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> Two US officers were bludgeoned to death with axes and clubs. It’s really amazing to me what North Korea “gets away with”. It reminds of that kid we all knew
by dev_dull 7y ago
> Two US officers were bludgeoned to death with axes and clubs.
It’s really amazing to me what North Korea “gets away with”. It reminds of that kid we all knew in school who gets into trouble so much that they simply stop punishing him in any material way.
- ethbro 7y ago2 is fewer than 178,000+.
- cheeze 7y agoIt's no different than the crazy person I walk by every morning on the way to work. They have nothing to lose. I have everything. It's not worth it for me to get involved.
- u10 7y agoNorth Korea not crazy, but incredibly intelligent and calculating. It's rather foolish and dangerous to think otherwise.
- murphy214 7y agoWhat was intelligent and calculated about the incident in question?
- monocasa 7y agoTheir demonstrated willingness to defend against even trivial encroachments.
- u10 7y agoAsserting their power projection over the DMZ, whether it is legitimate is irrelevant. It's the same with the development of nuclear weapons. There is a near-zero probability that North Korea will engage in a first strike with nuclear weapons, but a very rational way of self-preservation. The North Korean regime is reprehensible but their actions are rational, from a self-preservation perspective.
- idiot900 7y agoYes. They have extracted concessions and aid from the western world for decades, and have essentially never kept any of their promises. They are excellent at the game.
- mikeash 7y agoThey have crazy priorities, which they pursue in a calculated and intelligent fashion.
- monocasa 7y agoWhat about their priorities are crazy? As the old saying goes, you're not crazy if everyone is actually out to get you.
- mikeash 7y agoTheir single-minded pursuit of self-reliance has led to enormous suffering and, ironically, a strong dependence on a few other countries to keep them afloat. The extreme economic hardships mean they have a tough time deterring aggression (a quarter of their GDP goes to the military and, even so, the nukes are the only reason anyone takes them seriously). Consider a world where they followed a similar path to countries like China and Vietnam. Their people would be a lot better off, they’d have a much stronger military, and they’d be able to be much more of an equal partner with their allies.
- ummonk 7y agoChina is 50 times North Korea’s size, which was why it was able to prioritize economic development at the expense of the military.
- vkou 7y agoThese sort of border skirmishes happen every once in a while on heavily militarized borders between hostile nations, usually to much less fanfare.
- Someone1234 7y agoIndeed. For example from February this year: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93Pakistan_border_skirmishes_(2019) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93Pakistan_border_...
- CapacitorSet 7y agoArguably, the US doesn't quite have the moral high ground in Asia...
- refurb 7y agoIn the 1950's? Do tell.
- russdill 7y agoA lot of people were displeased with the way the Korea was divided at the end of WWII. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Order_No._1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Order_No._1 The Soviets had declared war on Japan 9 days prior and were allowed control of half of Korea.
- refurb 7y agoHow does impact if the US has the moral high ground? If anything, the reason South Korea isn’t entirely a communist dictatorship is because of the US soldiers who died there defending it (amount a number of other western countries).
- russdill 7y agoThe view is that Korea could be one united country and the war entirely avoided if the US had not capitulated to the Soviet demands. US soldiers did die defending South Korea from the North Korean and Chinese invasion, and that is admirable, but don't forget that far more Koreans have died and continue to die.
- sandworm101 7y agoThere is another side to the "bludgeoned to death with axes and clubs". They took those implements from the american team. So the unarmed North Koreans disarmed several of the Americans, turning those weapons around to kill two officers. That is a massive humiliation, particularly for the types of people selected for DMZ duty at that time. That humiliation was a factor in the american response, but equally it was a point of pride for the North Koreans. Leaders on both side saw this back-and-forth, realized the emotions involved, and pulled back. That makes the incident a learning experience that, ironically, increased faith and probably defused tensions in the long term. Similar dustups would occur throughout the cold war and continue to this day.
- dba7dba 7y agoKim Il Sung, ruler of N. Korea at the time, formally apologized and sent letter saying so. Only time he did so in fact. All because of the show of force. There was a MASSIVE show of force because of the killing.
- scarejunba 7y agoIt happens all the time. Iran Air 655, for instance? You should be horrified that that or KAL-007 happened. But everyone kinda got away with both, and those were innocent civilians.