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Kim Jong Un was educated in Switzerland, which has a very strong democratic environment, yet it didn’t change about how he ran North Korea.
by seieste 7y ago
Kim Jong Un was educated in Switzerland, which has a very strong democratic environment, yet it didn’t change about how he ran North Korea.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- BeetleB 7y agoWould you argue that his education in Switzerland made North Korea any worse?
- throw20102010 7y agoNot GP, but his education in Switzerland clarifies the fact that the leadership does not believe the propaganda they give to their populace. Kim is very aware that the promise of better living conditions is not a "lie manufactured by the West." He knows how bad his people have it compared to the rest of the world and still chooses to run his country the way he does. Food shortages are not a thing in Switzerland and also not a problem in his palace, but they are in other parts of DPRK. So maybe his Swiss education doesn't make his citizens worse off, but we do know it's not some misled idealist at the helm, but rather a dictator that knows full well what he's doing.
- Ididntdothis 7y agoIt certainly didn’t improve things either. He is a murderer like the rest of the family.
- melling 7y agoGoing for a proof by contradiction? What you should be doing is looking at the averages. Are educated people in general more liberal?
- AJ007 7y agoHe isn’t the only warlord/despot/war criminal receive at least some education in liberal Western schools. Perhaps either side to the argument presents a non falsifiable hypothesis given the sample sizes involved.
- ourmandave 7y agoHe's using his education to write beautiful letters to other world leaders.
- pcr910303 7y agoWell, North Korea actually became much, much, much more free (in the inside world) than when e.g. Kim Jung Il or Kim Il Sung ran the country. At least, Kim Jung Eun looks like he is trying to. (He has a pretty open mind.) It's more of the military (of North Korea) that's keep stopping from e.g. negotiating with the U.S or concentrating on the economy.
- rleigh 7y agoI don't wish to defend the regime in any way. However, do consider that while he has power, he's also the figurehead. There may be real constraints upon how much change he can meaningfully effect without the system falling apart entirely, or resulting in his removal if he treads on other powerful people's toes. He wouldn't be the first dictator which had to walk along a knife edge to maintain their power base and security.
- alacombe 7y agoThere is sure no better way to show how you are constrained by the system than by ordering the assassination of your exiled brother with nerve gas in a foreign country !
- rleigh 7y agoI certainly don't doubt that he has considerable freedom of action in some areas, perhaps so long as his upper echelons agree with it. However, that doesn't imply he has the same freedom of action in all areas.
- alacombe 7y agoIt's not as if his "upper" echelon had a strange tendency to get suicided either.
- Mediterraneo10 7y agoThe OP’s entire point is that often such decisions may be compelled by the opinions of the generals surrounding Kim. It has often been claimed that while a godlike aura is created around the Kim dynasty for the North Korean masses, decisionmaking has always involved negotiation between the Kims and senior military officials.
- alacombe 7y agoBy senior military, do you mean his late uncle ? Assassinated as well.