Silly ignant kyopo.

I’d also like to throw in my opinion about the movie: It was absolutely terribly stupid. I can see how people would take it as an ‘anti-Japan’ movie, but it’s pure stupidness as a movie greatly overshadowed that to the point that I don’t even bother…

I don’t think this means war is the only option–if S.K. and China phase out support while allowing (as Mr. Lankov has suggested) amnesty to the leadership, N.K. might implode in a somewhat manageable way. But the U.S. should still be involved to ensure that China does not fill the power vacuum with a puppet gov’t.

Ah, but the reason why SK and China are supporting NK (China to a larger extent than SK) is precisely that they dont want NK to implode.

Even if SK went fully along with the US in applying sanction to NK, China would not. This is why I believe a NK collapse is unlikely to begin with. The Chinese would nip that problem at the bud even before the problem happens because prior to the eventual collapse, all the warning signs of collapse would be evident.

But if SK endorsed the US led sanction policy, they would jeopardize any future hopes of intra-Korean reconciliation. Why throw away this option for an undesirable event which is not going to happen away?
This is basically the reason why SK is forced to contradict the US. SK’s diplomatic position is trully uneviable because it is forced to face so many dilemmas, it can cause great migraine headaches.

If war is not an option and collapse is not an option, what is left?

The US and the world needs to get used to the idea that NK will remain a dictatorship for a while. Even if a collapse happened, NK would still be a dictatorship during the post collapse period. No nation goes from being the world’s most extreme form of totalitarianism to being a democracy or whatever overnight.

But the idea is to slowly transform NK into a rational nation by helping it get integrated into the world economy. A dictatorship NK, albeit integrated into the world economy, is essentially no different from pre-1995 SK.

2. i can’t wait for the ‘hanbando’ dvd.

3. don’t like how the koreans portray japan? then don’t watch them. it’s that simple.

4. china won’t be dominating korea since the conditions that existed in the past do not exist today. think about it.

Has anybody seen 2009: Lost Memories with Kang Dong Gun? It’s an alternate reality sci-fi flick in which Japan maintains control over the Korea throughout the century. The movie itself is pretty bad and forgettable, but the premise is interesting.

You know what annoyed me about that movie? The utter lack of imagination. I know that the director and screenwriter were just following the anti-Japan plotting of the book, but if you could really change the destinies of both countries, the moral choice would’ve been to plot a third history for Korea and Japan that left both countries independent and prosperous. Instead, for the sake of Korean pride, the film winds up with the evils of the 20th century repeated all over again for Koreans and Japanese alike.

But, hey, who needs deep philosophy when “F— Japan” (or “F— the US”) is the only political statements that make their way into your popular movies?

Thanks for the troll comments, Bluejives. Where would South Korea be now, if the US hadn’t been here for the past 50 years? It would exist as the southern part of the DPRK under the benevolent tutelage of the Dear Leader.