not the "way" of the U.S. to bust in and "regime change" countries, at least it wasn't until 9/11. Since then, President Bush has gotten nothing but abuse and villification for doing this to Iraq, even though it clearly was necessary. North Korea is a worse problem because it's backed by China (who also has lots of nuclear missiles) and we have 60,000 + troops on the border between North and South Korea. Australia is joining the U.S. in the Strategic Missile Defense system as is Japan because of the NorK situation. Until the NorKs "do something" against a Western power, we have to pretend it's "none of our business." But rest assured they are being carefully and constantly watched. |
| Posted by: Jen 2004-04-29 9:31:20 PM |
| #9 Has anyone seen the Dear Leader since the train crash??? |
| Posted by: B 2004-04-29 9:15:52 PM |
| #8 I have a question - Why are the US and for that matter the whole world, ignoring the blatant human rights abuses, that are still be perpertrated by Kim Il-sung and his henchmen ? Foreign Correspondent once did an interview with Doctor Norbert Vollerston that aired on the 1st May, 2002; he is a doctor who had witnessed first hand the suffering, of thousands of political prisoners. Since this story aired I have spent many hours searching for information on North Korea - and I am appalled firsty at the scarcity of information, but more importantly the testimonies of the handful of people who have endured, unspeakable attrocities at the hands of the North Korean Government. They then finally managed to escape to ask for help, from the Global community -and so far only been taken seriously from the Polish community. Most disturbing would be the fact that it is no secret to the US, South Korea and Japan, that concentration camps do exist in North Korea - they have very detailed SATELLITE PHOTOGRAPHS documenting them in detail. They also have many statements and information from defectors, veritifying specific prisioner housing / mining sites - which are clearly marked on the satellite evidence. Recent events such as the latest train crash disaster and the South Korean's Media (or rather lack of ) are very reluctant to admit or even mention the fact that this has even occured. CNN has several theories, one being a possible assasination attempt on Kim Jong-il !! Seems obvious to me..... With the level of technology that we have at our disposal, I find it very frustrating and frightening, that North Korea have the power to totally shut out the entire world to all their goings on. I find the whole scenario so much more disturbing, because of the actual Physical distance between Korea and Australia - perhaps the US is not too concerned as the range of Koreas nuclear weapons, apparently does not have the capacity to reach the US shores quite as readily as ours ... Yours sincerely, Susan Australia |
| Posted by: Susan 2004-04-29 9:06:27 PM |
| #7 Things have been so bad for the NKORS that they are now phyisically differnt than SKORs. Due to continued famine NKORS are now physically smaller than their south korean brothers. The NKORS have taken to kidnapping as a way to get agents that can pass for southern koreans, as their own agents stand out like a sore thumb. |
| Posted by: Frank Martin 2004-3-8 3:05:34 PM |
| #6 Dar, good point! On the other hand how many of them have even seen anything other then a North Korean outside of the DMZ? For a couple of generations the North Korean people have been out-of-touch with the outside world and only fed the personallity-cult BS. The majority of them probably beleve that Kimmie-boy is the 'Guardian of our Planet' and "greatest incarnation of human wisdom." and "present-day God" (yes I did steal that from another posting). They will have quite a culture shock when they do open-up.... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-3-8 2:32:38 PM |
| #5 You're assuming that the North Korean military would remain 100% loyal to Kimmie. Those soldiers have families, too, and may not enjoy watching them shrink down to 50 lbs. |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-3-8 1:25:20 PM |
| #4 The peasants who might revolt are unarmed, have no transportation, lack any form of communication and weigh in at less than 50 pounds per each due to years of poor nutrition. Ain't nothing to this story. The only source o salvation for the North Koreans would be a Kim or some other lunatic who replaces him to wake up one day, declare an unilateral end to his regime, and initiate re-unification on South Korean terms. It could happen like that: "Snap".... |
| Posted by: Garrison 2004-3-8 1:11:30 PM |
| #3 Mojo! Old..... ROFLMAO |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-3-8 12:38:06 PM |
| #2 "Dear Leader, the peasants are revolting!" "They soitainly are..." |
| Posted by: mojo 2004-3-8 11:54:28 AM |
| #1 That’s why spontaneous rebellions against police states are so rare. Rare, but not unheard of. It helps if you have plenty of foreign troops to put down the rebellion (e.g. Soviets crushing the uprising in Budapest in '56), but I doubt Kimmie could expect such help from China--at least, without paying a steep price. |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-3-8 10:01:34 AM |