Comments on: Can the Iron Fist Accept the Invisible Hand? MUST READ!!!

By: jyc

jyc — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 03:08:13 +0000

The North Koreans have suffered enough, please let’s spare them from CBN or the 700 Club.

By: Mac

Mac — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 02:50:58 +0000

A “wiff of freedom” will surely stimulate the minds North Koreans, but that might not be enough to overcome the Iron Fist.

Now if we can CBN and the 700 Club on NK TV, and follow up with an assault of missionaries, that would bring down the house of Kim.

I would not be surprise if right now the US government is giving Halliburton no-bid contracts to set up secret Christian broadcast towers and missionary training camps along the Chinese border.

By: snow

snow — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 00:32:13 +0000

sorry, for some reason the comments listing didnt let me lift Bluejeans quote

“North Koreans realize there is a better way, they get a whiff of freedom, and who knows what will be the result?”

so just add this to the above post after if…

By: snow

snow — Thu, 28 Apr 2005 00:29:31 +0000

More things seem to be happening economically in the North, which is great, and as Bluejeans suggests, if

The only problem is that I don’t think this is what Roh and his boys want. They don’t want it to come crashing down, so would prefer to give aid to keep KJI afloat. I think this idea of everything possibly going haywire with more economic freedom is definitely not something the South wants at this point.

By: bluejeans

bluejeans — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 22:34:11 +0000

I attended a speech by Dr. Lankov a couple of months ago (sorry for quoting you, Dr. L - feel free to disagree with me if I am mistaken) and he said that these changes are driven from below. The black markets sprang up because people started selling produce from their balcony vegetable gardens and other people started buying them because they were, well, starving.
The government tolerated them because: 1. they were an alternative to starvation; and 2. they are losing the power (will) to suppress what obviously works (capitalism) and promote what obviously doesn’t work (communism).
This speaks to a reduction of state power - whether they like it or not.
Driven from below or not, it is good news. And the more changes like this, the better. Economic freedom does not necessarily and automatically bring a free society. An improving economy might give the regime some revenue and support. But, on the other hand, if we look at events like the French Revolution, regimes often change when they are trying to improve, not when they are getting worse. North Koreans realize there is a better way, they get a whiff of freedom, and who knows what will be the result?

By: usinkorea

usinkorea — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 17:25:23 +0000

My brain must be fried. How can I use words like “sum” for “some”? It’s embarrassing……..and I was once an English major. This is the second apology I’ve had to write in the last hour due to ignorant mistakes in comments….I’m going back to bed….

I also forgot to point out the reason why I want to see if the reforms announced in a new article on NK are top-down gov sponsored changes or acceptance of already established changes at the local level brought about by the weakening of the gov’s ability to control or feed the people is that it is important for any author who wants to claim the changes are a “sure sign” of the regime’s willingness to take necessary (bigger) reforms in the near future…..

By: usinkorea

usinkorea — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 17:19:38 +0000

When I start to read articles like this, I have at least one thing I want answered about the reforms — occasionally over the last few years, I’ve heard that some of the reforms are little more than the North Korean government acknowledging well established black markets and changes that took place at local levels during the worst parts of the starvation period of the 1990s. The idea is that the NK gov. slowly went from active, widespread suppression of such activity, to mild toleration, to open toleration, and then acceptance.

This is cruicial for me though I admit I’m weak on economic issues.

Even in this article, much better than in sum, it points out that nobody can point to any one change or group of changes that NK has taken that will work. From the start until now, even the greatest praise for North Korean “reforms” has always been predicated on the idea that they were simply “signs” of a “willingness to reform” which the regime “would surely do sometime in the near future since they did this tiny baby step….”

And that argument has been easy to knock down by opponents by saying what several people here have said —- the NK regime clearly can’t take the necessary major steps for fear of survival. And, we can always point to other things currently going on along side any minor reforms — like int. NGOs leaving out of frustration with the regime’s interference in their ability to provide aid to people with the most need for it.

By: Bluejeans

Bluejeans — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 13:23:43 +0000

I actually agree with the commenters who say that the North Korean leadership is afraid to open up because it will be the death of them. But the end result of any liberalizing of the economy will be just that.

By: baduk

baduk — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 10:57:37 +0000

http://www.forerunner.com/forerunner/X0668_Gorbachev__a_Christi.html

By: Ray

Ray — Wed, 27 Apr 2005 08:23:17 +0000

“I did not hear it in Korean church at all. I have heard it from Christian Broadcasting Network(CBN) or 700 Club.”

Gee, I guess that just about clears everything up…