Posted on 05/20/2013 6:32:57 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
North Koreans holding Chinese boat for ransom
By William Wan,
Published: May 20
BEIJING — Armed North Koreans are holding a Chinese fishing boat and its crew for ransom despite the protests of Chinese officials, the boat’s owner said Monday.
The boat’s seizure — which occurred early this month but was revealed by Chinese officials only Sunday night — is the latest dust-up between North Korea and China, which Pyongyang has long relied on to prop up its economy and defend it from international censure efforts by the United States and others.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
This should be interesting.
There was a rumor to this effect, but it seemed unlikely that North Korea would venture to offend their Chinese protectors.
I guess they really are that crazy.
P!
This has happened before. China let it pass in previous episodes. We’ll see if they respond differently this time around.
Is Chia Chub going get spanking LOL!
Bump
Not too smart of the Norks. They owe their existence to China.
I fear that the average everyday North Korean is so brainwashed with evil that they have become evil and there is changing it.
Confucius say “Don’t bite hand that feeds you, grasshopper”
A lot of people (including here) like to simplify the world into one gigantic well-coordinated anti-American conspiracy, often spouting nonsense about how everything North Korea does is scripted by China, etc.
This makes it blatantly obvious this is not the case, and has never been true.
Those NOrks must be hungry!
I'll second that.
China may solve this problem for us. The North got to learn that the East is Red and should bow down to Peking. A war with China? how long could North Korea last? A week? a month? two months?
Oh, sure, there are plenty of tensions between North Korea and China. For instance, China has to guard the border pretty carefully, and yet even at that N. Korea has managed to send starving illegals over the border to work in China and send money back home.
Still, China backs North Korea in the crunch, or they wouldn’t have survived this long. From time to time they provoke their Chinese protectors in one way or another, but they had better be careful not to go too far, too openly.
Neither country can afford to look weak.
The “logical” answer is that China has the resources needed to decapitate the North Korean regime and put somebody else in charge, perhaps one of several members of the Kim dynasty who have fallen out of favor and are living outside North Korea. That would be the time-tested Asian way in which larger empires dealt with subordinate dynastic states, and I think both China and North Korea are well aware of their own histories in that matter.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure logic applies to the Northern “hermit kingdom.” If an attempt to decapitate the North Korean regime failed, and a full-scale invasion were attempted by either China or the United States, geography favors the defenders of the Korean peninsula, not outside invaders.
That's more relevant for the South, where it's reasonable to believe that highly motivated South Korean troops who **DO** understand the consequences of rule by North Korea would continue to fight in the hills and mountains even if they lost contact with central command and control hubs. Also, South Koreans would realistically be able to expect resupply efforts from outside. However, it may also be relevant in the North for troops who sincerely believe the propaganda about how horrible foreigners are.
Bottom line: apart from a bloodless coup, I don't think we can assume that any scenario to get rid of the North Korean state would be a cakewalk. North Korea's leaders are not stupid, they know that if their regime fails they will die, quite likely in a horrible and painful way, and they have strong motives to do whatever it takes to survive.
A new international poll finds that the least popular country in the world is Iran. After hearing this, North Korea said, “What do we have to do?” - - Conan
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