North Korea announces new weirdness

[Dhul Fiqar]

I'm sure there are better sources for details than this, but I have a link from the DPRK news agency:

http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2002/200209/news09/20.htm#1

According to CNN they are forcefully moving just under half a million people away from the Chinese border and will completely cut it off from the rest of the country. Then they're going to spend all their money building their version of Hong Kong, sending all young people that show promise to the region to make money. They are already recruiting large numbers of foreigners to come help them do this, and it will all be run by a Chinese-born Dutchman (he has a Dutch passport that is).

I saw an interview with this guy and he said the goal was to imitate the Chinese example and if it was successful, Kim would extend Capitalism to all of North Korea, and get this: "Because he loves his people." This guy is actually an official spokesperson of the DPRK, to it would seem they just took the flip-flip of the century!


And I thought Kim Jong Il was about as insane as he could ever get, I guess I was wrong ;)

--- G. Raven

(Edited by Dhul Fiqar at 1:01 am on Sep. 24, 2002)

[Dhul Fiqar]

Oh well, to me this is the story of the decade but I guess no one around here knows (or cares) much about the history of this regime....


--- G. Raven

[Cassius Clay]

I fail to see what is so wrong with this. North Korea badly needs to get back on it's feet after 10 years of economic nightmare. Something like the NEP would do just fine, however I am concerned that they may be going down the route of China and Vietnam (eg Capatalists in all but name) and the gov't should be wary of creating a elite and becoming dependent on U$/PRC economic aid

[Dhul Fiqar]

It's not so much "bad" as it is completely unexpected, obviously half-baked and outrageously newsworthy in every way.

I just don't understand why CNN isn't covering this in great detail, or why this messageboard isn't talking about it for that matter.

In essence, this plan of theirs sounds more like a re-hash of the Great Leap Forward than any kind of meaningful reform. I fear it will cost more than they expect, and the international community is far more hostile to the idea of investment in N. Korea than they realize.

--- G. Raven

[Gavin]

Just like China and Vietnam, the DPRK is now going completely against its state ideology and introducing capitalism into the system. In a capitalist world, a stalinist state just cannot survive.

The future of North Korea is totally unpredictable - the people are too besotted with their "great leader" to ever rise up against the regime like what happened in the former East Germany.

It seems North Korea is following the same path as China at the moment...which means soon their will be a McDonalds in Pyongyang :-(

[KickMcCann]

Their are alot of reforms taking place in N. Korea ( well, alot for a stalinist dictatorship anyway) and I think it may have to do with a desire for korean unification. So if the North becomes more wealthy and healthy, they won't be such a burden on the South when they reunite.
Or maybe Kim has opened his eyes and sees that he can still be an almighty dictator under the veil of capitalism. I'm sure the big American corporations would have no guilt about doing buisness with him, we already know that the Europeans don't have a problem in doing business with him.
But I honestly hope that this is a move towards reunification, and that kim is actually acquiesing power, little by little. But until the truth comes out, I won't trust somebody like Kim.

[Gavin]

North Korea is obsessed with reunification, but I fail to see how it can possibly happen without North Korea either collapsing and ceding its land to the south, or invading the South (which i doubt will happen)

[Social Democratic]

Arrgh, just another commie nation that will be wiped off the list and lessen our credibility more.

He "loves his people", well any idiot knows that economic reforms dont have to be completely capitalist, i mean, why not just invest in capital in certain areas eg agriculture if they have a problem with food, and if they have a problem with actual capital supply they can just close down non-essential industries for the time being!

Communism has had little over 100 years, if there is a probelm with it, solve it withen the boundries of the left wing, we got a good system in the making here and we should never give up on it.

[KickMcCann]

But don't most people here, think that a true Communist state has never existed? So can you really call DPRK a Communist country, wouldn't the correct term be Stalinist country? And isn't it a good thing when a Stalinist regime ceases to be Stalinist?

I've talked to people who have been to N. Korea, they say it is one of the most depressing places they've ever seen. (At least in the cities and country-side anyway, the nature preserves are very bueatiful apparently) They say store shelves are bare and that everybody looks gloom. They have military and communist party parades in the streets everyday, I guess in an attempt to please the Kim-God and to brighten and frighten the people. But I think after 50 years, the people there have caught on and are sick of it.