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Post by smartarse on Jan 25, 2007 12:21:59 GMT 10
Here is a very interesting piece about the impact of sanctions on NK. If you don't know much about the Banco Delta Asia scandal, thenyou should because its a crucial issue in the 6-party talks www.csmonitor.com/2007/0122/p04s01-woap.html
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Post by smartarse on Jan 31, 2007 9:15:02 GMT 10
I have just received a couple of emails from some debaters in Japan who read this thread on NK and would like to point out some additional complexities in the issue (as if it wasn't complex enough already!). Japanese debaters are astonishingly well read on NK issues. Newsmedia coverage of the issue in Japan is better than all the academic literature i've ever read on the subject. I was flabbergasted by some of the things - especially the smuggled tv footage of NK cities - that i saw on Japanese TV. So while i would like to strongly encourage Japanese debaters to post on this forum directly, i will honour their request to present some additional information about NK. The first issue that needs additional clarity is how the 'average' South Korean perceives NK. To say that because SK's elected a modeate President so therefore people must generally have moderate views about NK is a little simplistic. SK's tend to be divided by generation on the issue. The oldest generation who has relatives in North are highly sympathetic to NK. The slightly less old generation which fought against NK with US is naturally against NK and supportive for US. Middle aged people - or the so-called 386 generation - like President Roh are generally anti-US and very sympathetic to the Juche ideology of the North. The younger generation is also broadly a little anti-North and not particularly supportive of the US but not strongly anti-US either. For a brief definition of the 386 generation (which is a crucial social-demographic and you'd sound pretty damn smart if you mentioned them in a debate on NK) see doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/386_generation/ For the hardcore nerds who want a more detailed explaination, then here is a good one wpherald.com/articles/38/1/Korea-in-Crisis-The-rise-of-the-386-generation/Activists-born-out-of-the-1980-democracy-movement.html. Just be careful with this article, because its translated from a Japanese newspaper that is well known for being very conservative. This article is mostly just descriptive so its ok, but bare that in mind if you read the other articles in the series.
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Post by McGreevy on Oct 6, 2009 21:02:25 GMT 10
I thought an article on North Korea in todays Australian was a perfect starting point to revive conversation about it. Since the last post here was in 2005, I will assume alot of the previous information has been overwritten The article was primarily focused around North Korea indicating it would be willing to restart the six party talks that ended earlier this year. It noted that sanctions made against NK when it conducted missile tests only seemed to piss it off further (i think I saw talk of whether santions would be effective or not earlier in this forum. It would be interesting to discuss either way) It is interesting to note China's perspective on North Korea at the moment. They seem to be more willing to push countries (in their subtle, "non-interventionist" way) such as Myanmar and Sudan toward talks (there is an economist article about it I believe) What is the likelyhood of getting successful restart to these talks with North Korea then? Would they even work? The article mentions some success from the six party talks, but are they strong enough for the complete denuclearisation of NK? (Is that even a realistic goal?) www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26171571-25837,00.html
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