4 ms·

What about its people?

• AbstractH24 8mo ago
  The leadership in North Korea’s clearly doesn’t prioritize them.
• Matl 8mo ago
  The fact that NK possess nuclear weapons strongly discourages external players from attacking it. It does not in any way change the tools NK has at its disposal domestically. If you're trying to say that had NK not had nukes we would bomb it for 'humanitarian purposes' or 'on behalf of its people' then I have a couple of bridges for sale.
  • lyu07282 8mo ago
    > If you're trying to say that had NK not had nukes we would bomb it for 'humanitarian purposes' or 'on behalf of its people' then I have a couple of bridges for sale. You think the US would just leave them alone as a communist, sovereign country without nukes, bordering china???
    • Matl 8mo ago
      I think any US intervention in NK would not be to help the people of NK, that's all.
• cogman10 8mo ago
  Yes. Dictatorships suck, but what sucks more is a civil war powered by foreign governments doing a proxy war. Syria is the prime example of this. A major reason for the civilian slaughter was foreign intervention trying regime change.
  • JumpCrisscross 8mo ago
    > Dictatorships suck, but what sucks more is a civil war powered by foreign governments doing a proxy war It's a macabre study. But one could honestly argue that several countries in the latter category's populations are better off than North Korea's.
    • cogman10 8mo ago
      Maybe after the civil war, certainly not during it. If I had to pick where to live, I'd pick North Korea over Ukraine right now because it's a lot easier to live in a dictatorship than an active war zone. (This isn't me saying I want to live in NK, I don't). But I'd also point out that a lot of what makes it really suck to live in the worst places in the world isn't often the government but rather the international relationships. Turkey has a particularly brutal government, but it's Nato and EU ally status means that the civilians enjoy modern trade and travel. The worst times to be in NK was the 90s when there was an ongoing famine and the US refused to lift sanctions thinking it'd spark a civil war that overthrew the regime. It didn't.
      • JumpCrisscross 8mo ago
        > I'd pick North Korea over Ukraine right now because it's a lot easier to live in a dictatorship than an active war zone To each their own. I wouldn't. In part because once you're in North Korea, you're not getting out. That isn't the case for Ukraine, Syria or any of the other war-torn countries.
        • cogman10 8mo ago
          It'd depend on my status. There are a lot of people who can't just get out of Ukraine or Syria. The average citizen in Syria had no means to just flee. I'd assume in my above scenario that I'm one of the masses that can't escape. NK does actually allow people to leave, mostly to china and mostly after they attain a high social class. A decent number of tourists, including US citizens, go on tours of NK.
          • JumpCrisscross 8mo ago
            > NK does actually allow people to leave, mostly to china and mostly after they attain a high social class I didn't know this. Source? I thought Pyongyang controls its elites' movement even more strictly than its commoners'.
  • baxtr 8mo ago
    > Dictatorships suck, but what sucks more is a civil war powered by foreign governments doing a proxy war. Are you sure about this part?
    • cogman10 8mo ago
      Absolutely. No question. War isn't glamorous. It's mechanized death and torture destroying communities, families, and loved ones. And when it's powered by foreign governments, it's worse. Because the two colliding sides are armed to the gills with the best weapons in murder along with mercenaries and no oversight. Living in a dictatorship is hard but doable, There are literally generations of people that have survived and thrived in that sort of an environment. It's not preferable, for sure, but you still have your family, friends, and neighbors. None of them are trying to actively kill you. So long as you follow the rules, life in a dictatorship is generally predicable and the odds of the state making you specifically an example are low.
      • baxtr 8mo ago
        So if a dictatorship decides to invade a neighboring democratic country, the people there should not fight and let them take over, because war is worse than dictatorship, right?
        • cogman10 8mo ago
          A authoritarian regime starting wars isn't one I want to live in either. That's why I don't want to live in Israel. Iran has had civil unrest over the last year, they weren't in the position politically to be doing much of anything to the "democracy" of Israel. The entire reason for the US Israel attack on Iran is because of that civil unrest, not because Iran was a threat, but because both nations see an opportunity to install a puppet government that does their bidding. What remains to be seen is if Russia sees a similar opportunity and we end up with another Syria.
          • baxtr 8mo ago
            You evade answering a simple question. It’s because your logic is flawed. It doesn’t hold up a very simple scrutiny test.