Sunday, February 7th, 2010 | Share

Can The North Korean Government Do ANYTHING Right?

by Pejman Yousefzadeh

Do I really need to answer that?

It is perfectly possible to argue with a straight face that Kim Jong-Il hates his people, and wants them to suffer and die horribly. And it says something about a country’s leadership that such an argument can be made about it, even if that argument is wrong.

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  • Your question seems confused; the "government" of North Korea is a narrow ruling class, which seems quite successfully to have kept itself firmly in control for decades, and to have tweaked the noses of the US and elsewhere.

    Sure, they've kept their country throttled, but just look at what the ruling classes in the US, Japan, Europe and elsewhere have managed to do, with their fancy Keynesian fiscal & monetary tools and security & welfare pandering, and profiteering and selling favors while blowing destructive bubbles.

    It is perfectly possible to argue with a straight face that ruling classes in the West are contemptuous of their people, and care little about their suffering, save as a way to make wrest power from whatever faction happens to be in charge. And it says something about a country’s leadership that such an argument can be made about it, even if that argument is wrong.
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- March 20, 2010 -

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