North Korean Refugees, South Korean Journalism, and Chinese Justice

[The Mad Monk]

What corner? China has their back, and is (or should be) a major source of trade. Nobody is throwing rockets over their heads, either.

[mindseye]

A huge influx of North Koreans would not be a desirable thing from Beijing's standpoint. That region is already suffering from a lot of labor unrest due to lay-offs and plant closures throughout China's north eastern "rust belt".

Chinese actions can in part be explained by the cultural willingness to trade increased social stability at the expense of individual freedoms. This is the root of many differences between China and the West, e.g. Chinese people's bafflement at westerner's concern over "human rights" (most Chinese think this is a complete non-issue).

That's not a blanket excuse, it's part of the context of the situation.

[Urban Ranger]

The US has been making threatening noises for the longest time, and tossed a spanner in the recent North-South peace talks.

And, of course, all that moronic "Axis of Evil" talk.

[Sikander]

The North Koreans don't have a huge military because they fear the U.S. They've had a huge military since the regime began, and the U.S. could have obliterated them whenever they felt like it with nuclear weapons. The reason that they have a huge military is to keep the greatest amount of direct control over the largest possible number of people.

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by Sikander
The reason that they have a huge military is to keep the greatest amount of direct control over the largest possible number of people.

Which is exactly why the US has a huge military, right?

[DanS]

How many journalists have we imprisoned for two years lately?

Don't tempt us!

Which is exactly why the US has a huge military, right?

Dumb troll. The US, with about 30x the population of NK, has only a couple hundred thousand more soldiers under arms.

[FrustratedPoet]

Originally posted by DanS
Dumb troll.

No. A joke. A bad one, probably, but a joke nevertheless.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by DanS
Dumb troll. The US, with about 30x the population of NK, has only a couple hundred thousand more soldiers under arms.

That depends on the ratio.

Suppose the UK had only a few thousand military personal, a couple hundred thousand more is several hundred times. On the other hand, suppose the UK had a few million of them, of course a couple hundred thousand more is nothing.

Clearly, number of men is just part of the story. Another part is military spending.

[GePap]

Terrible story, But still a lot of navel gazing. Is this the only journalist in danger in the whole world? Hmm, I wonder how nay journalist were killed worldwide in the last few moths and we heard about them?

The fact is that most stories around the world are not reported. The reason this woman did this piece (as is obvious from what she writes about politics, besides from the facts of the story) is to add criticism against policies towards NK, urging a harder line.

What the Chinese are doing tpo the reporter and to the refugees is despicable, but to argue for an end to it would be to argue for a host of huamn rights that if truly carries out would demand susbtantal reform for all states. hence, no one will really call for these changes.

Sad.

[The Mad Monk]

GePap, how does that make it any less legitimate?

Of course we don't know all the stories in the world, we're not omniscient. That's not a reason to not care about the stories we do know about.

[Q Classic]

i'm surprised skorea isn't raising a bigger stink.

give me a gun, drop me near pyongyang. i'll take care of this.