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It's North Korea though and they're all eViL. Imagine a world where the U.S lifted sanctions on N.K. traded with them and stopped crying about losing a war 70

It's North Korea though and they're all eViL. Imagine a world where the U.S lifted sanctions on N.K. traded with them and stopped crying about losing a war 70 years ago. Ah well a boy can dream. Edit: Lol saying anything positive about North Korea on hacker news and people instantly freak out. This fucking website man. North Korea isn't what I would call a free society but it's also not the hell on earth that most liberals want you to think it is. So much of the misery that normal North Koreans have to face is because of western imposed sanctions. We've tried punishing them for 30 years now, it hasn't destroyed the regime if anything they double down. I guess it's easy for a bunch of overfed over paid tech workers to not feel any kind of solidarity for a North Korean though and insist on punishing them even more. Hell the North Korean government would even be open for this kind of agreement if we would actually guarantee their sovereignty, sadly trusting the United States of America to hold up any kind of deal you make with them is fucking impossible. Here is a quote I came up with but is attributed to Henry Kissinger Having the United States as your enemy is dangerous, but having them as your friend is fatal. That old bag liked it so much he had no problem taking credit for it.

948382828528 6mo ago
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- mikkupikku 6mo ago
  Even other communist dictatorships are pretty sick of North Korea's shit!
  - dopesoap 6mo ago
    Wow so you guys don't have ideological brain worms at all. I can tell you guys have never studied international relations because you refuse to try an take North Koreas concerns seriously. Do I have to remind you that a South Korean attempted a fascist coup recently and that it was left wing organisations and trade unions that mobilised to stop him? Also which "communist dictators" are you talking about, and how do you know this? You do realise that the United States is also a one party state when it comes to foreign policy right? If you love freedom so much shouldn't this be worrying more? https://www.npr.org/2025/04/22/nx-s1-5340753/trump-democracy-authoritarianism-competive-survey-political-scientist https://www.npr.org/2025/04/22/nx-s1-5340753/trump-democracy... For any one interested in learning a bit more about North Korea and how it got to be the country it is I'd suggest Noah Kulwins series Blowback.
    - skinnymuch 6mo ago
      Those scholars are blowhards. Trump is basically the same as any other time. As you state the US is unipolar in how it treats Others. Aka authoritarian. Blowback was great I should finish that season.
    - bit-anarchist 6mo ago
      > Do I have to remind you that a South Korean attempted a fascist coup recently By "fascist", I suppose you mean right-wing. Going by the average RW authoritarian dictatorship, that's still better than the documented NK conditions, specially given that most fall later. > ...[...] and that it left wing organizations and trade unions that mobilized to stop him? Nice cherry picking. Even Yoon's own party turned against him. But even ignoring the right wing here, said left wing organizations are also in opposition to NK. > You do realize that the United States is a one party state when it comes to foreign policy right? That sentence doesn't make sense. There's no such thing as "one party state foreign policy". The idea of a one party state is specifically about a state that is intolerant to any other ideas other than those accepted by the one true party. If you are referring to USA's aggressiveness, may I remind you that that switches between presidents. > If you love freedom so much shouldn't this be worrying more? Whataboutism.
    - yongjik 6mo ago
      > Do I have to remind you that a South Korean attempted a fascist coup recently and that it was left wing organisations and trade unions that mobilised to stop him? Those "left wing organizations" encompass the majority of South Korea, almost 2/3 of the current parliament, and the current sitting government. And may I remind you that South Korea's current "leftist" president recently gifted Trump a golden crown to get favorable deals? He's about as leftist as Joe Biden.
    - erxam 6mo ago
      > Wow so you guys don't have ideological brain worms at all. You have to remember that the supermajority of this site are ultra AnCaps who believe that anything which infringes upon the right of companies to kill people is Communist satanism and a significant minority agrees wholeheartedly with Peter Thiel's weird brand of techno-accelerationism and actively participates in NRx movements. Like, I understand what you want to get at and I wholeheartedly agree! Just don't be too surprised at the pushback.
  - skinnymuch 6mo ago
    Oh yeah you don’t know what you’re talking about haha. The west isn’t a dictatorship! Only the Others.
    - bit-anarchist 6mo ago
      While one could scrutinize the accuracy the of the west being a dictatorship (which will likely devolve into a discussion of semantics), I prefer to call attention to the fact that calling North Korea a dictatorship does not require to speak well of the west. Likewise, one can simultaneously criticize the west without protecting its "enemies". Such a binary, poorly critical, way of thinking is ill-suited in pursuing better material conditions for all.
mikkupikku 6mo ago
Lot's of people have tried trading with North Korea, but they're politically unreliable. China and Russia both try obviously, but so has South Korea. These cooperations usually work for a while but eventually the unreliable reality of the North Korean government wrecks it for them. If it were all America's fault, as these sort of regimes always claim, they'd be able to get on well enough with their neighbors, but they can't.
- dopesoap 6mo ago
  The United States plays a large role in destabilizing them I went to a lecture at my university where a South Korean professor said as much. He was hardly a fan of the North Korean regime. At this point the regime has zero interest in cooperation, I'm sorry but your government is slowly becoming an authoritarian state in its own right and is currently causing chaos at the behest of Israel a country which just commuted a genocide with the blessing of both parties in your country. Imagine trying to get along with your neighbor when they have billions of dollars of military hardware on your border. No country is to willing to cooperate with North Korea because being in the good graces of the United States is 100x more beneficial. You claim that North Korea can't get along with its neighbors please remind me which country invaded and artificialy divided Korea when they elected some one The United States didn't like.
  - mikkupikku 6mo ago
    The US has fuck all to do with it. Vietnam whooped America's ass in a war which was far more socially significant for the American public (the Korean War is called the "Forgotten War" in America), still has their communist government, yet has normalized (relatively) relations with America and certainly the rest of the world and trades with everybody. North Korea is economically isolated because they refuse to be normal even by communist standards.
    - skinnymuch 6mo ago
      I don’t think you know what “communist standards” means. > “North Korea is economically isolated because they refuse to be normal even by communist standards.” “Kim is isolated because she refuses to be normal like the other submissive housewives beaten by their husbands” You are blaming the victim while acting like the aggressor oppressors actions are not their own responsibility.
whattheheckheck 6mo ago
Have you read Escape from Camp 14? It absolutely is a dire human rights catastrophe

948382828528 6mo ago

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mikkupikku 6mo ago
Even other communist dictatorships are pretty sick of North Korea's shit!
- dopesoap 6mo ago
  Wow so you guys don't have ideological brain worms at all. I can tell you guys have never studied international relations because you refuse to try an take North Koreas concerns seriously. Do I have to remind you that a South Korean attempted a fascist coup recently and that it was left wing organisations and trade unions that mobilised to stop him? Also which "communist dictators" are you talking about, and how do you know this? You do realise that the United States is also a one party state when it comes to foreign policy right? If you love freedom so much shouldn't this be worrying more? https://www.npr.org/2025/04/22/nx-s1-5340753/trump-democracy-authoritarianism-competive-survey-political-scientist https://www.npr.org/2025/04/22/nx-s1-5340753/trump-democracy... For any one interested in learning a bit more about North Korea and how it got to be the country it is I'd suggest Noah Kulwins series Blowback.
  - skinnymuch 6mo ago
    Those scholars are blowhards. Trump is basically the same as any other time. As you state the US is unipolar in how it treats Others. Aka authoritarian. Blowback was great I should finish that season.
  - bit-anarchist 6mo ago
    > Do I have to remind you that a South Korean attempted a fascist coup recently By "fascist", I suppose you mean right-wing. Going by the average RW authoritarian dictatorship, that's still better than the documented NK conditions, specially given that most fall later. > ...[...] and that it left wing organizations and trade unions that mobilized to stop him? Nice cherry picking. Even Yoon's own party turned against him. But even ignoring the right wing here, said left wing organizations are also in opposition to NK. > You do realize that the United States is a one party state when it comes to foreign policy right? That sentence doesn't make sense. There's no such thing as "one party state foreign policy". The idea of a one party state is specifically about a state that is intolerant to any other ideas other than those accepted by the one true party. If you are referring to USA's aggressiveness, may I remind you that that switches between presidents. > If you love freedom so much shouldn't this be worrying more? Whataboutism.
  - yongjik 6mo ago
    > Do I have to remind you that a South Korean attempted a fascist coup recently and that it was left wing organisations and trade unions that mobilised to stop him? Those "left wing organizations" encompass the majority of South Korea, almost 2/3 of the current parliament, and the current sitting government. And may I remind you that South Korea's current "leftist" president recently gifted Trump a golden crown to get favorable deals? He's about as leftist as Joe Biden.
  - erxam 6mo ago
    > Wow so you guys don't have ideological brain worms at all. You have to remember that the supermajority of this site are ultra AnCaps who believe that anything which infringes upon the right of companies to kill people is Communist satanism and a significant minority agrees wholeheartedly with Peter Thiel's weird brand of techno-accelerationism and actively participates in NRx movements. Like, I understand what you want to get at and I wholeheartedly agree! Just don't be too surprised at the pushback.
- skinnymuch 6mo ago
  Oh yeah you don’t know what you’re talking about haha. The west isn’t a dictatorship! Only the Others.
  - bit-anarchist 6mo ago
    While one could scrutinize the accuracy the of the west being a dictatorship (which will likely devolve into a discussion of semantics), I prefer to call attention to the fact that calling North Korea a dictatorship does not require to speak well of the west. Likewise, one can simultaneously criticize the west without protecting its "enemies". Such a binary, poorly critical, way of thinking is ill-suited in pursuing better material conditions for all.

mikkupikku 6mo ago

Lot's of people have tried trading with North Korea, but they're politically unreliable. China and Russia both try obviously, but so has South Korea. These cooperations usually work for a while but eventually the unreliable reality of the North Korean government wrecks it for them. If it were all America's fault, as these sort of regimes always claim, they'd be able to get on well enough with their neighbors, but they can't.

dopesoap 6mo ago
The United States plays a large role in destabilizing them I went to a lecture at my university where a South Korean professor said as much. He was hardly a fan of the North Korean regime. At this point the regime has zero interest in cooperation, I'm sorry but your government is slowly becoming an authoritarian state in its own right and is currently causing chaos at the behest of Israel a country which just commuted a genocide with the blessing of both parties in your country. Imagine trying to get along with your neighbor when they have billions of dollars of military hardware on your border. No country is to willing to cooperate with North Korea because being in the good graces of the United States is 100x more beneficial. You claim that North Korea can't get along with its neighbors please remind me which country invaded and artificialy divided Korea when they elected some one The United States didn't like.
- mikkupikku 6mo ago
  The US has fuck all to do with it. Vietnam whooped America's ass in a war which was far more socially significant for the American public (the Korean War is called the "Forgotten War" in America), still has their communist government, yet has normalized (relatively) relations with America and certainly the rest of the world and trades with everybody. North Korea is economically isolated because they refuse to be normal even by communist standards.
  - skinnymuch 6mo ago
    I don’t think you know what “communist standards” means. > “North Korea is economically isolated because they refuse to be normal even by communist standards.” “Kim is isolated because she refuses to be normal like the other submissive housewives beaten by their husbands” You are blaming the victim while acting like the aggressor oppressors actions are not their own responsibility.

whattheheckheck 6mo ago

Have you read Escape from Camp 14? It absolutely is a dire human rights catastrophe