Posted on 05/01/2012 6:22:17 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Bill Keller: End may be near for monstrous North Korean regime
By BILL KELLER
The New York Times
Published: April 30th, 2012 04:49 PM Last Modified: April 30th, 2012 04:49 PM
The one thing everyone knows about North Korea is that we know very little about North Korea, except that it is miserable, totalitarian, nuclear and erratic. It is the hermit kingdom, the dark side of the moon.
But thanks to many thousands of refugees who have reached freedom by way of a long underground railroad through China, we know a lot more now about the grim reality. We understand better how the government sustains its dreadful power, and where that power could be faltering. Among people who follow the country closely, there is fresh discussion of whether this most durable of monster-states could be nearing its end days, and what we should do about it.
In recent weeks the news spotlight has focused on the 29-year-old novice tyrant Kim Jong Un, performing his family's time-tested repertoire of bellicose bluster. Like a lunatic waving an assault rifle as he dances on a high window ledge, Kim galvanizes our attention.
But the more interesting story is down below.
/snip
Because when North Korea goes, the Day After is likely to last 20 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at thejakartaglobe.com ...
Watching over this development is China. It has been making the futile effort to maintain the status quo, which is about to end. It will definitely try to control "the day after." The way it has been handling N. Korean problem does not exactly inspire confidence. It will try again to have it all by itself, pusing things too far. It will make a bigger mess, which bite it in the ass. It will consume too much of Chinese attention and resources in the end. The result is that it will overextend itself. China has outstanding domestic problems and potential clashes with many of its neighbors. The center won't hold if it is too obsessed with N. Korea. It is not the first time it happened to China. They had this problem in the past.
P!
Very little happens in NK without the PRC’s approval.
I could possibly be cheered by this story, if it weren’t for the fact that Bill Keller hasn’t a shred of integrity or credibility.
Mike
China likely has its agents and supporters spread throughout DPRK’s Army. When TSHTF, China will attempt to organize them into a Government.
Much will happen behind the scenes. What we will likely see from the distant vantage point in the West is announcement of a coup and a quick, bloody purge of the Kim regime.
” It will try again to have it all by itself, pusing things too far. It will make a bigger mess, which bite it in the ass. It will consume too much of Chinese attention and resources in the end. The result is that it will overextend itself. “
Let’s hope so.
I suspect behind the scenes, China and South Korea have been talking about how to handle NoKo when the SHTF.
China has a lot of experience with this. Their methods have been effective historically. Kill anyone who causes any problems.
“Very little happens in NK without the PRC’s approval.”
Actually, North Korea is more like China’s crazy brother who won’t get a job.
For ONCE I’d love to see the FHTS!
I’d agree it won’t be reasonable. Lots of people will die. The only real question is whether the violence will bleed over into other countries. IMO it probably will. My inlaws in SK think it will also.
The chinese military seems to be making a move for more power across the board. Its almost as if the civilian govt has no control over the military.
We constantly made the mistake in the Cold War of assuming that the Soviet Union controlled everything in China, North Korea, or Vietnam; it's clearly been shown by history that they didn't.
The North Koreans are pretty independent; the Chinese help them to desperately avert the regime collapsing and having millions of refugees come across the border.
NK will not become democratic any time soon, it will go to Chinese rule. The people of NK are so brainwashed and undereducated there is no way they could maintain a free government on their own. It’s sad to say, but Chinese rule is actually their best option until a generation can be raised up that can think for themselves.
I just can’t take Keller seriously here.
His words remind me of other leftists who proudly celebrated the fall of the Berlin Wall, as if they had been stalwart anti-Communists all along, when the truth is that they had wholeheartedly supported the East German regime and all of its Socialist atrocities up to the very moment when it all collapsed, in the belief that the German Democratic Republic was superior in every way to the “corrupt” American system and Western values that they despised (and still do).
If the totalitarian, collectivist goals and actions that Keller has fervently championed ever triumph over traditional American ideals and freedoms, North Korea will serve as a good model of what will result.
Not unlike what Keller's NYT advocates for every. Damn. Day.
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