A friend indeed

Robert Koehler (The Marmot’s Hole) has translated a news report from Korean that runs some numbers and makes the case that North Korea’s missile launches the other day may have been made possible by aid provided by South Korea.

Read it here.

• 1

  Well, it is any wonder that “Korean solidarity” takes precedence over stopping the planet’s Official Village Idiot Kim Jong Il and his Traveling Side-Show of Irrational Tantrums and Saber-Rattling?

  See more information in this NY Times article:
  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/11/world/asia/11korea.html?hp&ex=1152676800&en=d05c8d41e134dc75&ei=5094&partner=homepage

  Somehow the South Koreans (and China too, it seems) came around to the puzzling conclusion that “appeasing” gangsters (which is what the North Korean totalitarian regime amounts to) is better than getting them “off the streets.”

  Normally, I’m a retrospective person who tries to digest all the nuances of a situation, but the Korean peninsula is so irrational, so frighteningly riddled with emotional problems that I just had to shoot from the hip this time.

  Kudan on July 11th, 2006
• 2

  Thanks for the link, but just to be clear, I didn’t make the arguments. The Dong-A Ilbo did and I just translated them. Although for what it’s worth, I do generally agree with the Dong-A’s take, but with the caveat that even IF North Korea weren’t getting outside aid, it probably would have let its people starve and pumped money into its nuke and missile programs anyway.

  Oh, and I’d be curious to see how Tokyo reacts to this latest South Korean diatribe…

  The Marmot on July 11th, 2006
• 3

  If North Korea attacks Japan, South Korea will side with the North and probably help them. There is no doubt in my mind about that. Korea is too busy living in the past to deal with reality.

  Paul on July 11th, 2006
• 4

  I didn’t make the arguments. The Dong-A Ilbo did and I just translated them.

  Thank you, Robert. I have corrected the report accordingly.

  JP on July 11th, 2006
• 5

  I agree with Paul. And I have to just wonder at what kind of person it takes to provide support to a monster regime torturing their own kin.

  ghoti on July 11th, 2006
• 6

  “And I have to just wonder at what kind of person it takes to provide support to a monster regime torturing their own kin. ”

  Obviously the Korean media does not seem to critically examine the role of the government in its appeasement strategy towards North Korea; the latest missile testings could potentially provide an opportunity for S. Koreans to contemplate its relationship with N. Korea, but that is doubtful.
  However, I think it’s problematic to place the blame on the Korean populace as a whole when they support providing aid to N. Korea- call it naivete, but there is genuine hope that aid will go to those who need it and that things will improve in North Korea…
  The ROK govt needs a wake up call; but I’m concerned as to what exactly it will take for that to happen.

  nerdieboy on July 12th, 2006
• 7

  Many South Koreans perpetuate the idea that all of Korea’s problems are the result of wilfulness by Japan and America and believe the North Koreans are more dependable because they are their “brothers”. This view is especially popular among the misguided youth, who never had had to take up arms against their “brothers” in the Korean war, and can afford to be ignorantly idealistic. Perhaps it’s time they sink or swim on their own. If the US military pull out and end all security agreements with the SK, the
  realization of how much they’ve benefitted from the American presence will help to straighten out them.

  Fluffy on July 12th, 2006

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