The problem for Roh is that Uncle Sam may well depart the peninsula because of the badwill that is accumulating over South Korea’s rabid anti-Americanism. This is why Roh has despatched South Korean troops to a playpen in Iraqi Kurdistan - to avoid an open breach with Uncle Sam. I don’t think that open breach will come to a head, yet, unless China invades Taiwan and Roh denies the US the use of USFK facilities for resupply operations. Then it will all hit the fan.

Get an educated Korean with a job in “corporate Korea” to talk honestly about re-unification (tough to do - soju helps) and most of them are real frickin scared. They’d rather keep giving relatively small amounts of money to North Korean in the desperate hope that one day they’ll adopt Chinese style reforms. Otherwise, hello a doubling of the income tax rate and millions of vagrant (violent?) homeless N. Koreans wandering Seoul. Koreans pay lip service to supporting their Northern brothers cause it ain’t polite to say what they really think. They ‘d rather prop up KIJ and let North Koreans starve in the North rather than have to deal with the consequences of N. Koreans coming south after re-unification. It’s a pretty shameful attitude but I can’t say I blame them. How far out of their way would most people go to financially and otherwise support even a close relative that was in individual-Western terms as screwed up as most North Koreans (homeless, no education, brainwashed by some crazy cult)?

Course Koreans will almost never admit this in mixed company so they continue to spout BS about hanminjok in public.

300,000 koreans hiding out in china because the prc has a deal with the dprk that they will repatriate any dprk citizens they find.

are they economic refugees or are they political refugees? i think the argument is a bit legalistic and glosses over the fact that these are people whose lives, not just livelihoods, are dramatically affected.

sure, many or most of them are in china to search for more money to get more food or more stuff to care for their families. that might make them economic refugees.

but why do they need to do this? because the pyongyang regime has created a political system where staying in north korea may mean perishing, either through starvation or through oppression. that makes them political refugees.

it’s a murky matter, of course, but i believe if there were far less oppression in north korea, there would be far, far, far fewer north koreans in china.

but these are just the rantings of a crack babe.

There is no way at all USFK and the US would not be engaged in a fight even if it is off the DMZ and below the Han. That is a canard sometimes spoken by South Koreans against the changes and for limited purposes by people like Rep. Hyde. North Korea can hit US forces anywhere in the country in any general attack. And it is inconceivable that having USFK in Korea, the USFK assests would sit back and do nothing as missiles rained on Seoul. It just isn’t realistic.

And perhaps North Korea would get pissed off to hear South Korea was making plans with nations to deal with its collapse, but I believe the chance they will decide to hasten a collapse through war is tiny.

A plan for how to handle reconstruction IF collapse occurs is not a plan on how to hasten such a collapse. With North Korea as weak as it is, not having plans for what to do if it collapses is more dangerous than fearing a war if they do it.

Dude, the “Gorean” part has to go (unless you are doing it just for style - points) - this is the left over from the earlier debates on the new Romanization

Obviously, Kim Jong Il knows this fact better than anyone, and it’s why he will continue to accept the South Korean (and Chinese and Japanese) handouts while refusing to implement any real changes or open his country enough to endanger his power.

The challenge for KJI and the North Koreans is to give the appearance of change and step-by-step opening in order to stoke the hopes of their blind brothers in the South, while in reality keeping the country isolated enough to keep its death grip on power.

South Korea is the mouse who gets a jolt of electricity 9 times out of 10 while trying to reach a bread crumb. That one time it gets the bread though, puts enough faith into the rodent to keep on trying and getting the shit shocked out of it.

North Korea knows that they’re dealing with sympathetic “brothers,” and that even the smallest, irrelevant gestures on their part will be seen as giant steps by the blind mice to the South so eager to love their wayward family, regardless of the reality that the rest of the world can see.

I do not know if someone has already told you this, but, as you mentioned, the new romanization system is used to romanize “hangul,” not English. Therefore, though your “Gwangju” example is correct, your “Gorea” example is not. “Korea” is an English translation for “Dae Han Min Kuk” or “Hankuk” and needs no romanization.

I am not supreised that you are offended by that becaue perhaps you think that I am a foreigner that has no place to make any comments about Gorea.

I read what you have to say and like I said b4 we have much to agree on. It is a dissapointment that you and norepark fill in what I say with what you wish i would say.