Posted on 06/15/2004 9:21:15 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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The U.S. can't seem to stop him. Asia doesn't know if it loves or hates him. So the position of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il looks stronger than ever
By Anthony Spaeth
Posted Monday, June 14, 2004; 20:00 HKT
Lee Myong Sok grew up in the town of Dongducheon, just 20 km south of Korea's Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), the grotesquely fortified no-man's-land rimmed with razor wire, heavy military hardware and tens of thousands of soldiers. When he was a boy, Lee lived on "army-base stew": leftover meals from U.S. military canteens, which he would throw into a pot with cabbage and water after discarding the stray cigarette butts. Today, as an operator of a bar in which Russian girls serve the drinks, Lee is still living off the American troops who serve as a "trip wire": if North Korea attacks, these soldiers will come under attack, guaranteeing U.S. involvement in the conflict. But now Lee is deeply upset at the news that Washington wants to pull out 12,500 soldiers, or one-third of the American armed presence in Korea, after 50 years of peacekeeping. The plan is to remove all the troops now stationed on the front line. "This is devastating," says Lee. Fifteen of Dongducheon's leaders shaved their heads last week and went to Seoul to hoist a protest banner outside the National Assembly building. The banner was written in their own blood.
For the elders of Dongducheon, the departure of American soldiers is a pocketbook issue: the town survives by providing Yankee grunts with Pringles, Budweiser and raunchy nighttime entertainment. For the rest of the region, it's something far more significant: another indication that the status quo on the Korean peninsula for more than half a century, written in the blood of the Korean War's more than 2.5 million victims, is rapidly evolving. North Korea is no longer the region's pariah, a hermetically sealed place with whose leaders no others wanted to deal. On the contrary, South Korea is now dominated by a leftist-nationalist President and a political party whose members often see the North as a potential friend or partner, and only sometimes as an enemy that vows to invade and conquer them in a "sea of fire." (The two countries are still technically at war.) Last week, Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi gave an astonishingly positive account of his recent meeting with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, saying that "I personally felt that North Korea was interested in moving forward in a positive way." (See following story.) Beijing said last week that it did not share Washington's assessment of the north's nuclear programs. These changes in attitude toward Pyongyang are being played out against the backdrop of a revised American military posture on the peninsula and strains in the U.S.-South Korea alliance. Echoing the famous complaint about Washington's China policy in the late 1940s, South Korean conservatives are already starting to ask: "Who lost the U.S.?"
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Ping!
Ping!
Kim Jong-Il loves American movies and would LOVE to be a movie maker here in the USA. Why don't we offer him $100,000,000 venture capital to set up his own movie studio and an estate in Hollywood so he can cruise with the rest of the Hollyweirdos. The condition would be that he give up power in North Korea. I think he'd go for it.
I thought of something similar. Give Kim Jong-il the exclusive control of Pyongyang, and make it an East Asian version of Las Vegas & Hollywood rolled up together.
Gambling, showgirls, movies, (and prostitution). It is a Kim Jong-il kind of world.
Is that true?
How could anyone not caught in '1984' style nightmare LOVE kim?
Bump
,,, you know, he's one whacko guy. He lets his people starve to death and keeps feeding his hairdresser. How could anyone hope to last anywhere with a hairdo that bad? Hollywood needs this guy right now, more than they know.
- Is that true? How could anyone not caught in '1984' style nightmare LOVE kim?
Maybe the reporter is just projecting. The reporter doesn't know whether he loves him or hates him.
The U.S. can't seem to stop him. Asia doesn't know if it loves or hates him. So the position of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il looks stronger than ever
Asia doesn't know if it loves or hates him"
Is that true?
How could anyone not caught in '1984' style nightmare LOVE kim?
TIME has long been known for writing its articles for eighth-graders. Recently its articles appear to have been written BY eighth-graders.
Wait a minute I think I saw that episode on Comedy Central Kid Noterious AM I RIGHT
You know Robert Evans animated show
Isn't that really what Time's editors think?
Fifteen of Dongducheon's leaders shaved their heads last week and went to Seoul to hoist a protest banner outside the National Assembly building. The banner was written in their own blood.
They're evidently protesting the pullout because they'll lose business when the Americans leave. They also seem to want compensation for lost business during 50 years of American troop presence. I can't figure out what's on their minds.
Sorry for the questionable taste, but there's evidently graffiti near by featuring a bearded biker saluting Jane Fonda. "LEST WE FORGET."
These clowns in Time used to claim in 80's that Soviet Union would last for a long time, and Soviet's new charm offensive was undercutting U.S. efforts.
To these guys, any appearance of stalemate on N. Korean nukes is the opportunity to padd up Kim Jong-il's stature.
Oh dats a keeper !..........Thanks !
Stay safe !
N.Korea facts:
capitol: Pyongyang
size: a little larger than Tennessee
religion: official state religion: Juche, which teaches that human beings are the masters of everything. Kim Jong Il has more than 1,200 titles, including, "The Eternal Sun" and "The Guardian Deity of the Planet".
social groups:The government puts citizens into groups . People in favor with the government are allowed to live in the capitol where the government gives people food, medical care and other help. The government puts everyone else in these other groups: "unstable" and "hostile".
Unstable group members have fewer rights and get less food. They can't go to the capitol without permission. Hostile group members have no rights. They are given the hardest, most dangerous jobs. If people are suspected of not agreeing with the government, they are placed in the unstable or hostile groups.
Still others are called "non-humans". They are placed in prison camps and treated like animals. Thousands of Christians are among the "non-humans" in the camps; they are there because they will not deny Christ.
source: Link International, student publication of Voice of the Martyrs.
It is illogical to try to make sense of the facial expressions of psychopaths.
--Boot Hill
Thanks again.
Speaking of the final destination of those eight new bombs, the future is an enigma, isn't it? We live in interesting times.
Any minute now, I expect to see a nice, juicy talk radio story for ya...
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