PM warns NZ war against North Korea.

[beagle]

can they call me back if I have been out for more than 10 years.

[ngatimozart]

No mate they can't. but if you're keen you can always volunteer ;D

[baronbeeza]

Now there's a thought... The Northern summer is just around the corner. I never did pick up a VC first time 'round.

They could airdrop me into some pub North of the border and I could either argue or bore the locals into submission.

[Luther Moore]

[oggie2620]

Apparently the North Koreans who work in the south - all 55,000+ of them didn't turn up for work this morning! Don't know how long that will last as those thousands will start to complain about not getting paid! Will have to wait and see. KJU must be mad...Mind you his Generals must be as bad to let him get away with it!

[ngatimozart]

I would think the Generals only have two choices. His way or a bullet in the back of the head.

[ErrolC]

I've seen it suggested that it is the other way - if he doesn't do the 'right' thing there will be a military coup.

[kiwithrottlejockey]

From the Los Angeles Times....

Kim Jong Un is a bratty, brutal prince from a darker era

By DAVID HORSEY | 5:00AM - Wednesday, April 10, 2013



NORTH KOREAN leader Kim Jong Un seems like a fictional character out of a satirical doomsday movie — maybe a sequel to “Dr. Strangelove”. That fact that this immature brat and his gaggle of grim, aging generals actually rule a country and have the capacity to disturb the international order seems absurd in an era of global interdependence.

In the 21stcentury, humankind should have moved beyond this, but apparently we need a few more centuries of progress before all countries are led by comparatively rational, democratically elected leaders — or at least by boring, one-party bureaucrats whose main goal is to preserve stability and promote economic growth.

Kim is a throwback to medieval times when young, cocky princes claimed a divine right to lord it over defenseless peasants. The only reason those princes could claim that power, in truth, was because they were surrounded by troops of big guys with swords, armor and horses with a license to kill any peasant who complained too loudly. It really had nothing to do with God’s blessing and everything to do with which family was ruthless enough to take from the poor and make themselves rich.

The great royal houses of Europe and the dynasties of Asia were very much like the Mafia or the street gangs of Los Angeles. They got wealthy and powerful because they were prepared to kill anyone who stood in their way. Only later did they take on the trappings of respectability and cloak themselves in royal mythology. From a distant perspective, Genghis Khan or Alexander the Great can be appreciated as great conquerors and masters of men, but, to the thousands of people slaughtered by their marauding armies, they were genocidal thugs stealing lands and treasure for no better reason than that they could.

Little Kim’s belligerent threat to start a thermonuclear war that would consume South Korea, Japan and various outposts of the United States is the tough talk of a tyrant in the ancient mold. But Kim is all bluff. He does not have the bombs or the missiles to carry out his threats. His country is a geopolitical pipsqueak and an economic charity case. If the real world powers, China and the United States, chose to make it happen, his regime could be snuffed out.

There are plenty of complicating geopolitical factors that would make that result difficult to achieve, but one still has to ask: why? Kim is a hereditary ruler who oversees a brutal prison state. Why allow such a leader and such a system to exist in the modern era? It would be a true advance of civilization if the world community were to come together and get rid of this throwback to humanity’s darker times.

www.latimes.com/news/politics/topoftheticket/la-na-tt-kim-jong-un-bratty-20130409,0,7438832.story

[ngatimozart]

Apr 10, 2013 20:48:20 GMT 12 ErrolC said:

I've seen it suggested that it is the other way - if he doesn't do the 'right' thing there will be a military coup.

Could be that too. We don't really know and the Genearls most definitely would not want a change in the "Army First" policy, given the state of the North Korean economy. Another interesting point. A lot of the wetern media having been rabbiting on about how the Presidnet of China Xi Jiping rebuking North Korea when in fact he didn't name nations and the rebuke if any was aimed at more than one country. China most definitely do not want a reunited Korea under Seoul and at best maybe would accept a united Korea that was totally demilitarised and totally neutral which would not be acceptable to the US.

[beagle]

Apr 9, 2013 19:33:42 GMT 12 ngatimozart said:

No mate they can't. but if you're keen you can always volunteer ;D

Just tried my old uniform on, it's shrunk

[Dave Homewood]

They do that as they get older Beags.

[kiwithrottlejockey]