What happens after North Korea falls? - (one expert predicts the fall before end of '05)

US NEWS.COM ^ | MAY 26, 2005 | MICHAEL BARONE

[CHARLITE]

If someone could tell me why South Korean students are rioting against America, who has been saving their sorry rear ends for a half century, I would appreciate your comments on this outrageous ingratitude.

Char

[Tai_Chung]

The European Union will offer North Korea a deal to prolong the regime beyond 2005.

[68skylark]

...he is more determined than ever to undermine a regime that is probably the world's worst violator of human rights.

This must be a typo. Everyone's heard about the AI report that says the U.S. is the "world's worst violator of human rights." North Korea must be second.

[USAfearsnobody]

LOL, by the way things are going, the EU won't exist beyond 2005.

[GSlob]

I'd call it nationalistic blindness in the form of so-called "common Koreity".

[EGPWS]

Does any of this matter?

No.

[68skylark]

I think you've pointed out one of reasons a lot of us will be delighted when the N. Korean government falls -- it will let us reduce our military presence in S. Korea, and give us less exposure to their ingratitude.

[Righty_McRight]

I assume it will rejoin south korea after the fall, and bankrupt the government.

[Polybius]

If someone could tell me why South Korean students are rioting against America, who has been saving their sorry rear ends for a half century, I would appreciate your comments on this outrageous ingratitude.

They are following the cycle of "Anacyclosis" from slavery to freedom and back to slavery which the historian Polybius described over 2,000 years ago.

Then as long as some of those survive who experienced the evils of oligarchical dominion, they are well pleased with the present form of government, and set a high value on equality and freedom of speech. But when a new generation arises and the democracy falls into the hands of the grandchildren of its founders, they have become so accustomed to freedom and equality that they no longer value them, and begin to aim at pre-eminence; and it is chiefly those of ample fortune who fall into this error. So when they begin to lust for power and cannot attain it through themselves or their own good qualities, they ruin their estates, tempting and corrupting the people in every possible way. And hence when by their foolish thirst for reputation they have created among the masses an appetite for gifts and the habit of receiving them, democracy in its turn is abolished and changes into a rule of force and violence. For the people, having grown accustomed to feed at the expense of others and to depend for their livelihood on the property of others, as soon as they find a leader who is enterprising but is excluded from the houses of office by his penury, institute the rule of violence; and now uniting their forces massacre, banish, and plunder, until they degenerate again into perfect savages and find once more a master and monarch.

[Red Sea Swimmer]

Maybe the two Koreas can be united and progress will be made. It will be a long, hard road but the Korean Peninsula should not be divided.

[SteveMcKing]

South Korea will have plenty of extra parking to its north.

[TADSLOS]

Islam will break out.

[BIGLOOK]

Should Kim Il Jong's reign end and there's turmoil, look to N.Korea becoming a new Chinese province.

[Texas Eagle]

What happens after North Korea falls?

Millions of North Koreans will eat again.

[Red Sea Swimmer]

Sounds good to me. McDonalds will make inroads into that country more quickly than a ferret down a drainpipe.

[ol' hoghead]

the alliance of evangelical Christian and Jewish organizations that lobbied for the North Korea Liberation Act, has predicted that the North Korean government will fall before the end of this year.

From their lips to God's ear.

ol hoghead

[0siris]

Aquariums is a powerful book, and should be read by all. The descriptions of the work camps are harrowing -- families having to raise rats secretly in order to survive, the hateful treatment of the children by the indifferent teachers and guards. The author describes his return to South Korea, and his confrontation w/ Marxist South Korean college students, and these useful idiots refuse to believe what is going on north of the border. They fantasize and valorize Kim Jong Il and his regime, and simply will not accept any direct evidence that contradicts their marxist utopia.

The reason why so many South Koreans are ungrateful is because ungratefullness is natural. Few people want to be indebted to anyone else, especially when it comes to morality. If someone feels indebted to someone, the debt is very personal--like someone saying "I'm indebted to my father" or "to my wife". This is in a way reflexive back on the speaker because of the connection--sure, my father/wife is more honorable than me for raising me/loving me, but because I am that person's son/spouse, therefore I partake in that honor in some way. But when it is by nature impersonal--feeling indebted to people of a different nationality and language, to tax payers and soldier families thousands of miles away, shame sinks in. There is no personal connection to it, no personal honor to be salvaged at all.

So cognitive dissonance sets in, and these Germans/French/South Koreans/US Leftists refuse to believe that any stranger could be higher on the moral or spiritual food chain than themselves, so they must rationalize reasons for why the top dog isn't all that and should be taken down a couple of notches. Up is down, black is white, and George Bush is the real Hitler and Castro/Saddam/Kim are the real saints. It passes off the guilt for being indebted to others who sacrificed their lives and livelihoods to protect their nation, and it makes them feel superior to those benefactors as well by inverting the values. Human nature sucks.

[kms61]

I think you have it. The problems Germany had in assimilating the GDR will look like child's play compared to what South Korea will have to deal with.

[MizSterious]

I'd be interested in your thoughts...

[monkeywrench]

The same reason US students protest, ANSWER, etc. They all have the same roots and Foundations supporting them. There truly IS a vast leftwing conspiracy. They're part of 'The Justice Prevention Team'.