A South Korean military source says North Korea has refused to accept yesterday’s radio message from the head of the South Korea delegation to intra-Korean military talks, calling it “an excuse” and warning that the North would take “military response measures,” reports Yonhap.
The South Koreans had demanded the North stop fomenting tensions, observe nonaggression agreements and generally stop being wankers.
By “military response measures,” Yonhap said the North appears to mean banning South Korean officials, including military officials, from passing through the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), but also possible were short-range missile launches and other fun stuff.
The South Korean Defense Ministry will reportedly confer to decide on a response.
45 Comments
Welcome to the Korean war part 2. Atleast Korea will be united in the end.
“Atleast Korea will be united in the end.”
See, there’s your first mistake.
No one actually wants reunification. Not the North, not the South, not the U.S. and certainly not China.
That’s what this is really all about.
Thanks for your ingenious insight.
Look dont blame Korea for your angry white nerd syndrome.
# 2,
I disagree, at least for South Korea’s sake. They want reunification much like a 12 year old kid wants a rottweiler. You dream about how much more fun life would be with a playful pet by your side until once you get it and realize that thing spews out 15 lbs worth of sh*t a day and turns your backyard into a chewed up sh*t filled mess.
Is it time for the UN (and/or the six parties minus NK) to get together and have a meeting on just what exactly to do if the brown stuff hits the fan?
Sounds NK’s itching for a confrontation to see just how far 2MB wants to take it.
Will 2MB back down and try to get back to the table with NK or match fire with fire?
I’m already thinking about commandeering a dinghy just in case I have to go down to 여수 and take the small, leaky boat to China!
I say wait for the opening olympic cermony. Then suck it up and go bomb the shit out of Kim’s regime. Do it quick hard and fast.
Timing it in with the olympics will not only kill it but somewhat limit China’s involvement. In reality though its going to end up becoming the beginning of a China vs US war.
I wonder if this means English teachers can hold out for a raise ?
Wow, I thought I was the only conspiracy theorist around here.
I need to find a copy of ‘Catcher in the Rye.’
Perhaps I should start up MT for survivalists. We can watch reruns of Man vs. Wild and have discussions on the use of the cotton masks that the general populace uses vs purchasing a medical grade air filtered mask. Remember kids, SARS (bird flu) is only a mutation away.
I wonder if the ROKs are going to ignore this comment and conduct business as usual. You know, not giving credence to cretins and all. And just wait to be provoked militarily by the Norks, just so they can spanked their little brothers.
#3: I think it’s obvious to just about anyone reading this thread who’s really angry, but let me spell it out for you:
1. The South doesn’t want reunification because it’d be too expensive and nuke the economy.
2. The North doesn’t want reunification because it’s to the gallows for the regime in power.
3. The U.S. doesn’t want reunification because it will diminish its hegemonic presence in NE Asia.
4. China doesn’t want reunification because it doesn’t want a democracy with U.S. troops on its border.
In the meantime, the status quo will persist and everyone will just focus on making money for now.
By the way, according to Stacked I’m a nerd and according to Brendon I’m a hipster. Can you guys please sort it out amongst yourselves, so that I can tell my extremely hot 22-year-old girlfriend what kind of guy she’s really consorting with?
Reminds me of a girl I used to date in college.
Yup, #4 is actually an excellent analogy — thank you, WangKon936.
Re: #9 King Baeksu Point #4:
Perhaps just been technical but it should be pointed out — China probably indeed doesn’t want a reunification that would bring a democracy to its border (not really so far from its capital), but the idea of US soldiers coming to its borders again is probably not much of a concern — the way things are, it would be very few US troops, not nearly enough to threaten China in any way, and most probably it would be zero — I have always assumed that in any reunification scenario of the South taking over the North, it would be understood that American troops don’t go anywhere near that border (if they were necessary in the operation at all), probably would have no reason to go north of Pyeongyang. No reason that South Korean soldiers couldn’t handle things up there just fine. And if any Americans were involved in the takeover, i’d imagine they would be quickly withdrawn from the North as soon as any stability was achieved, let the Southerners handle it… Otherwise would threaten a guerrilla-warfare quagmire, China-sponsored or not.
And, hipster-nerd is a perfectly viable lifestyle/outlook identity-tag these days, why not? — wear it as a badge of honor…
speaking of conspiracy theories. . . one of my students told me that those wacky programmers in silicon valley are the ones keeping NK and SK from reunification, because putting NK cheap labour to work building microchips with SK know-how would undercut every other microchip maker in the world, and the New United People’s Republic Of Democratic Sparkle would corner the world market on chips and IT.
So Baeksu: let’s hope you’re a nerd, because then you’d (apparently) have the clout to influence geopolitics way across the ocean from yourself, while hipsters only get to wear ironic t-shirts and have their haircuts mocked behind their backs.
#10,
Let me guess…she dumped you when she found you digging holes and dropping large ones in her backyard.
“NK cheap labour to work building microchips with SK know-how would undercut every other microchip maker in the world”
Right, and a South Korean microchip maker didn’t pay a huge fine recently for using its market share to keep the price of microchips artificially high.
oh, but such cheap manufacturing means they could undercut the competition and close them down, while STILL making a huge profit — if you could increase your profit while torpedoing your competition, you’d do it, wouldn’t you?
#13
Actually she dumped me when I gave her a “Dram’s Bitch” charm “braclet”.
Right, north Koreans are going to go from the vacuum tube era to microprocessors?
South Korean companies would have to
import a south Korean factory with south Korean fabrication equipment, bring south Korean chip inputs, import south Koreans with actual 21st century engineering skills to run it.
Anything beyond pouring the cement is going to
be too advanced for North Korea. Communism continues to suck.
it’d be easier for mohammed to go to the mountain than for the mountain to go to mohammed — I’m sure at first they’d just import cheap NK labour into already built factories in the south, until they could put together the necessary infrastructure and start training workers.
metropolitician once wrote (can’t find the link: too lazy) that if Korea reunites, we’d see NK workers replace all those not-really-wanted migrant factory workers from Indonesia, China and the Phillipines. That’d be where it begins.
Whether the N. . . but wait a minute. Why am I defending my student’s conspiracy theory? I’ve got my own! (which I’ll save for later)
#6 The only problem with your plan is the 15,000 pipes aimed at Seoul. Not much you can do to stop artillery rounds.
Oh, 10 years of Sunshine has left you too impressed by Nork rhetoric, y’all - which is what they want.
This is just run-of-the-mill ranting, it means nothing - “Argly-bargdly, puppet clique, blah blah, imperialist quackity quack quack, huff n puff n blowwww yr house down, etc. etc. ” A big yawn is the best response. Oh, they’ll launch some missiles fearlessly into the sea…ohhh. There’s 3 less missiles they have, huh? Maybe a few round fired at the treetops at the DMZ…ooohh…Korean war 3 must be coming. ”
3 years from now, they’ll still be blathering, and it will still mean nothing. They are running a ‘drunk-raving-adjosshi’ foreign policy.
“They are running a ‘drunk-raving-adjosshi’ foreign policy”
Meaning, a whole lot of fearsome noise and fistwaving, and little in the way of actual violence.
Well, guess it’s almost time to see how a generation of Starcraft infatuated youth holds up in battle!
Anyway, on a side note, I’d agree that most major companies are looking forward to some sort of contained reunification, as it means cheaper than Chinese labor right in the back yard. Of course, they don’t give a rats ass if other social issues are messed up in the process, and it’s unlikely the government will side with the poor and (the slowly dwindling) middle class.
It would be bit harder than Rho admin. but NK will gained what they want and yet they will continue to obscure their activities and do what they like.
Nothing has changed . The problem is that these kind of NK treats just became dog barkings from neighborhood to ordinary Korean these days. It’s annoying but you are just get used to it. There won’t be any chaotic at the Emart for Ramyeon, Hatban, or soju…people have list of other things to worry about.
It would be bit harder than Rho admin. but NK will gained what they want and yet they will continue to obscure their activities and do what they like.
Nothing has changed . The problem is that these kind of NK treats just became dog barkings from neighborhood to ordinary Korean these days. It’s annoying but you are just get used to it. There won’t be any chaotic at the Emart for Ramyeon, Hatban, or soju…people have list of other things to worry about.
@9 A 22 year old?? Well played.
I’m 23. I call dibs, damnit.
> my extremely hot 22-year-old girlfriend
Y’know, Royal Slacker, when saying that if you don’t link to an evidentiary photo or three, we find it difficult to believe… and it’s much less fun for us. Semi-nude shots would be preferable…
> my extremely hot 22-year-old girlfriend
Y’know, Royal Slacker, when saying that if you don’t link to an evidentiary photo or three, we find it difficult to believe… and it’s much less fun for us. Semi-nude shots would be preferable…
I have hot 22-year old Korean chicks flocking to me when I go out in public these days….but only when I have Baby Linkd strapped to my chest.
#27 - Hear, hear
King Baeksu - As they say in Internet land, ‘Post pics or STFU’
Sanshinseon, I do have pics of her (she even gave me an instant camera for Xmas that is well-used), but somehow I doubt she’d appreciate being at the center of a Marmot’s Hole soggy biscuit face-off. And while I would be happy to bring her along to the next RAS lecture, she’s pretty busy with her own classes these days since she’s nearing graduation.
However, in the spirit of compromise, I believe the Marmot himself can vouch from personal experience that I am not entirely lacking in the charm department when it comes to the ladies.
So as soon as he gets off the phone with Kim Jong-illin’, why not ask him yourself?
Baeks, talking about such things is just going to add to pawi and other haters’ complex. So keep talking.
@32 - Obsess much?
#32: Cmm, I am of the mind that lost souls like Pawi should not be forsaken, for we are all interconnected in this small world, are we not?
With that in mind, I would have no problem giving Pawi a few pointers on American women, should he be inclinded to ask.
I’m a strong believer in the ethic of reciprocity, after all.
I love how this thread has turned into a make love, not war thing.
Brilliant!
@33 only in response
just saw 34 and 35. 쿰바이야..
Yes, it’s a touching idea. I wonder if he’d be willing to take our advice though, because he’s certainly above “the expat,” and he’s of the mind that we are in Korea because we can’t pull back in the States.
But yes, if he asks, I’ll graciously respond.
“@9 A 22 year old?? Well played.”
Maybe not when she’s not bright enough to work out if he’s a nerd or a hipster without him telling her!!!! [so that I can tell my extremely hot 22-year-old girlfriend what kind of guy she’s really consorting with?]
PS other than that #9 is a pretty good hpothesis
can everybody please just collectively decide to leave North Korea alone until they send us all apologies and fruit baskets?
Until that happens I don’t want to hear about North Korea at all, or until they actually back up some of their words…hopefully they choose fruit baskets
#9,
Good one. Your extremely hot gf? Let me guess you have none. You most likely wont ever.
1. The South does want reunification. The two however will not merge until substantial development has occurred.
2. What the North wants is irrelevant. That regime needs to die.
3. The U.S. does want reunification. Korea is an important ally in the region and only makes their position stronger. Along with Japan.
4. China definitely doesn’t want reunification. But more to the point, China doesn’t have much of a say. It cannot even convince this guy to get rid of nukes.
after so much bluster, I want more than a paltry fruit basket from Kim Jong-il. An extremely hot 22 year old would settle all grievances, though.
what if it was a really nice fruit basket, like with coconuts and stuff…also, maybe they could do a sing a gram
I think that would be enough, I mean, other then really annoy everybody what have they done (human rights abuses to their own population do not count…I only care about myself)
ooh! a sing-a-gram? I could forgive a lot of human rights abuses for a sing-a-gram!
And hot 22-year-olds aside, if you offered me tickets to an upcoming Olympics, and the promise of a continued supply of cheaply manufactured, outsourced goods, I could turn a blind eye to just about anything!
#41: Let’s see, Stacked, according to your argument, the US, Japan and South Korea all want reunification, what the North wants is irrelevent, and only China is obviously opposed to reunification. Therefore, China has more power over the combined forces of the US, Japan and South Korea — because otherwise reunification would have already happened and China is merely standing in the way — and yet China is at the same time utterly powerless to control what even a tiny irrelevant country like the North does both inside its borders and on the world stage.
You, sir, are a geopolitical genius!