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How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
41–50 of 94 posts
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#42Most interesting observation: > When serving in Iraq or Iran, my biggest fear in those places was always the threat of physical harm, be it ambushes on our person or vehicles, being kidnapped, rocket or mortar attacks on our embassy or accommodation. There were close shaves and the threat and the fear never left you in all of these places. But as far as life in North Korea was concerned, there were none of these fear…
Why is it interesting observation?
When one invades the country, they of course won't feel safety (like in Iraq), but when they dont invade country, of course it feels safe, because no one is bombing and shooting locals
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#43Why do we keep tolerating that regime which makes 26 mln people suffer? Why can't we do Operation a la Maduro there?
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Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#44Why do we keep tolerating that regime which makes 26 mln people suffer? Why can't we do Operation a la Maduro there?
Because they would shell Seoul and have nukes [0] and a successful rocket program to deliver them [1]...
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea_and_weapons_of_mas...
[1] https://missilethreat.csis.org/country/dprk/ 10,000 km gets you to the west coast and significant parts of the western US, 13000 covers the whole of the US. NK has the Hwasong-15 with a nominal range of 15000 km...
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#45Most interesting observation: > When serving in Iraq or Iran, my biggest fear in those places was always the threat of physical harm, be it ambushes on our person or vehicles, being kidnapped, rocket or mortar attacks on our embassy or accommodation. There were close shaves and the threat and the fear never left you in all of these places. But as far as life in North Korea was concerned, there were none of these fear…
I remember one Polish diplomat recalling that his boss told him "I am sending you to the safest outpost in the world" when offering him embassy in North Korea.
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#46Why do we keep tolerating that regime which makes 26 mln people suffer? Why can't we do Operation a la Maduro there?
IIRC, one of the highest profile North Korean defectors said that Jimmy Carter's interference in Bill Clinton's Korea strategy basically gave North Korea another decade to build an atom bomb. After that regime got the bomb, they became un-invadeable.
"Passcode to the Third Floor" describes this instance and other missed opportunities to undermine the North Korean regime.
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#47Why do we keep tolerating that regime which makes 26 mln people suffer? Why can't we do Operation a la Maduro there?
The less snarky answer is that our current system does not have a functioning global government. There is no real “we”. Influencing how other countries operate can only be done by force or diplomacy, and because North Korea has nuclear weapons, force is basically off the table, and they’re not interested in diplomacy.
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#48Why do we keep tolerating that regime which makes 26 mln people suffer? Why can't we do Operation a la Maduro there?
North Korea is geopolitically useful as a buffer state between the United States' sphere of influence in South Korea, and China. China has defended it pretty determinedly, historically.
You don't even need China. They have the Hwasong-17 and nukes and would very likely use them to retaliate. There's a reason they were quite keen to develop nuclear weapons and missiles capable of delivering them to the US mainland.
Even short of a nuclear response Seoul is in range of conventional artillery from North Korea and is dug in enough you couldn't destroy them all before the were able to do significant damage to Seoul.
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#49Why do we keep tolerating that regime which makes 26 mln people suffer? Why can't we do Operation a la Maduro there?
None of my friends in a Venezuela have noticed any actual improvements after Maduro. The current president was appointed by Maduro and was VP for 6 (?) years. I know some political prisoners are released, but if you are looking at suffering on country-level I don't think anything has changed.
Re: How to Survive 3 Years in North Korea as a Foreigner
#50Why do we keep tolerating that regime which makes 26 mln people suffer? Why can't we do Operation a la Maduro there?
I don't know who "we" is, but assassinating or kidnapping foreigners is illegal. Also, it didn't work. Not in Iran and not even in Venezuela.
It worked to a degree in Venezuela. (Depending on what you think the goal was, of course...)