Change of mind re: North Korea

Originally Posted by BananaMan

...What evidence have you got of what you say ?

You can't expect me to believe it without direct, compelling evidence. Have you got a linky ?

As a starting point, would you accept the testimony of someone who escaped from a North Korean prison camp as compelling? If so, I'll happily post links.

Originally Posted by Slothbear

Yes, but how do you solve a problem like Korea

That's a tough one. I think I'd start by sending Lloyd-Webber over there, but I think he'll need support on such a tough job so he can take Simon Cowell with him.

there was a program on recently (Cr or BBC2 I think) that shadowed two girls taking part in some games for which the Life Long Leader may or maynot have attended. This showed the hardship that the people suffered, but they did so graciuosly, knowing that it was for the good of everyone. Food shortages every day-even the stuff that was rationed, like eggs=electricity off for hours oin end for months on end, one channel TV. Not one person seemed unhappy or complained. I thought it bleak but at the same time quite uplifting. At the end of the film I noticed the date it was filmed-2002.

Seems things there are very much the same now as then-but is that a bad thing?

Looks idyllic, why the west doesn't follow their model is confounding.

BBC News - Newsnight - Glimpses of real North Korean life behind the facade

Originally Posted by BananaMan

What am I missing ?

A sense of self-parody?

Have a read about the famines of the 1990s where several million North Koreans died. Or about the pregnant North Korean women, deported from China, who were forced to have abortions in case the father was not an ethnic Korean. Or about the 3 generations of families sent to prison camps for the sins of the first generation. A state which cannot feed its own citizens but can develop long range missiles and nuclear weapons. A state where the minimum height requirement for military recruits has been lowered to 4'9" because the population has been so deprived of food by the wonderful Kim family. A family and regime that would view you and your partner as "socially useless" (on the grounds you can't procreate) that you would be executed as a social deviant and a waste of rations. North Korea is the ultimate fascist and racist state.

Originally Posted by melons

......Said Mr Jenkins to Mrs Jenkins, who then passed on Mr Jenkins edict to Jenkins junior and Jenkins junior minor

Sorry for sharing the same surname in my house.

Originally Posted by BananaMan

So uniform. It would be so marvellous if we could just get up off our arses and do something similar.

In a forum full of widely-varying individuals, you are one of the most distinctive posters!

Originally Posted by Tufty

A state which cannot feed its own citizens but can develop long range missiles and nuclear weapons.

Hmmmm . . . Try:

Originally Posted by Tufty

A state which cannot feed its own citizens is reducing police officer numbers, eliminating much of its armed forces, privatising its health service and dividing its education system, but can develop nuclear weapons and continue to maintain a fleet of submarines to carry them

Originally Posted by jenkins

Sorry for sharing the same surname in my house.

No problem Kim

Short memory obviously.

TRC Linky http://www.therevcounter.co.uk/general-mayhem/76240-listen-escape-camp-14-a.html

Which included

How one man escaped from a North Korean prison camp | World news | The Guardian

So the population of the UK is both starving and stunted as a result of our development of nuclear weapons and we spent the 1990s seeing over 1 million British people starve to death? Is that what you're trying to say?

What's their official stance on homosexual relationships?

And ice cream making?

Call me shallow, but I watched them on the news and all I could think about was how goose-stepping would give you nasty blisters. The rights and wrongs of a despotic regime didn't really enter into it in comparison when you think of the blisters and callouses. Ouch.

You forget BM, you're only seeing what they want you to see, as they don't allow foreign journalists in, and they censor the populace from seeing the Internet.

At this time of the year one must allow for the import of unripe bananas.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/04/13/inside-north-korea-concentration-camp/