Posted on 04/18/2017 6:35:56 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
FROM the outside North Korea looks like an impoverished state cut off from the rest of the world.
But during its weekend procession, the isolated regime managed to put on an impressive display of its rockets and military strength, in defiance of growing American warnings about its military capability.
While many have the impression of North Korea being a poor country that can’t feed its own people, Leonid Petrov told news.com.au that it had large stockpiles of natural resources that it used to fund its weapons research.
“North Korea is a mountainous country that has huge natural resources including deposits of high quality coal, gold, silver, uranium, iron ore and rare earth metals,” said Dr Petrov, a visiting fellow at the Australian National University College of Asia and the Pacific.
He said North Korea had exported its minerals to allies such as China and the Soviet Union for decades until the collapse of the communist bloc.
Since then it had been more proactive in international trade, although the tightening of sanctions has seen its export ability curtailed recently.
Dr Petrov said China in particular had maintained trade in North Korea and was keen to keep a monopoly on its rare earth metal trade.
“So China buys everything North Korea is prepared to offer (of its rare earth metals),” he said.
These metals are important because they are used the production of many 21st century products like mobile phones, computers, LCD screens and cars....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
They economize on food, apparently.
Juche philosophy:
“Military FIRST”
It’s not a country with a military.
It’s a military with a country.
ALL the Tree Bark Soup you can drink.
Those “missiles” were all operational, fully loaded, ready to go...
Or were they empty metal tubes meant to impress “dear leader” and anyone else watching the tape???
Indeed. Please don't sneeze near this poor guy.
The guys below must use up their daily calorie allotment just trying to stay upright.
They must give out a medal or award for getting out of bed two days in a row....
China the Enabler
must end
Kim Jong Prefix is untenable.
Recent events prove yet again that MacArthur had it right and Ridgeway and Truman had it wrong. Back in the Korean War NK had no nukes, China had no nukes, and America had it all but no will to be decisive. MacArthur agitated for action and got himself fired. Our generals in Vietnam were careerists who did not agitate for decisive action but they should have.
Man, I can dig it.
So can Seoul, when reunification comes; good source of revenue to fund rebuilding the north.
Much of their funding comes from their various criminal activities that they do around the world.
Especially after the agreement NK made with the Clinton US government.
A total mystery, Clinton told us he stopped them.
They might not be as powerful as they look but then again maybe they are.
For a long time they were propped up by the Russians and Chinese. I think China has only recently begun to pull back. They put almost everything into the military while the people suffer.
Don’t forget that North Korea was the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid under Clinton. I would not be surprised if Iran was under Obama. I even suspect there are nations still supporting N. K.
Don’t be fooled. The Russians used paper mockups of rockets and missiles in their military parades before the USSR fell, and the Serbs fooled our Air Force in Clinton’s Wag the Dog War with mockups of tanks. Kim can build a lot of plastic missiles with nothing in them for a million bucks.
If I recall correctly, North Korea’s federal mint prints off US $100 bills totaling billions every year.
Oh yeah, the political assassination medals.
This one’s for most creative use of an anti-aircraft gun.
This one is for setting a political opponent on fire.
This one is for best birdhouse with dormers.
This one is for laughing when my loyalty is being challenged.
This one is for showing up and not upsetting anyone...
When most of your population is given a starvation diet to sustain them and no electricity at night and 100’000’s keep as slave labor, it’s not hard to fund a military....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.