(January 25, 2013 at 8:19 pm)Insanity x Wrote: . Why would you want to support your leaders if you, your family and your friends are starving?
Same reason why people of many countries who believe they face invasion and conquest would willingly undergo incredible privations and still rally around their leaders.
As to China, Kim knows China would not let kim fall. The west say it's because the China wouldn't want several million starving North Korean refugees flooding over the border if Kim falls. But I don't believe that is really the case. The Chinese can largely prevent the flood of refugees by engineering an orderly transition of power in North Korea. The refugee story is just a fig leaf concocted by both China and the west to deflect attention away from a rather machivelliian mutural understanding.
The mutural understanding is the Sino-American relationship is very important and there can't be allowed an open rupture.
If Kim falls North Korea will fall to South Korea. But China can never permit South Korea to absorb North Korea because China will never allow any country that hosts American troops to extend its influence to the Chinese border. So if Kim falls, sooner or later China will invade and occupy North Korea for forstall an united Korea west leaning tendencies.
If China invades North Korea No South Korean government will survive if it fails to resist with armed force a Chinese invasion of what they perceive to be half of their country. So if China invades North Korea there will be war between China and South Korea.
If there is open war between South Korea and China American is bound by the need to protect her own credibility and prestige to come in on the side of South Korea, hence open rupture, quite probably open war, between the US and China.
I think by agreement, US and China decided this can't be allowed to happen, so US continues to squeeze North Korea enough for Kim to maintain a siege mentality amongst his people. The Chinese continues to prop up Kim using the charade of wanting maintain order in North Korea and keeping Koreans from flooding into China as refugees.
