10 ms·

Associate disgust with North Koreans. Check. Motivate military invasion as humanitarian intervention. Check.

by etiam 9y ago

cxspoon 9y ago
Yes, this will be Iraq war, Part II
- myst 9y ago
  Iraq. Part IV.
Chris2048 9y ago
Because obv the BBC are just a mouthpiece for the Trump administration...
- acqq 9y ago
  Because obviously it wasn't so to prepare for the war in Iraq? I suggest reading the articles from 2003, I think a lot of them are still online.
  - Chris2048 9y ago
    Is the UK signing up for a war with NK?
- saladeen 9y ago
  Regardless of how bad Trump is considered to be, and how true that will turn out to be, in my opinion this is the first time that someone is actually doing something that has a chance at ending this horrible situation that we've been just sweeping under the rug for the past few decades. He put a squeeze on their only ally, China, put in meaningful sanctions that are hitting where it hurts, the elite, and is calling out their leader on his bluffing tactics that worked well (for the leader and the elite) so far. Hundreds of thousands of people, slowly languishing in famine and unspeakable suffering, all ignored because it's an 'inconvenient problem'.
  - mercurysmessage 9y ago
    It's easy for Trump to talk, as he always does, when he doesn't face the threats that Asia does. There has always been a hard stance on NK.
    - Chris2048 9y ago
      > There has always been a hard stance on NK Can you justify that opinion? Why did it take the US to sanction a Chinese bank?
    - saladeen 9y ago
      The hard stance you speak of was always simple containment and ignoring, and then when their leader would start shaking sabres and making threats, he would get appeased with free food. That was exactly my point. The problem was ignored, and at times when it couldn't be ignored, NK would bluff, and the rest of the world would appease them.
- dazc 9y ago
  The BBC are obsessed with Trump in a way that is 180 degrees opposite of what you are suggesting.
  - Chris2048 9y ago
    Not really, I omitted an explicit </s> because I though the ellipsis made it obvious... But then, I'm English so maybe I'm assume more familiarity with the BBC than the average HNer.
    - dazc 9y ago
      My error
egeozcan 9y ago
Well, then it de-escalated pretty quickly from nuclear weapons to parasites. I find it unlikely, even as a side-story to the main propaganda.
dingaling 9y ago
I always appreciate a cynical take on the news, but to be fair there has been plenty of justification for humanitarian intervention in NK for the past 60 years. We don't really need more 'reasons'. This is more like titillation wrapped-up in a respectable jacket of 'serious current affairs' to get some clicks.
- ainiriand 9y ago
  Go to Africa then, you have a lot of market there.
  - CamperBob2 9y ago
    There's the question of what humanitarian aid Western nations might be morally obligated to offer to its former colonies. That's one question, with many different opinions. Then there's the question of how history will view the rest of us for looking the other way while the Kims turned an entire country into a concentration camp. That's another question entirely. Imagine if we'd left Auschwitz up and running at the end of WWII.
    - rurban 9y ago
      Happened to Buchenwald. Was a nice KZ for the Russians.
- legulere 9y ago
  60 years? North Korea used to be more industrialized and further along than the south at the beginning.
  - cxspoon 9y ago
    Why does this get downvoted? It is factually 100% correct. People used to flee from South to North in the beginning.
    - jwilk 9y ago
jchw 9y ago
Both of those things are already things that we have and do not need any more of to justify a full-scale nuclear war. I'm pretty sure the thing keeping it from becoming a real war zone is mutually assured destruction. Even mutually assured destruction aside, I think most people realize whatever kind of conflict occurs it won't be pretty for the parties involved. Of course, letting things go for long enough to actually allow North Korea to produce working nuclear weapons is probably not very smart either, but I guess hindsight is 20:20.
sorokod 9y ago
"North Korea is a very poor country and like any other poor country it has serious health problems" Sounds like a reasonable statement. How do you get from this to "motivate military invasion"?
- porfirium 9y ago
  > "North Korea is a very poor country and like any other poor country it has serious health problems" Thing is, I'm sure Koreans have an average IQ high enough that they should not be a poor country, yet they are.
  - Supernaut 9y ago
    Can you provide some examples of countries that are poor because of the generally low IQ of their populations?
    - jabretti 9y ago
      Hoo boy, taking part in that discussion is a good way to get yourself banned, but here's a place to start: https://iq-research.info/en/page/average-iq-by-country https://iq-research.info/en/page/average-iq-by-country And with that comment I'm out before I lose all my karma in the followup discussion.
    - HarryHirsch 9y ago
      Large tracts of Africa have 10 points shaved off their average IQ because of parasite infestation, if you get bilharziosis in early childhood it really makes you more stupid. Malaria doesn't help either, also because it causes you to miss school. Fun fact: South Korea had a very serious schistosome problem, too. Merck discovered Praziquantel in the early 1970s, it's the only medication that really works but Merck could not provide doses at a price the country could afford. So South Korean chemists got to work and developed their own process, and it gave the Korean chemical industry a big boost. Shinpoong still produce 50 % of the world's supply of praziquantel. The WHO report is here, btw: http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Jwhozip48e/1.html http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Jwhozip48e/1.html
necessity 9y ago
If you're not disgusted by this nazist country and do not support freeing it's people you should be the one getting shot.
tryingagainbro 9y ago
How can one make the land of milk and honey look bad? Military invasion, while unlikely (cost, mainly destruction,) would probably be better for 99.99% of North Koreans. Oh, if they are ever attacked it will be because they have threatened to nuke quite a few countries.
- jwilk 9y ago
  0.01% of NK population is ~2500. There's going to be a lot more casualties of war than that.
  - tryingagainbro 9y ago
    >>0.01% of NK population is ~2500. There's going to be a lot more casualties of war than that. wrong way to calculate. Sometimes you need to die so others, including your family, have a chance. Of course, you can say who are we to decide that "John" in North Korea should die for freedom...
nl 9y ago
Oh come on, not everything is a conspiracy. Parasites are often closely associated with unusual diets. Here's the CDC page on screening refugees for parasites[1]. There's a vast amount of literature about this[2] [1] https://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/guidelines/domestic/intestinal-parasites-domestic.html https://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/guidelines/domest... [2] https://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?q=parasites+and+diet+refugees https://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?q=parasites+and+diet+r...
mtgx 9y ago
Start seeding the tech media now with stories about North Korean malware about which they knew since 2013. Check.
Feniks 9y ago
Nobody wants military intervention. Not the EU/UK Not Japan Not China Not South Korea Not Russia The US possibly but who listens to them anymore?

Associate disgust with North Koreans. Check. Motivate military invasion as humanitarian intervention. Check.

by etiam 9y ago

Associate disgust with North Koreans. Check. Motivate military invasion as humanitarian intervention. Check.

cxspoon 9y ago

Yes, this will be Iraq war, Part II

myst 9y ago
Iraq. Part IV.

Chris2048 9y ago

Because obv the BBC are just a mouthpiece for the Trump administration...

acqq 9y ago
Because obviously it wasn't so to prepare for the war in Iraq? I suggest reading the articles from 2003, I think a lot of them are still online.
- Chris2048 9y ago
  Is the UK signing up for a war with NK?
saladeen 9y ago
Regardless of how bad Trump is considered to be, and how true that will turn out to be, in my opinion this is the first time that someone is actually doing something that has a chance at ending this horrible situation that we've been just sweeping under the rug for the past few decades. He put a squeeze on their only ally, China, put in meaningful sanctions that are hitting where it hurts, the elite, and is calling out their leader on his bluffing tactics that worked well (for the leader and the elite) so far. Hundreds of thousands of people, slowly languishing in famine and unspeakable suffering, all ignored because it's an 'inconvenient problem'.
- mercurysmessage 9y ago
  It's easy for Trump to talk, as he always does, when he doesn't face the threats that Asia does. There has always been a hard stance on NK.
  - Chris2048 9y ago
    > There has always been a hard stance on NK Can you justify that opinion? Why did it take the US to sanction a Chinese bank?
  - saladeen 9y ago
    The hard stance you speak of was always simple containment and ignoring, and then when their leader would start shaking sabres and making threats, he would get appeased with free food. That was exactly my point. The problem was ignored, and at times when it couldn't be ignored, NK would bluff, and the rest of the world would appease them.
dazc 9y ago
The BBC are obsessed with Trump in a way that is 180 degrees opposite of what you are suggesting.
- Chris2048 9y ago
  Not really, I omitted an explicit </s> because I though the ellipsis made it obvious... But then, I'm English so maybe I'm assume more familiarity with the BBC than the average HNer.
  - dazc 9y ago
    My error

egeozcan 9y ago

Well, then it de-escalated pretty quickly from nuclear weapons to parasites. I find it unlikely, even as a side-story to the main propaganda.

dingaling 9y ago

I always appreciate a cynical take on the news, but to be fair there has been plenty of justification for humanitarian intervention in NK for the past 60 years. We don't really need more 'reasons'. This is more like titillation wrapped-up in a respectable jacket of 'serious current affairs' to get some clicks.

ainiriand 9y ago
Go to Africa then, you have a lot of market there.
- CamperBob2 9y ago
  There's the question of what humanitarian aid Western nations might be morally obligated to offer to its former colonies. That's one question, with many different opinions. Then there's the question of how history will view the rest of us for looking the other way while the Kims turned an entire country into a concentration camp. That's another question entirely. Imagine if we'd left Auschwitz up and running at the end of WWII.
  - rurban 9y ago
    Happened to Buchenwald. Was a nice KZ for the Russians.
legulere 9y ago
60 years? North Korea used to be more industrialized and further along than the south at the beginning.
- cxspoon 9y ago
  Why does this get downvoted? It is factually 100% correct. People used to flee from South to North in the beginning.
  - jwilk 9y ago

jchw 9y ago

Both of those things are already things that we have and do not need any more of to justify a full-scale nuclear war. I'm pretty sure the thing keeping it from becoming a real war zone is mutually assured destruction. Even mutually assured destruction aside, I think most people realize whatever kind of conflict occurs it won't be pretty for the parties involved. Of course, letting things go for long enough to actually allow North Korea to produce working nuclear weapons is probably not very smart either, but I guess hindsight is 20:20.

sorokod 9y ago

"North Korea is a very poor country and like any other poor country it has serious health problems" Sounds like a reasonable statement. How do you get from this to "motivate military invasion"?

porfirium 9y ago
> "North Korea is a very poor country and like any other poor country it has serious health problems" Thing is, I'm sure Koreans have an average IQ high enough that they should not be a poor country, yet they are.
- Supernaut 9y ago
  Can you provide some examples of countries that are poor because of the generally low IQ of their populations?
  - jabretti 9y ago
    Hoo boy, taking part in that discussion is a good way to get yourself banned, but here's a place to start: https://iq-research.info/en/page/average-iq-by-country https://iq-research.info/en/page/average-iq-by-country And with that comment I'm out before I lose all my karma in the followup discussion.
  - HarryHirsch 9y ago
    Large tracts of Africa have 10 points shaved off their average IQ because of parasite infestation, if you get bilharziosis in early childhood it really makes you more stupid. Malaria doesn't help either, also because it causes you to miss school. Fun fact: South Korea had a very serious schistosome problem, too. Merck discovered Praziquantel in the early 1970s, it's the only medication that really works but Merck could not provide doses at a price the country could afford. So South Korean chemists got to work and developed their own process, and it gave the Korean chemical industry a big boost. Shinpoong still produce 50 % of the world's supply of praziquantel. The WHO report is here, btw: http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Jwhozip48e/1.html http://apps.who.int/medicinedocs/en/d/Jwhozip48e/1.html

necessity 9y ago

If you're not disgusted by this nazist country and do not support freeing it's people you should be the one getting shot.

tryingagainbro 9y ago

How can one make the land of milk and honey look bad? Military invasion, while unlikely (cost, mainly destruction,) would probably be better for 99.99% of North Koreans. Oh, if they are ever attacked it will be because they have threatened to nuke quite a few countries.

jwilk 9y ago
0.01% of NK population is ~2500. There's going to be a lot more casualties of war than that.
- tryingagainbro 9y ago
  >>0.01% of NK population is ~2500. There's going to be a lot more casualties of war than that. wrong way to calculate. Sometimes you need to die so others, including your family, have a chance. Of course, you can say who are we to decide that "John" in North Korea should die for freedom...

nl 9y ago

Oh come on, not everything is a conspiracy. Parasites are often closely associated with unusual diets. Here's the CDC page on screening refugees for parasites[1]. There's a vast amount of literature about this[2] [1] https://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/guidelines/domestic/intestinal-parasites-domestic.html https://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/guidelines/domest... [2] https://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?q=parasites+and+diet+refugees https://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?q=parasites+and+diet+r...

mtgx 9y ago

Start seeding the tech media now with stories about North Korean malware about which they knew since 2013. Check.

Feniks 9y ago

Nobody wants military intervention. Not the EU/UK Not Japan Not China Not South Korea Not Russia The US possibly but who listens to them anymore?