First, read the following editorial article, which speculates that North Korea may be experiencing a crystal meth epidemic:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/09/opinion/09iht-edfish09.html?_r=1&ref=northkorea
The main message of the article seems to be that there might be drug issues in North Korea, but there might not. Bottom line: Because so much of what happens in North Korea is secretive, we may never truthfully understand what it is like there.
In your post, consider the article we read in class, the documentary we watched, and this article, and assess the situation in North Korea. What is the best way for the rest of the world to "deal with" Kim Jong-Il? To what extent are world leaders obligated to help the citizens of North Korea? How do we solve "the North Korean problem?"
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
14 comments:
How do we solve the North Korean problem? We don't. The U.S. does not need to get involved with them. The only people who should be helping, or fixing, North Korea should be its Asian neighbors or possibly even the UN. If anyone wants to get involved they should do it by force and put Kim Jong Il in prison and set up a new government. They say NK has a big army but I'm not sure I believe that, and if they do have a big army most of the soldiers are too weak to fight and don't have experience. Kim Jong Il should just give up.
I'm not sure that there is a good way to go about dealing with North Korea. Like any other uncomfortable political decisions, there is no black and white.
On the one hand, the people of North Korea are obviously not flourishing in their current environment. While we do not have a lot of information about the conditions in North Korea, there is enough film circulating showing young children dying of malnutrition, and enough testimonials that there are holocaust-like work camps being used to scare the population into silence, that I think that some kind of action needs to take place.
However, I do not think that there is a right way to implement this action. The last thing that the people of North Korea need is more pain and suffering, so forcing Kim Jung Il out militarily is out of the question. But, if we are opposed to war, what other options do we have? The lines of communication have been completely severed, leaving us without the capability to try to aid the North Korean people either directly through bringing in food and medicine, or indirectly through conversations with Kin Jung Il in hopes that he would change some of his policies.
So we are left with a decision between the lesser of two evils: do we put the North Korean people through a devastating war, risking our own safety in the process, or do we let them wither under the oppressive hand of Kim Jung Il? Personally, I think that we need to take our cue from the North Korean people themselves. Poll the refugees from North Korea and let them decide what is best for their homeland. While there may not be very many people to poll, it is important for them to decide their own fate. Otherwise, we run the risk of becoming an oppressive power ourselves.
I think that the best way to deal with Kim Jong- Il is to try to keep up communication with him as best as possible. Being unable to communicate with a country could be a major international problem. When the United States could not communicate with the Soviet Union, the US was in constant fear of a nucleur attack. When we do not know what another country is doing, it's the unknown that scares us. This is why the US and the Soviet Union set up the "red telephone" that was the only communication avaliable between our two countries. This way, whenever the a country was thinking of acting against the other country, they could call and delegate about the problem instead of just acting. Just like during the "red scare", we now need to be able to communicate with this dangerous country.
To be honest, I have no idea on how to deal with Kim Jong Il. If he led his country to believe that he does all the crazy things he does "for the people," there is nothing that can change his ways. For years, the UN have been discussing the issue with N.Korea because of the atomic weapons they possess, but if they just simply killed Kim Jong Il, there would be no one to handle the economic crisis in N.Korea. Even if the UN helps out, the number of people suffering are too many and will cost way too much at this point in time since economy is bad everywhere. I think all we can do to help out the citizens in N.Korea is to keep sending any sort of support as we can. Like in the video we watched in class, we can send surgions to perform surgery for the people who need serious medical help. I'm also Korean and even though N.Korea is totally different than S.Korea, where I come from, it makes me sad that such a small country is separated in to two. It makes me want to do something to help out even just one kid in N.Korea.
I believe that the best way for the world to deal with Kim Jong-Il is to just act like we're okay with the way he runs his country and that we are willing to help North Korea no matter what type of government they have. Maybe then he will be able to see that the outside world is accepting and he will allow more people in.
Truly, nobody is obligated to do anything. Some leaders chose to help because they feel North Korea will start to trust them, others help because they feel it's what they should do. but in the end they aren't obligated to do anything. I feel we can "solve" the North Korean problem by just being a helpful country.Maybe if we showed North Korea that we didn't pay much attention to their government and were actually trying to help, then maybe they could accept us more and not sing songs about how dumb they think we are. Maybe I'm being too peaceful, but i truly feel if we showed other countried that we actualy want to help and destroy the world for having different views then maybe all communist & non-communist countries would get along...
In my opinion, there is no set way for us to deal with Kim Jong-Il. I don't think we should have to. I think it's between North and South Korea to figure things out. It goes back to when North Korea bombed South Korea in late November of 2010: although it was right of the U.S. to aid, we really had no reason to. We have had plenty of our own problems to deal with along with many other countries that we are trying to help. It's reminiscent of how the Soviet Union was in the 20th century. The ones in charge at least have an idea of what they're doing, be it vague, but they do. With all due respect towards the Koreas, if we are said to be blamed for the separation of the two, then so be it.
Who cares about North Korea? they are not the U.S. problem.Let them do whatever they want and exclude themselves from the rest of the world. I understand protecting South Korea to prevent the spread of communism but how about we just train the damn South Koreans to fight for themselves. That way we can stop wasting money over there. Mos importantly stop wasting American lives protecting a country that cant fend for itself. Then we can focus on our own problems like national debt. Thanks Obama...
i dont think that we should even try to help the north koreans. No matter what it will end up with us looking like the bad guys so why waste are time and energy for a cause that will bring us down in the long run. So, we should just mind our own business until either 1. we are threatened or 2. the world is on the virge of being destroyed via nuclear warfare. Not to mention that if we do help them then we will get into more debt and that would suck. so no we shouldnt do anything comi bastards.
This is what we should do. We, as in America,should hire a north korean that is in south korea to assinate kim jung il. This is how we do it. He tries to coonvince them(north korea) to let him back into north korea because his loyalty belongs to his great leader. But in reality his loyalty is to America. So he gets back to North Korea and BAM!!! assinates kim jung il and his son. So we cant be blamed for them dying. It was a north korean. So America goes into north korea steals the nucleur stuff and then take over the country! Then everyone will thank us and then we could either take over the world. Or force every other counrty to pay taxes to us and we become the best counrty. And if other counrties dont do that threaten to drop boms on everybody and ruin the world. The reason why we should do that is because America is boss and we stole the land we have now so why not snake other lands and take over and run them!
I believe theres no possible way we can deal with Noth Korea beacuse of the of Kim Jonh Il.As much as people would like to help Korean people "we" can't even find a way to enter to North Korea. Many outsiders would like to know what actually happens in that place.Trying to "solve" this problem might cause chaos with other countries , U.S shouldn't get involve beacuse they already hate us why make try helping them out when they might think we want to harm them and take over...
i think its better if we stay neutral.
After reading this all I have to say is North Korea brought this on themselfes. I think that Kim Jong Il needs to relize what he has done to North Korea and ask for help. It's come to the point were so many people are dieing and it's make him look bad as a leader. I think North Korea needs to stand up for themslfes and say this needs to end now. As for the US, all we can do is wait for North Korea to come relization and ask for help outside of there counrty. Also North Korea needs to get over what happend in the past and move to what is going now in the futur.
There really never will be a good way to go about dealing with North Korea. Kim Jong Il has isolated his country completely, and it doesn't look like there's much of a chance of North Korea being more inclusive in the future. To avoid any more possible conflict, it is best for the U.S. to stay out of anything and everything involving North Korea. Since North Korea is now developing nuclear weapons, they are very dangerous and they now propose a very large threat to the rest of the world. If we try to get involved, it would also be putting ourselves in danger. Instead, South Korea should try to amend any problems between North and South Korea, hoping for that to result in North Korea opening up more to the rest of the world. It will always be up to North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il as to what he wants to do. He is in full power and all of his people respect and admire him greatly. Without his consent, North Korea will continue to be isolated completely. Since he seems pretty stubborn, it doesn't look like there's much of a chance of getting through to him. That's why it would be best for everyone to just leave North Korea to itself, especially the U.S.
There's only one way to deal with North Korea and its simple North Korea + America = no more North Korea simply because America is > North Korea. On the logical side of things we need to act on N. Korea ASAP, if we dont were going to find ourselves in alot deeper trouble than were in now. Clearly the situation there can only get worse so we need to keep up the American way, storm in with everything we've got and plant democracy right in the Heart of North Korea. If we do this we can proudly remain a nation seeking peace in the world.
First of all I think that it's best that we don't get involved with anything that has to do with North Korea. With there rising drug problems and who knoes what else it isn't a good idea to intervene because all of the North Koreans already hate all Americans as it is. There is no point to trying to help them because it would probably just hurt us more then help. Kim-Jong_Il has a mind of his own and is capable of doing horrible things. For the US to get involved with anything that has to do with him I htink its a horrible idea and we should just try and stay away the best we can.
Post a Comment