North Korea executed 5 security officials, South Korea says

[KUSA]

I know but it the thought of being misted away by anti aircraft fire that makes it more dramatic.

And the hangman with his sword in Saudi Arabia is better? If I had a choice I would choose the anti aircraft gun at any time.

Both horrible. And both shitty regimes.

I agree but still. It's fucked up.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

,America won't touch him...
Until they are ready .... Then Trump will have a legitimate excuse.

But he did say the US won't go to war unless there's something in it for the US now.

Not for nothing, but no country ever goes to war unless there's something in it for them.

Boru

[Thumpalumpacus]

South Korean intelligence says five officials executed by anti-aircraft guns
Officials are believed to have been killed for making false reports to Kim Jong Un

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/28/asia/north...-executed/

This asshole has ordered 340 people to be executed since he came to power in 2011. His preferred method is death by anti-aircraft guns.

Why doesn't someone close to him just pop a cap in his ass?

Because he's got AA artillery?

[KUSA]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/28/asia/north...-executed/

This asshole has ordered 340 people to be executed since he came to power in 2011. His preferred method is death by anti-aircraft guns.

Why doesn't someone close to him just pop a cap in his ass?

Because he's got AA artillery?

I would bite that fuckers ears off before I got shot.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm just waiting until they do something to piss off China.

Hopefully then they'll do something about him

That won't happen. China is much more comfortable having that regime as a buffer than having to work at ameliorating a humanitarian crisis, which the regime's downfall will precipitate.

This is why China won't play ball in helping to control DPRK's nuclear program.

[Pat Mustard]

Kim's half brother apparently was 'insurance' for mainland China in that he was pliable and sympathetic to their interests and in a scenario where North Korea needed a new and improved leader, available.

That Kim had him offed, I'd think China would have wished they had guarded their investment a little better, as the assassination demonstrates their need was quite real and significantly impaired now.

China's actual insurance is that it would take a matter of weeks for their forces near the border to overrun the DPRK. It'd be quicker only for the fact that transport infrastructure in the country is fucked.

[abaris]

That won't happen. China is much more comfortable having that regime as a buffer than having to work at ameliorating a humanitarian crisis, which the regime's downfall will precipitate.

This is why China won't play ball in helping to control DPRK's nuclear program.

That's another thing to consider. The downfall of that regime would lead to a massive humanitarian and economic crisis for the surrounding nations. Most of all South Korea, which would have to shoulder the rebuilding efforts if they were to reunite. They're rich, but not that rich to shrug off something like that.

It was already hard for Germany taking over the GDR, but it would be at least ten times as hard for Korea, given the total absence of any infrastructure in the North.

[account_inactive]

That won't happen. China is much more comfortable having that regime as a buffer than having to work at ameliorating a humanitarian crisis, which the regime's downfall will precipitate.

This is why China won't play ball in helping to control DPRK's nuclear program.

That's another thing to consider. The downfall of that regime would lead to a massive humanitarian and economic crisis for the surrounding nations. Most of all South Korea, which would have to shoulder the rebuilding efforts if they were to reunite. They're rich, but not that rich to shrug off something like that.

It was already hard for Germany taking over the GDR, but it would be at least ten times as hard for Korea, given the total absence of any infrastructure in the North.

I'm sure other countries around the world will help out when the time comes. It will definitely be a tough time for those in Korea when the regime falls but it will be for the best. Hell, it can't be any worse than what they are going through now, right?

[Thumpalumpacus]

It can be worse. The northern government controls the food distribution network. Without a functioning government to disburse food, and with the population already teetering on the edge of starvation, I have no doubts that when the regime falls there will be one hell of a famine -- and if it falls in the winter, we'll no doubt see hundreds of thousands of deaths.

The DPRK government will fall eventually, I think. I don't think it's very predictable, either. It could happen next week, or next decade. Those poor people, though, are already well and truly fucked; they've been conditioned for four generations to accept that that sort of governance is normal. Their only hope would be to unify with the south, but as Abs notes, that will be tremendously expensive, and will probably sandbag the world's seventh-largest(?) economy for decades.

---

ETA: I should add that China will strongly oppose any unification, as that will place an American ally with Americans already deployed on its border. That will precipitate quite the diplomatic tussle.

[Anomalocaris]

I'm just waiting until they do something to piss off China.

Hopefully then they'll do something about him

That won't happen. China is much more comfortable having that regime as a buffer than having to work at ameliorating a humanitarian crisis, which the regime's downfall will precipitate.

This is why China won't play ball in helping to control DPRK's nuclear program.

Actually, china Has no interest in protecting DpRK's nuclear program.  A nuclear North Korea is a tremendous headache for china because it promotes regional nuclearization by American allies which is of no advantage to china.  Worse and more immediately damaging to china is the fact that DPRK's nuclear program gives America political cover to further degrade the effectiveness and credibility of China's own nuclear arsenal by putting ballistic missile defense on China's door steps, and weakens china relative to the US.

However, china has an even stronger interest in protecting the existence of DPRK's, because that is both a useful buffer state, because collapse of North Korea will create vast risks in the regional alignments of ethnicities and countries, and because it gives china more leverage in dealing with South Korea.

The fact that china can't get the latter without conceding to DPRK's nuclear ambitions indicates china has very little ability to exert precision surgical influence inside North Korea.   China may well have a crude sledge hammer, but if china judged swinging it on North Korea will cause North Korea to crack before North korea's nuclear program, then in effect china has no ability to control north korea's nuclear program.