N. Korea fires missiles, liquidates South assets

[WhiteTara]

Source: Yahoo news

Seoul (AFP) - North Korea looked to ratchet up already elevated tensions on the Korean peninsula still further Thursday, firing a pair of short-range missiles and announcing the liquidation of all remaining South Korean assets on its territory.

The moves were a direct response to unilateral sanctions announced by South Korea on Tuesday to punish the North for its January nuclear test and last month's long-range rocket launch.

Military tensions have been on the rise ever since the January test -- the fourth nuclear device North Korea has detonated in defiance of UN resolutions.

The UN Security Council responded with tough, new sanctions, which Pyongyang condemned as a "gangster-like" provocation orchestrated by the United States.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/north-korea-says-liquidate-south-assets-joint-projects-025316445.html

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and of course, we ratchet up our response

[StandingInLeftField]

1. Hawks poo-poo me when I say this will not end well.

This will not end well.

[WhiteTara]

2. The world gets more dangerous by the day.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

3. "N. Korea fires missiles, liquidates South"

Yikes. That was my first read of the headline. On second read, not quite as scary.

[WhiteTara]

4. At first I thought they hit the industrial plant

[DetlefK]

5. I think, Kim Yong Un isn't crazy. He is PRETENDING to be crazy.

His country is poor and permanently at the verge of famine.

The only thing NK exports is ballistic missiles based on soviet-era tech.

Defectors have revealed that the NK people know that their leadership is playing them for suckers. They know that the NK leadership is telling lies, but they just don't know the truth.

And, for good measure, there are generals and relatives waiting for a moment of weakness to install themselves as the new rulers at the slightest hint of political instability.



So, what's a dictator to do?
How does he stay in power? By commanding respect.
How does he get respect? By looking dangerous.
How does he look dangerous? By behaving like an unpredictable, crazy motherfucker.



1. If NK didn't get the attention of the media once in a while, it would become irrelevant. And how is NK supposed to sustain a Führer-cult if their Führer is boring and irrelevant???

2. NK needs an enemy it can show off to its people. Nothing unites better than an external enemy: the West, the Communists, the Muslims, black people, Jews, the shadowy international banking-conspiracy who has subverted all political levels and threw Greece into crisis by forcing them to hire Goldman Sachs and cook their books and amass crazy levels of debt in order to destroy Greece's democracy and only a courageous left-wing blogger can stop them...

[Igel]

7. His commanding respect isn't working.

Take liquidating the assets.

It's rather like selling your fishing pole.

He's not so much crazy as over-the-top nationalistic. That can be a kind of country-based, ethnicity-based, religion-based or class-based nationalism. A bit of pride isn't wrong, but when it gets to be overweening it's the same kind of problem whether it's South African apartheid, Nazi conquests, some of the Islamic practices, or the "dictatorship of the proletariat." They all use some group identity trait as a proxy for superiority and right to power.

[Agnosticsherbet]

6. Even Kim Jong Un must know that launching nuclear weapons will lead to his absolute destruction

Certainly, he could kill a lot of people, but there is no scenario where he walks away alive, let alone with this power.

I wonder who his real audience might be.
Is it his military who follow his orders blindly?
Is it his nation who starves on his whim?

Who is he expecting to cow to his will with his ultimatum?