ANALYSIS: Younger Koreans View America as Real Threat

[TCO]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
The North Koreans are an altogether different kind of scary. They aren't communists. They're a cult masquerading as a country. Think Utah with an army.

That would never happen with Stalin or Mao.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Sava
America is the bigger threat to peace in the region.

Please explain to me how that is so?

[Drake Tungsten]

Please explain to me how that is so?

Don't encourage him, Oerdin...

[Lancer]

America bashing is trendy for these kids. They've never faced a challenge in their lives, they're just trying to be cool. I say screw em, feed them to the wolves, then they'll respect what they had, or be dead. Either way, Americans shouldn't be in harms way for them.

[Sava]

This whole part of the "standoff" started with that stupid "axis of evil" speech. And to prove Dubya has abigger shlong than Kim, Bush provokes him every time Kim responds with sabre-rattling.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Lancer
America bashing is trendy for these kids. They've never faced a challenge in their lives, they're just trying to be cool. I say screw em, feed them to the wolves, then they'll respect what they had, or be dead. Either way, Americans shouldn't be in harms way for them.

funny, considering you're completely ignorant of who I am, where I come from, what my life is like... but go ahead, make yourself look stupid... its actually fun, I should know!

[Dinner]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
The North Koreans are an altogether different kind of scary. They aren't communists. They're a cult masquerading as a country. Think Utah with an army.

I can agree with you there Che. These guys are scary and fanatical.

[Lancer]

Sava, such kids are the same everywhere.

All I need is a knowledge of history in order to determine that they have their heads well imbedded in their butts.

[Seeker]

LOL, Kim is claims that he was born on the same sacred mountain where the First Emperor of Korea, Tanggun, descended to the Earthly Realm and sacrificed on the Altar of Heaven there. He claims that he was born amidst 'smoke and thunder'. In Korea, this is like saying you're a kind of god.

He was actually born somewhere in the Soviet Far East, the Khabarovsk area.

If you're wondering about how a 'Stalinist' can invoke the traditional gods, remember this is a country much like Japan, where everyone holds seemingly contradictory religious beliefs.

For example, there is a Seventh Day Adventist who is always going on about Jebus and Bible Study, yet at the same time he sacrifices to the Ancestors on Cho Suk, and tells his kids the story of the Tiger and the Bear, it's kind of wierd.

Here's another one..." I believe in the Lord Jebus Christ with all my heart, but I am a Korean and I know that Korea is a Divine Land of the Gods (or however that translates)"

[The Mad Monk]

Originally posted by Sava

... but go ahead, make yourself look stupid... its actually fun, I should know!

Yes, that is astoundingly clear.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

‘‘I’m worried about the generation gap,’’ he said. ‘‘The young guys are very simple in their thoughts."

Sadly, isn't this true everywhere? I don't think American youth are any more intelligent...

Sadly the posts here at 'poly prove that.

At the risk of sounding like an old man I think the world would be a better place if the young idealists who want to "do something, anything" were tempered by the knowledge of their elders. More often then not young people spout off about things they no nothing about; I know I was (and maybe still am) like that.

[Drake Tungsten]

At the risk of sounding like an old man I think the world would be a better place if the young idealists who want to "do something, anything" were tempered by the knowledge of their elders.

Agreed. You would think this would happen in Korea, with its Confucian background and all, but the youth there don't seem to be listening to their elders. That may be the worst Western habit they've picked up...

[Seeker]

The old/young division you are talking about is not very apparent on the streets around here.

Also, remember that in Korea you must usually finish your compulsory military service before entering university, so a university student is usually late 20s.

Ironically, because one of the most popular options for compulsory service is the relatively easy police one, the police who confront the protestors are made up of young, inexperienced 18-21 year old, while the protestors are mostly older and some younger, the reverse of the US 'young student vs old cops' situation.

Confucianism:
There are left wing profs in SK. Teachers are very high status. Professors might as well be Moses on the Mount when they prounounce on what is right and wrong.

Also, the intergenerational nature of the conflict has been exaggerated, partly because the older left wing people would find it very difficult to take time off a 6 dayweek , no paid sick days, strong work ethic job to attend a protest.

The 'leftist' movement in Korea cut its teeth in the 80s here in Korea, fighting with the recently arrested dictators forces. The kids of the student radicals, are naturally, ALSO student radicals.

[TCO]

Originally posted by Sava
This whole part of the "standoff" started with that stupid "axis of evil" speech. And to prove Dubya has abigger shlong than Kim, Bush provokes him every time Kim responds with sabre-rattling.

Bull****. Kim is a freaking weirdo. We are talking about a regime that periodically sends psycho assassing swimmers into SK.

[Lefty Scaevola]

Originally posted by Sava
This whole part of the "standoff" started with that stupid "axis of evil" speech. And to prove Dubya has abigger shlong than Kim, Bush provokes him every time Kim responds with sabre-rattling.

Wrong as usual, dim wit. The accusations about their cheating on the aid for quiting nuclear agreement goes back years into the Clinton administration, and the withholding of portions of aid while asking for answers about the cheating began over a year before the axis of evil speech. Can't you get anything right?