Why don't the North Koreans revolt against their leader/government ?

The Vice guide to North Korea

It’s the world’s most militarized country, isn’t it? Given that the forces there are relatively well looked after, we can assume they would remain loyal to the state.

So how would you overthrow that?

I read a book about the US Special Ops Group (S.O.G) during the Vietnam war. They played all kinds of tricks to get people questioning the regime*.

They’d hide incriminating evidence in the possesions of upstanding, honest members of the community, then get them shopped to the authorities. When that person and their family were taken away it would make people doubt the powers that be as everyone knew that he was a good bloke. “If they’re taking him off for ‘reeducation’ when the whole town know’s he’s done nothing wrong then what’s to stop me being taken away too?”

They also used to pick people up, bundle them onto (really fast) boats and take them to South Vietnam. They’d pretend they were still in North Vietnam (we were only on the boat for an hour, so how could we have got all the way to South Vietnam. They’d pretend that they had a secret rebel enclave with loads of food, clean clothes etc hidden in the North, then they’d get back on the boat and drop the person back in the North to spread the word and sow the seeds of doubt.

*I can’t remember how it ended, I presume it worked and ‘we’ won, right?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/a-digital-escape-from-north-koreas-secret-state-kim-jongun-faces-threat-from-undercover-films-posted-on-the-web-8931494.html

I can’t remember how it ended, I presume it worked and ‘we’ won, right?

Ha! It’s a lasting irony that western (mostly US) interference in the far east either directly led to or strongly influenced China, N Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia becoming communist.

I read a book about the US Special Ops Group (S.O.G) during the Vietnam war. They played all kinds of tricks to get people questioning the regime

Also, lots of other, non-civilian stuff. Like sneaking into arms dumps and hiding exploding rounds among the Chinese ammunition. Thgat got the Vietnamese doubting their allies. The ammo they gave us keeps exploding and killing us. But theirs never does it. Are they deliberately giving us rubbish stuff and saving the safe stuff for themselves?

Yeah, yeah…. You ‘re all slagging it off, focussing on the whole brainwashing, and ruthless oppression stuff, but let’s look at the positives.

Did you see them build a whole ski resort in, like, a frickin week!!!! Just cos chubby chops mentioned he fancied a crack at snowboarding!!!

We should be doing that here. HS2? 45 Billion quid plus? Not any more!!!

Oi!!!! Dole scum!! Turn that Jeremy Kyle off!!!! Put that Stella down!!!! Pick that shovel up!!! And get ****ing digging!!! Now!!!!

piemonster – Member

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/a-digital-escape-from-north-koreas-secret-state-kim-jongun-faces-threat-from-undercover-films-posted-on-the-web-8931494.html

Interesting article. The Young Pretender’s slide from power will be a very absorbing watch over the next year or so…

Oh, and
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/13/north-korea-jang-song-thaek-execution?CMP=twt_gu

North Korea accused Jang Song-thaek of being ‘careerist and trickster’

• Pyongyang statement ‘justifies’ execution of Kim’s uncle
• Jang accused of plotting to overthrow leadership
• Described as ‘despicable human scum … worse than a dog’

unfitgeezer – Member

Rusty Spanner – Member
For the same reasons we don’t.

Thats a bit of a juvenile remark our lives are very different, are we starving live in fear etc…NO

I know our lives are very different.
The reasons why we don’t revolt are, however, exactly the same.

If you disagree, tell me why.

I know our lives are very different.
The reasons why we don’t revolt are, however, exactly the same.

If you disagree, tell me why.

You tell me why ?

And you called ME juvenile?
😀

I’m perfectly prepared to enter into a constructive debate on the subject.

Once you’ve made your mind up, let me know and we can skip together, hand in hand along the road of reason.

If not, we’ll just hurl insults at each other.
My turn – your auntie smells of sprouts and gargles ocelot wee.

Wow its the playground debating society, just out of interest whose dad is the hardest

Oh shut up, we’re enjoying it.

Rusty Spanner – Member
And you called ME juvenile?

I only asked the question as to why they dont revolt I never said I had the answers !
But like any post on here the one asking the question is always the accused.

Junkyard – lazarus
Wow its the playground debating society, just out of interest whose dad is the hardest

Shut it or I’ll take your apple

Any rebels with enough arms and brutality to overthrow a heavily militarized government would probably make a pretty brutal militarized government themselves.

Wow its the playground debating society

😉

CaptainFlashheart

Help a fellow North of the river Londoner…for the sake of the children if nothing else

😳

😀

Any rebels with enough arms and brutality to overthrow a heavily militarized government would probably make a pretty brutal militarized government themselves.

Change might come from the barrel of a gun but that doesn’t mean the only way to overthrow a government is with arms and brutality.

Leave Dear Leader alone …

Please do not disturb a peaceful nation unless you want to feed them for the rest of your life.

N.Korea should forever remain as a close nation and outsiders should mind their own business.

Long Live Dear Leader!!!

Down with the zombie maggot pig dogs!!!

🙄

The reasons why we don’t revolt are, however, exactly the same

No they aren’t.

The reason they don’t revolt is that they know they will instantly get shot and their families will be persecuted. (Obviously this only applies to those that feel that they are getting a terrible deal in the first place, which I’m not convinced is the majority)

We don’t revolt because, despite your political leanings, you’ll know deep down that we don’t have it so bad, and that things could be much much worse. However, if there was a real sense of prevailing injustice in this country I’d be fairly confident of going out on the street to protest, safe in the knowledge that A: I might be listened to and B: I wouldn’t instantly be shot

The threat of death is not the main driver not to revolt, death could be the better option. How about mass prison / labour camps where starvation, rape and murder are daily highlights. Camps with no prospect of you ever leaving. You could be sent there even if the thought you wanted to revolt, you don’t actually need to initiate anything. And just for good measure, they will also lock away all of your family, kids, grandparents, the lot. Guilt by association.

I wouldn’t risk it.

I think you should try a revolution /overthrow the govt and then get back to us on that one

you really think they wont resist with [lethal] force?

We can have greater freedom to protest here [ bit only as long as they know it wont change anything] but we have no more freedom to really protest….see a general strike for example

Heck even America could get involved !

+ 1 tpbiker

Ha! It’s a lasting irony that western (mostly US) interference in the far east either directly led to or strongly influenced China, N Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia becoming communist.

I’m a little rusty on recent Asian history but isn’t it mostly French colonialism that resulted in Vietnam (North), Laos and Cambodia going communist, what with most of the leaders being educated in Paris in the 30’s and picking up their Marxist leanings there?
As for China, I think a civil war and the winner being backed by Stalin probably played a bigger part in them going ‘pinko commie’.
North Korea was just because the Russian had covered that ground when WW2 stopped and decided to install someone they trusted to run the shop, ditto the yanks in the South.

The main interference by the US started to happen during the cold war, it had lead isolationist policies up until WW2.

Oops sorry, err diverting from the thread a little, my dad built a wooden bike with 100 wooden gears, what did your’s do?

there are some truly horrific stories to come out of N Koreas prison camps
people who oppose the regime end up there
http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/20169796/new-satellite-images-show-scale-of-north-koreas-prison-camps/

and it seems they are being expanded by kim jongun

I’m a little rusty on recent Asian history but isn’t it mostly French colonialism that resulted in Vietnam (North), Laos and Cambodia going communist, what with most of the leaders being educated in Paris in the 30’s and picking up their Marxist leanings there?
As for China, I think a civil war and the winner being backed by Stalin probably played a bigger part in them going ‘pinko commie’.

Cambodia: Heavily bombed by US in the “secret war”. US-backed government overthrown by Khmer Rouge and communist Vietnamese forces.
Laos: Heavily bombed by US in the “secret war”. US-backed government overthrown by insurrection and communist Vietnamese forces.
S. Vietnam: US-backed government overthrown by Soviet-backed communist N. Vietnam and Vietcong following defeat in the war.
China: US-backed Kuomintang overthrown by Soviet-backed communist forces.

Just watching a report on the news about this. He has already been airbrushed out of official videos and photographs. Fascinating and frightening

tpbiker – Member
However, if there was a real sense of prevailing injustice in this country I’d be fairly confident of going out on the street to protest, safe in the knowledge that A: I might be listened to and B: I wouldn’t instantly be shot

unfitgeezer – Member

I only asked the question as to why they dont revolt I never said I had the answers !
But like any post on here the one asking the question is always the accused.

I know. I couldn’t resist. 😀

I agree about the freedoms we have in this country – despite what you might think I’m very proud of our tolerance and sense of justice.

But we’re talking about a revolt, not a spot of light looting or trustafarian hellraising.

If there was a chance of a populist revolt causing any kind of disruption to the status quo, it would be violently repressed.

Really, there is no difference in the way either government would react in the face of mass armed insurrection:
The British media would resume it’s role as a government mouthpiece, individual freedom would be ruthlessly repressed and the armed forces and police force would be called on to ensure that both civil disobedience and legitimate protest would be met by violent force without the slightest hope of any accountability.

And that’s the way most people in the UK actually like it.

The problem is, as a nation we’re actually really good at mass violence, civil war and insurrection.
We lost a sizeable percentage of our population last time we tried it.

The British media would resume it’s role as a government mouthpiece, individual freedom would be ruthlessly repressed and the armed forces and police force would be called on to ensure that both civil disobedience and legitimate protest would be met by violent force without the slightest hope of any accountability.

Many say we’re getting close to this already.

I think you should try a revolution /overthrow the govt and then get back to us on that one

why would I want to do that? I know how good we have it.

you really think they wont resist with [lethal] force?

Well yeah actually, id be fairly confident (on the assumption that the overthrow of the govenment was attempted by non violent means).

We can have greater freedom to protest here [ bit only as long as they know it wont change anything] but we have no more freedom to really protest….see a general strike for example

Sorry I don’t agree with that at all. Either way I can’t beleive anyone would argue that in the UK we don’t have a greater freedom to ‘really protest’ than in North Korea. The two countries aren’t comparable in any way.

recent stories in the press about x amounts of people dying from the cold this winter, food bank use rising alarmingly, and children born into poverty, could be reported by a foreign regime as Britain being on the brink of problems not too dissimilar to NK’s….depends how you spin it, innit

Goodness me – I’ve just been reading about the place. A dozen muscians were executed by machine gun fire in August on alledged charges of violating ponography laws – one of them, Hyon Song-wol, was a former girlfriend of Kim Jong-un. Their families and other band members were made to watch the executions, then banged up as they are guilty by association, which seems a bit harsh. Even more eyebrow-raising, Kim Chol, a Vice Minister in the army, was stood on a spot that a mortar had been zeroed in on, and was then mortared to death.

Now I know why people worry about them having the bomb…

• Described as ‘despicable human scum … worse than a dog’

Delicious?

pondo – Member
Goodness me – I’ve just been reading about the place…..

WTF??

Where did you read this?

lilchris – Member
• Described as ‘despicable human scum … worse than a dog’
Delicious?

At the rate Supreme Leader is handling the matters of the nation he will soon turn his land into mass prison camp. Hurray! Down with the zombie maggot pig dogs!

Supreme Leader is doing everyone a favour by solving the problem of overcrowding without the need for foreign aid.

Bow down and salute Supreme Leader’s indefatigability and admire his chubby waistline.

😈

Rusty Spanner – Member
For the same reasons we don’t.

I don’t think the North Koreans live a life of comfortable consumer excess! 😀

seosamh77 – Member
Rusty Spanner – Member
For the same reasons we don’t.
I don’t think the North Koreans live a life of consumer excess!

Yes, they do. They are overeating …