Brian at Cathartidae and Kevin of IA are disgusted by South Korea’s behavior following the Ryongchon disaster up North. Both Brian’s post and Kevin’s cartoon are well worth looking at; Brian’s post is particularly thought-provoking, and here’s some of it:
Am I the only one disgusted by South Korea’s reaction to the explosion in North Korea? Sure, at least a couple hundred dead and half of a small town destroyed is an unfortunate disaster, and I can only hope that the victims get the best medical treatment possible, but if you had to somehow quantify the amount of suffering that went on in that town on that day and compared it to the amount of suffering that goes on every single day in North Korea, I’m betting the latter would be on top.
Of course, I’m talking about the concentration camps where torture, forced labor, summary execution, and rape happen every single day of the year. Where are the TV fundraisers to help put these atrocities to an end? Where is the concern for their “brethren” as they now love to call them? Families are put to death in gas chambers, women are used as sex slaves, and millions have died as a result of a preventable famine, yet South Koreans do next to nothing about it.
My guess is that this explosion brings the eternal victim mentality in every Korean to the fore. “Those poor, poor North Koreans, innocent victim’s of fate’s cruel whims. Such is our lot as Koreans,” is what they’re thinking, I bet, as they call up to donate money.
Kim Jong-il slowly torturing the life out of thousands of his enemies around the country just doesn’t register because that’s a Korean with the power abusing other Koreans, making it somehow OK. Brainwashed about Korean exceptionalism since birth, the fact that a fellow Korean has risen to the top ranks of the world’s worst dictators is just too troubling to recognize… so they do their best to ignore it.
As anyone beside me considered that the dead victims here may be the lucky ones? How many of those kids who died would have ended up tortured to death in some gulag, or buried alive in some mine while doing their daily allotment of labor? How many of the young girls may have grown up to be sex toys for the ruling elite in North Korea? God knows that if I was a poor North Korean soul I’d be praying everyday for a train to explode as it went by. Anything to get out of that hell on earth…
Read the rest (and check out Kevin’s cartoon) on your own. I fully support sending emergency aid to Ryongchon (even if I feel less inclined to help foot the bill for reconstruction). No one should ever forget, however, that North Korea DOES, in fact, have the money and resources to deal with this disaster, but to earmark them for reconstruction would require Pyongyang to divert them away from missiles, nuclear equipment and caviar. And that won’t happen.
16 Comments
ahhh…that’s rich marmot. too demure to fully write out an epithet in your title, but unabashed in extolling the virtues of truly revolting self-righteous fascist blather. the complete lack of any governing impulse to dial down the vitriol towards Koreans is a perfect example of why Americans are growing more and more despised around the world. going “over the top” only applies when critiquing the U.S. war machine. with any other target, it’s “no holds barred.” and here i was trying to take you as a thoughtful, religious conservative.
That’s kind of funny, because I was just thinking of when you wrote about the dangers of using North Korean suffering (in the form of human rights abuses) to push political agendas, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Of course, the current gov’t wouldn’t be using the Ryongchon disaster to further its own North Korea policies. And it goes without saying that the North Koreans, of course, wouldn’t be using coverage of the disaster in order to get the South to pay the costs of the disaster rather than — Heaven forbid! — diverting funds earmarked for, say, smuggling nuclear technology from Pakistan. By the way, the fascist blabber above comes from a full-fledged member of “Blogs Agaist Bush” and a major critic of the Iraq War. If you want to see “fascist,” check out the previous post. Frankly, I was taken by the imagery coming from North Korea, and I didn’t say we shouldn’t send emergency relief to Ryongchon. But there’s only so much bullshit I can take, and the results from yesterday’s liaison meeting in Panmunjom and today’s meeting in Gaeseong should have tipped you off that something is just not right.
BTW, while I do consider myself a “thoughful” conservative, I do not consider myself a religious one.
Chubbiebee,
I guess I should point two things.
1. Brian, whom I’ve only met once but who I know is “no-holds-barred” on everyone (follow the link to his blog) is certainly not a right-winger. In fact he’s pink (i.e. liberal). He’s pink like my butt after an hour at a nude beach I tell ya.
2. Also, I would be really interested in hearing you explain how Brian is wrong in his post.
3. (OK THREE things!) The Marmot is, in fact, a typical foul-mouthed Yankee. I’ll leave it to him to explain why he bleeps now.
Brain’s post should get the best of the month award for the Korean blogoshere. It is plain right on.
Thanks for the praise, weatherman!
I doubt Chubbiebee’s jealous of anyone’s talents — let alone mine — even if insinuating that Brian, of all people, is a fascist is one of the more peculiar things I’ve seen in my comments section.
> posing while drunk on red wine
thank jesus this ain’t a photo blog.
Hm, I can share some of Brian’s frustrations and points he brings forward with his harsh criticism of North Korea (i.e. Kim Jong-Il, uh, that is pretty easy regardless if you’re pink or desert beige) and South Korean Sunshine policy (uh, that is pretty easy as well, dudes, and not only concerning this sole friggin’ North politics). This recent “gas chamber” story in DPRK hell camps is an invalid point IMO, because it’s not really proven or provable or there’re not enough existing circumstantial evidences. But be it, the existence of those North Korean gulags is a horrible fact enough.
Brian doesn’t comes forward with any realistic, successfully implementable policy blueprint to be adopted and carried out by the ROK government. Where’s the alternative political strategy (cure or cure-all) for the DPRK-cancer?
Fingerpointing and letting out one’s “Han” is rightful and cheap, but as I said every time, when the emotions get over the top about Kim Jong-Il human rights inferno, where are your suggestions for an alternative to Seoul’s path of reconciliation and “soul soothing vodoo politics”? And I mean some suggestions which doesn’t only condemning/ embargo-ing/ invading the North and reaching nothing to alleviate the plight of our Korean brethren in the North.
I think Sugar Shin’s points are spot on and in some ways articulate my sentiment better than i am able.
Brian is not a fascist (nor did i say he was a “right winger”), but he is wrong to use this recent situation as a cudgel to both assail Koreans in a rather racist manner (an eternal victim complex? even were such a generalization true, how many millions need to die before a nation can actually consider itself an authentic victim? the US lost 3000 and seems pretty well endowed with their own “victim complex” btw.) as well as to speak for the desires of north Koreans, all while trying to cop a holier-than-thou rebel hard-line posture that is in fact neither rebellious nor politically applicable. to project death wishes upon an entire population is certainly evocative of a world view that could easily slides towards a realpolitik that envisions the wiping out of north Korea, destroying the village, so to speak, to save it.
I suppose fascist-IC would have been more appropriate and it refers not to the man, but to the attitude he was representing. but, yes, you are right, the term was over the top. i figured that it would grab attention and apropos rebuke, which just served to prove my point that some extreme rhetoric garners more attention than others, with dangerous consequences.
and by the way marmot, you are quite wrong. i must admit that I’m jealous of your talents in a few areas (why else would this lefty hymenoptera be a regular reader here?) - your blog is quite beautiful, your korean skills rock, and your breadth (or girth? ha ha) of coverage is most impressive (though the flesh posts are starting to cross the line from pleasantly erotic to skank). and i didn’t mean to say your were a “religious conservative” but rather, a thoughtful conservative with a solid religious/moral foundation - seeing as your are a catholic school grad (or actually would that make you less likely to now have a religious core? ha ha)
dear brian,
hi, it’s shin jong il here. i just wanted to write you and ask what your feelings are about our(usa) relationship with saudia arabia, home of islamic terrorism. how do you feel about that? any place i can go to see any essays you’ve written about that?
how about our(usa) relationship with pakistan, islamic proliferator of nuclear arms to the world? how do you feel about that? got any disparaging comments for americans?
i suppose an emotional sort like you cannot comprehend nor understand realpolitik.
anyway, as Sugar Shin asked, won’t give us some solutions to the north korean crisis manufactured by the bush cheney brigade? you’re very good at racist, vitriolic comments towards the yemaek. how about some solutions? show you’re the mature one, brian.
c’mon, i know you can do it.
poiboy, you have claimed at various times to be German, Korean, Japanese and probably a few others. But American you ain’t.
Sugar Shin’s non-sequitur of a rejoinder is the problem on the peninsula. There is no policy short of unification that Seoul will not undermine by either spineless vacillation or outright contempt. As a matter of fact Seoul is a better spokesperson for Pyongyang than Pyongyang is.
My first reply is: http://kamelianxrays.blogs.com.....s_for.html.
For beginners, I would say Pyongyang should do anything that Seoul has ever asked it to do without a pay-off. Pyongyang can take a little more initiative to liberalize its economy, too. Pyongyang should realize from Beijing’s example that NK elites can give up a little without losing power (although, I’m hardly reassured by how brazenly beijing squashes reform). On the political front, Pyongyang can start joining international forums. KIm Jong-il can go down in history as a reformer if he only learns to fly higher than his dictatorial impulses.
And, Seoul and Washington together (and I would never presume to take Seoul’s right to stab Washington diplomatically in the back whenever it pleases, because its habitual) should recognize NK sovereignty, so Pyongyang can take responsibility for itself. Until Pyongyang is economically viable, internationally engaged, and politically responsible, a tighter embargo on Pyongyang’s criminal activities is morally right and useful.
Pyongyang has the same amount of control over its destiny as it does over the minds of its citizens. Only Seoul would see this behavior as weak. I shudder to think what seoul would do if it had the complete wherewithal to do what it pleased. As an American, I want this chapter in US-Asian relations brought to a speedy conclusion, and hopefully in a situation where Americans can return home leaving the world better for their privations.
Sugar Shin,
My blog isn’t a home for in-depth commentary on Korean issues… it’s a place for me to vent (I leave the serious issues for the Marmot, Infidel, Oranckay, and the Yangban, because they do a far better job of it than I could ever do). I wrote that post at about 1am the other night after a long day at our cafe… I was tired, emotional, and hardly in the mood to write out Brian’s 10 Step Program for Unification as an addendum to the original post.
Chubbiebee, maybe I shouldn’t have made that comment about the Korean victim complex (seeing as how it really isn’t germane to my main point). But I’m trying hard to make sense of the over-heated reaction to this tragedy when compared to the non-reaction to the horrors that go on every single day up north, and, from what I know about Korean people, that’s what I came up with. Another possibility is that the current response is driven by guilt… that they all know what they’ve been ignoring all these years and this gives them a chance to make amends, so to speak.
So I ask you… why do you think Koreans are so gung-ho about aiding North Koreans after turning a blind eye to the ongoing atrocities that occur on a daily basis across North Korea?
Brian
very human and humane post Brian, merci beaucoup.
you admitted posting at a late hour, thus, i’ll admit posing while drunk on red wine. screw rational discourse. let the emotions fly.
to be honest, i can understand the consternation that arises vis a vis the gap between concern for human rights abuses and train explosions. it is perplexing. but the paradox will not be solved via wholesale rhetorical attacks on the korean people. in fact, it won’t be solved with any of our pissant internet commentating. we will change nothing. not a godamn thing in pyongyang, seoul, r/yongchon, fallujah, or washington d.c. >
therein lies the answer to your question. the only reason they are gung ho to aid north korea now is BECAUSE THEY CAN. otherwise, in terms of human rights abuses, they know they can’t change a damn thing. nor can you, nor i, nor anyone left, right or center.
war will make things even worse and appeasement is a diseased and ugly whore. there are no good choices. but the least we as outsiders can try to do is not add insult to injury. and that’s what i thought you were doing.
i know you care, or else you wouldn’t post so effusively. i’m a loving not angry drunk. i just want you to care with caution.
My blog isn’t a home for in-depth commentary on Korean issues… it’s a place for me to vent… Brian
Brian, I knew it from other intelligent posts (especially against your US commander-in-chief) of yours, that you’re not a thoughtless communist-munching, rocket-wielding hypocrite, so I refrained from a verbal fist(-f*ck), that I would have probably tried against any other irrational, unhonorable sucker.
where’s your apology, brian? too tired to make one? too tired to vent?
tired is your excuse.
i noticed no solutions in your post. maybe, we have to wait till you’re tired and feel like venting.