Post: #1051

Kim has started wearing white (now dressing semi casual ??) and is also is publicly dissing other officials, and openly criticizing uncompleted construction projects.
Neither of these things ever happened before.

Quote:Kim Jong-un blasts delays in North Korean economic projects

17 July 2018

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44855699?


North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has launched an unusual barrage of criticism at officials over delays in completing economic projects. The country's leaders usually praise officials during factory visits. But this time state media said he was "speechless" a power plant was only 70% complete and "appalled" by hot-spring bathtubs "dirtier than fish tanks".

Pyongyang has long pushed for economic progress as the secondary aim alongside developing nuclear arms. Mr Kim's latest inspection tour took him to four sites in North Hamgyong province, bordering China. At Orangchon power station, he complained that only 70% of the facility had been completed, 17 years after construction began. At a hotel in the city of Yombunjin, he noted that six years into the construction project, plastering was still not finished. Visiting the Onpho holiday resort, he pointed out bathtubs that were "dirty, gloomy and unsanitary", state-run KCNA news agency reported. After visiting a bag factory, he said the provincial party committee was "working in a perfunctory manner". What we appear to be seeing is a leader eager to project the image of an economic reformer both at home and abroad.

Kim Jong-un made a promise to his people when he took power in 2011. He told them living standards would improve and that he would implement reforms to build the economy alongside making his country a nuclear power. Now that he's declared the nuclear programme complete, he is trying to show North Koreans that he's making good on his economic pledge. He is also shifting any blame for the failure to complete the projects on to local party officials, rather than his leadership. He appears keen for foreign media to see this too. North Korea has been trying to brush away suggestions that it has no intention to denuclearise. There has been very little progress on disarmament since Mr Kim met Donald Trump in Singapore. This latest very colourful and public incident allows Mr Kim to argue that his focus is very much on the economy - not on building nuclear weapons. North Korea's domestic newspaper Rodong Sinmun devoted a whole nine pages to the story.

"Normally such things are not done in the open press which, in the overwhelming majority of cases, maintains the image of the DPRK [North Korea] as a perfect country," analyst Fyodor Tertitskiy of NK News told the BBC. There was no escape for the officials involved later in the day either, with state television's main evening news extended from its usual 20 minutes to a full hour to accommodate reports on Mr Kim's inspection visits and his fury at performance.

Senior news reader Ri Chun-hee was among Central TV's team of four announcers who took turns to read KCNA scripts saying that officials had "no revolutionary spirit", the strongest words aimed at senior officials on national media since weather forecasters were publicly chided for their poor performance in 2014. In a move perhaps designed to heap shame on the officials, the hour before the main news had carried a compilation of Mr Kim's successful inspection tours over previous years.

Post: #1052

RVF users sherman, sterling_archer, and Mercenary (me) took a lot of heat and insults in this thread over the past year for our theories and opinions on what is really going on in North Korea. Our gut instinct told us never to believe anything the maninstream media said about North Korea.

However it looks like the 3 of us might be right about Kim and North Korea all along.
Jay Dyer might have been right all along too. He wrote about this this way back on April 18, 2017.
My next post will explain.

Post: #1053

...



What has Qanon said about North Korea on 4chan and 8chan over the last 8 months ?














Trump was telling us the truth all along....he hardly ever mentioned or insulted Kim, he was always bashing rocket man in his tweets and at the united nations.

Did you know this guy wrote a book ?

Post: #1054

Who is Trump really talking about in this speech from last year ?
Does he ever say the word "Kim" ?
Look at my above post with the book photo.

Post: #1055

I thought this was the North Korea thread, not the "Q" thread.

North Korea appears to be dismantling satellite launch site

Quote:

Last Updated Jul 24, 2018 1:41 PM EDT

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea appears to have started dismantling key facilities at its main satellite launch site in a step toward fulfilling a commitment made by leader Kim Jong Un at his summit with President Trump in June.

While Pyongyang could be trying to build trust with Washington as they engage in talks to resolve the nuclear standoff, analysts say dismantling a few facilities at the site alone wouldn't realistically reduce North Korea's military capability or represent a material step toward denuclearization. And they expressed concern the work is being done without verification.

The North Korea-focused 38 North website said commercial satellite images between July 20 and 22 indicate the North began dismantling key facilities at the Sohae launch site. The facilities being razed or disassembled include a rocket engine test stand used to develop liquid-fuel engines for ballistic missiles and space-launch vehicles and a rail-mounted processing building where space launch vehicles were assembled before being moved to the launch pad, according to the report.

"Since these facilities are believed to have played an important role in the development of technologies for the North's intercontinental ballistic missile program, these efforts represent a significant confidence building measure on the part of North Korea," analyst Joseph Bermudez wrote in the report.
NKOREA-MILITARY-NUCLEAR-MISSILE

This undated picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 19, 2017, shows the ground jet test of a newly developed high-thrust engine at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground in North Korea.
Getty

U.S. intelligence agreed with 38 North that the dismantling of the engine test site has begun but the site's foundations have not yet been removed, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.

Lindsey Graham says Trump being "played" by North Korea

An official from South Korea's presidential office on Tuesday said Seoul has also been detecting dismantlement activities at the Sohae launch site but did not specify what the North was supposedly taking apart.

Other analysts said North Korea is giving up little in dismantling the rocket engine test site when it's clear the country is satisfied with its current design of long-range weapons and could easily build other similar facilities if needed in the future.

Adam Mount, a senior defense analyst at the Federation of American Scientists, said it's also troubling that the North has been apparently allowed to duck verification by unilaterally dismantling parts of its nuclear and missile facilities without the presence of international inspectors. North Korea in May invited foreign journalists to observe the destruction of tunnels at its nuclear testing ground, but did not invite outside experts capable of certifying what had been destroyed.

"The actions at Sohae are a helpful signal that Pyongyang wants to continue negotiations, but do not in themselves advance nuclear disarmament," Mount said in an email. "North Korea still has not disclosed or offered to dismantle facilities that produce or store nuclear or missile systems, or the means to transport the missiles. So far, the facilities dismantled have been peripheral to these core functions."

Lee Choon Geun, a missile expert at South Korea's Science and Technology Policy Institute, said the North's supposed move to dismantle the rail-mounted processing building was the more meaningful development as it potentially indicated to broader dismantlement activities at the site.
A combination of two satellite images show activity at the Sohae rocket launch site

A combination of two satellite images taken on June 22, 2018 (top) and July 22, 2018 show activity at the Sohae rocket launch site in North Korea.
Planet Labs Inc/Handout/REUTERS

"If North Korea goes further and dismantle the entire Sohae site, that would meaningfully reduce the country's long-range missile capability by eliminating a facility where it could fire multiple ICBMs in succession," Lee said. "The North can also fire ICBMs from transporter erector launchers, but their technology with these vehicles isn't stable."

However, Mount said the military consequences of a broader dismantlement would be "marginal." North Korea has invested a great deal of effort in ensuring its missiles can be fired from austere locations and doesn't require a site like Sohae, he said.

"Dismantling a test site does not seriously constrain the existing arsenal or even future designs," said Mount. "While it would be a significant step for the regime to shut down its space launch programs, it has always argued that these programs are distinct from military ones. Easing the missile threat would require restrictions on the number, types, or capabilities of missiles or the vehicles that transport and fire them."

After his summit with Kim in Singapore on June 12, Mr. Trump said he was told by Kim that the North was "already destroying a major missile engine testing site" without identifying which site. The leaders concluded their summit by declaring their vague aspirational goal of moving toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, but there's lingering doubts on whether Kim would ever agree to fully give up the nuclear weapons he may see as a stronger guarantee of his survival that whatever security assurances the United States can provide.

Kim in late 2017 declared his nuclear weapons and missile program was complete, following a torrent of nuclear and missile tests that include the detonation of a purported thermonuclear warhead and flight tests of three developmental ICBMs potentially capable of reaching the U.S. mainland. Kim announced the mission of his nuclear testing site as finished weeks before inviting foreign journalists to observe the destruction of the tunnels.

The South Korean presidential official, who didn't want to be named, citing office rules, said the supposed dismantlement activities shows the North is moving gradually.

"We need further analysis to figure out why the North didn't turn the dismantlement activities into an event and whether the country is trying to control the speed of the process to maintain a pace it wants," he said.

Post: #1056

(07-26-2018 09:04 AM)Mercenary Wrote:  RVF users sherman, sterling_archer, and Mercenary (me) took a lot of heat and insults in this thread over the past year for our theories and opinions on what is really going on in North Korea. Our gut instinct told us never to believe anything the maninstream media said about North Korea.

However it looks like the 3 of us might be right about Kim and North Korea all along.
Jay Dyer might have been right all along too. He wrote about this this way back on April 18, 2017.
My next post will explain.

You lost me. What exactly were you three right about?

Post: #1057

(07-26-2018 02:06 PM)TravelerKai Wrote:  

(07-26-2018 09:04 AM)Mercenary Wrote:  RVF users sherman, sterling_archer, and Mercenary (me) took a lot of heat and insults in this thread over the past year for our theories and opinions on what is really going on in North Korea. Our gut instinct told us never to believe anything the maninstream media said about North Korea.

However it looks like the 3 of us might be right about Kim and North Korea all along.
Jay Dyer might have been right all along too. He wrote about this this way back on April 18, 2017.
My next post will explain.

You lost me. What exactly were you three right about?

We were the only 3 RVF users that put into doubt what was really going on in North Korea. We knew that Kim was not a bad person, and that what we were being told about North Korea by the mainstream media was all lies.


Here's what I wrote in the "Q" thread, but belongs here as well.


This is not my theory but it's similiar to what I've always suspected.
The explanation was provided by Qanon (White House insider close to Trump) on 4chan and 8chan in various different posts there. On their own they don't make much sense, but read them all at once you understand a clear picture. I haven't posted all of them, but I did read them all on public websites.

Basically Qanon is saying this:

NK was always a hostage state.
It's not really run by Kim and his family...they have always been puppets.
Real power has been in hands of foreign alphabet soup agencies & local bribed generals for a long time.
Alphabet soup is rogue...not controlled by official western governments.
Rocket man's company is private (no government rules, oversight & auditing) and helps make the rockets which ARE real, and are then used to blackmail other countries and start wars.

Trump got rid of the puppet masters and rogue alphabet soup and freed Kim back in 2017 and early 2018.
That's why Kim was able to travel to Singapore and take selfies and greet fans around like a rockstar...he was finally a free man.

Guess what would have happened if the wicked witch won the election in November 2016 ?
We came this close to world war III.

Nobody is gonna believe this...but official confirmation & proof should emerge soon.

Post: #1058

I don't remember that I took heat about my opinion here, but it is pretty much "unpopular" opinion, even in real life. My father and people around me at least looked at me in a weird way (or aggressively questioned me) when I expressed doubts about official story about NK. It is like there is a Kim Jong Un Derangement Sindrome, same like there is one for Trump.

Post: #1059

Mercenary, I like what you are saying about North Korea, the puppet state theory is far more plausible than the mainstream media claim that the government and people of North Korea are willing to be genocided to kill just thousands of foreigners and Southerners. North Korea is a shithole by modern NEAsian standards but people still go to school, work, marry and build a future, there is a personality cult around Kim Ilsung, but it doesn't make them any less unfeeling than those who worship Yaweh or Allah. I believe China has stronger influence than US/SK intelligence, but that's not to say the generals don't work for all of them.

It's insane to think SpaceX could be an international threat. Half a dozen black op soldiers could probably take it down and make it seem like an accident. The only kind of blackmail material it could remotely give Musk is if his satellites or ex-NASA scientists found undeniable evidence space was far more militarised than people expected.

Post: #1060

Who is Q? Why can't you say who exactly Rocket Man is and instead of vague insinuations?

Can we please stop autistic and schizo?

Post: #1061

(07-26-2018 07:00 PM)Cattle Rustler Wrote:  Who is Q? Why can't you say who exactly Rocket Man is and instead of vague insinuations?

Can we please stop autistic and schizo?

I am curious to know what the implication is.

What was the mechanism by which SpaceX supposedly exported their technology to North Korea?

North Korea doesn't have the industrial base to manufacture SpaceX's rocket technology. So, did SpaceX shadow-manufacture some rockets and smuggle those very large and very export-controlled rockets out of the U.S. and into Asia?

I actually believe some conspiracy theories are real, but this is not one. Elon Musk's publisher decided to title the book Rocket Man. So what? He wants to go to Mars.

It doesn't even make sense in terms of political alignments.

Musk = SpaceX = DoD
Bezos = Blue Origin = CIA

Post: #1062

Q is fucking nonsense, conditions in Noko are horrible for most people, and Kim is still a dictator, "puppet" or otherwise. Sorry Merc.

Post: #1063

(04-20-2017 07:04 AM)MOVSM Wrote:  Here is a four-part series of a travel to NK by a Russian graphics designer. His company works independently now, and his goal is to visit every place on earth. Use google translate to translate the text if you want. Pictures are more interesting. Pay attention to small details in each--a lot of stuff is hidden because open photography of many things is forbidden. Essentially, NK is USSR carried to the point of absurdity.

http://www.tema.ru/travel/north-korea-1/
http://www.tema.ru/travel/north-korea-2/
http://www.tema.ru/travel/north-korea-3/
http://www.tema.ru/travel/north-korea-4/

A bump for this excellent photo series.

Post: #1064

Ok I quickly scanned through the 43 pages in this thread. I think there's a lot of good arguments.

What I'd like to highlight is how important reunification is for the Koreans both North and South. Its almost takes on religious hues for Koreans on both sides that reunification happen. I believe it is the main driver for the conflict, not US hostility but a desire by both for reunification on their terms (SK and NK governments) that is the friction fueling this conflict. To North Korea it is both a ideological as well as a geopolitical necessity (ridding the US forces in SK territory + stop having SK being a rival and a existential threat to them).

In 1991 when the Soviet Union was felling apart that had a very strong impact in Inter-Korean politics. The NK government was terrified that they were going to end up like all the Eastern European communist governments that were toppling like dominoes, the South Korean government was gleeful bc they thought North Korea was going to be relegated to the dustbin of history. They could've used this moment for a detente maybe even discussions for a soft reunification (a confederacy) but they didn't because many higher-ups in the SK government didn't see the point bc they thought North Korea was DONE. Then a horrible famine came. Before the 1990's North Korea didn't have famines because of the plentiful Soviet and Chinese aid. The stereotype of the starving North Korean is from the famine of the 1990's. This was the closest North Korean government has come to a implosion but they survived, they were resilient.

North and South Korea haven't just been in military conflict for 65 years but a war of legitimacy. There is no "North" or "South" Korea in both their eyes each think of themselves the real Korea just like Taiwan and China each claimed to be the real government and state of "China". Prior to the 80's and especially the 1988 Olympics it was pretty evenly divided on which Korea was the real Korea. NK had their communist and many western leftist allies and SK had their western allies. What happened was South Korea was able to shake off its poverty and become a economic (and later cultural) powerhouse as well as stage a very successful transition from a dictatorship to a democracy while the North Korean economy stalled in the 70's then dropped into the abyss in the 90's after the USSR fell. The aftermath of the USSR falling and the 1988 Seoul Olympics was the current view of South Korea being the more legitimate Korea while North Korea became a pariah/freak show country.

I think Reunification is a poisoned chalice. As tragic as it sounds for many Koreans the window for reunification was lost in the aftermath of the fall of the USSR and the subsequent NK famine. Even in a best case scenario where the threat of war evaporates and both governments stop being hostile to each other and the great powers accept this reunification is a fools errand. At this point we need to treat North Korea like a primitive amazon tribe that has been discovered. Slow sips of modernity and aid but nothing too severe and let them maintain their homogeny. Not Korean homgeny but North Korean homogeny because North Koreans have evolved into their own separate distinct race. Not genetically but culturally.

South Korea is one of the most superficial, judgemental and looks obsessed country in the world. How are they going to deal with millions of extremely short (maybe under 5feet tall), malnourished men who don't have basic knowledge about the modern world? North Koreans will be relegated to a despised underclass that live amongst each other in ghettos and predatory korean capitalism will destroy their cities and towns and countryside while degenerate western culture demolishes their way of life and values. North Korean men will be unable to date because all the North Korean will flock to South Korean men (for material reasons understandably) and South Korean men will be all too happy to accept them (because of spoiled entitled South Korean women). I initially thought NK women would marry white/foreign men in a hypothetical reunification but I think the anti-foreigner/racemixing propoganda has been so ingrained in them by NK government that I think this is not a possibility for at least one generation.

If you look at Qing China or the Aztecs or a science fiction novel or movie (like Contact) you can imagine how destructive it is to a society to have a image of itself (Ancient China saw themselves as the only real civilization in the world with everyone else being basically zombie hordes) be completley destroyed. In a hypothetical "liberation" of North Korea they will realize that the whole world sees them as freaks, as pitiable dwarfs and their supposed brothers and sisters in the South want nothing to do with them and are in fact disgusted with them. (the complete opposite of NK propaganda). This is like the biblical Adam and Eve eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and realizing they are naked for the first time. This will have catastrophic consequences.

So reunification should be avoided even if that's counter-intuitive to many Koreans. At worst its leading the Koreas into war (the desire to kill ones doppelganger and finally be the "real" Korea) and at best its going to lead to some half-assed confederation where North Korea and South Korea each keep their independence nominally as nation-states but borders are opened up and NK migrants + SK predatory corportations and degenerate western culture flood in opposite directions.

Obviously there are other possibilities like a wholesale absorption of North Korea by China which might be the worst of both worlds (the destruction of their way of life, loss of independence and the dream of reunification dashed). But I really believe that the goal of Korean Reunification is a poisoned chalice (not unlike in Indian Jones 3 where the temptation of the Holy Grail led Donovan and Elsa to her death and almost Indiana Jones).

North Korea should be preserved like a primitive Amazon villiage and be given aid and slow sips of modernity and reintegrated into the world community as a independent country. The ship for reunification has long sailed. Both Koreas should respect each other as separate and proud nation-states. North Korea should respect South Korea for rising from the ashes to become a economic powerhouse and with a democracy that while not perfect allowed for the Korean people in the South to adapt to modernity. South Korea should respect North Korea for rising from the ashes to build a functioning society that was hit by the fall of the Soviet Union and a horrific devastating famine and survived. North Korea showed their resilience and endured and lived on to show their dogged determination long enough to stand up to hegemonic great power America. It isn't about ignoring the crimes of the Kim family but the fact that they aren't going anywhere anytime soon so like so many times in human history we have to make the best out of a imperfect situation.

I think whatever happens I think the North Korean people deserve some kind of peaceful evolution and change where they can have some breathing space materially and spiritually as well as dignity and hope for a better future for themselves and their kids.

Post: #1065

Entrepreneurs - what do you do for good posture? I've been spending a lot of time typing lately, and my neck is killing me. I've got to be sitting improperly or something, because this rarely happened before.

Post: #1066

(09-29-2018 07:41 AM)redbeard Wrote:  Entrepreneurs - what do you do for good posture? I've been spending a lot of time typing lately, and my neck is killing me. I've got to be sitting improperly or something, because this rarely happened before.

You've come to the right thread.

A traditional firm Asian futon may take some getting used to in the beginning, but it it promotes stable sleeping and thus is good for your back and posture.

You might dismiss Tai chi as an old person thing, but it's a great way of increasing flexibilty and strengthening the support muscles you need for good posture.

Post: #1067

Has anyone here done the DMZ tour?

Gonna be in Seoul for a couple of days at the beginning of Nov. and am very tempted to do the DMZ tour.

Post: #1068

Yeah do it, it's fun. There's a few to choose from, I did the tunnel and train station one, I didn't do the main (conference room) tour.