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Couldn't you have just wished for a leader who was more sympathetic towards the rest of the world...?

Me.

Senshi's mom

Senshi's uncle who is really his mothers lover but she doesn't have the heart to tell him. You'd think he would get suspicious when everyone else in his family are Eskimos and his "uncle" is a polar bear.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/01/17/korea.nuclear/index.html

North Korea claims to have weaponized roughly 30kg of plutonium. I know it would be tough to really take out North Korea, which very likely could be done without direct conflict on our part, but I'd like to see a removal of purely realist politics on this. Seriously, eventually North Korea is going to end some time and its just going to get worse the longer it goes on.

North Korea will collapse by itself, and I would guess not too long into the future. I don't really view North Korea as a threat to anyone to but it's own people. This does bring up a major issue in modern times though: Nuclear weapons and who is "allowed" to have them. I don't believe we have the right to tell anyone they can't have nuclear weapons until we get rid of ours, and all of the countries that we don't want to have them clearly agree with me.

Well no one knows much about the internal affairs of North Korea, its pretty much a watertight state. But given the way successions normally work in communist countries and the fact that Kim hasn't publicly named his successor, I'd say North Korea has more of a chance to collapse now than it has for the last several decades, including the famine of the 90s. If another dictator is allowed to firmly take control, especially if its one of his sons, the situation there could continue for another 60s before another change over occurs. I mean his youngest son, which some sources have named as his chosen successor, is 23-25 years old he could be in power till his 80s. Of course a 25 year old may have trouble holding the respect of the Army, but maybe he's been secretly groomed for the job like his father was.
The problem is that there is so little information, damn near everything is possible. But the fact of the matter is no matter how North Korea falls apart its not going to be pretty or easy for anyone involved, might as well get it over with.

North Korea will eventually fall apart, but when it does its going to be a problem America will be involved in. I really wish we would just fully blockade North Korea from the sea and encourage South Korea and China to do the same. A full embargo, nothing in or out, from the US, China, and SK, would end North Korea. Although it would be very tough to get them to go along with it because China and even South Korea want to keep North Korea propped up weak enough so it can't really challenge them but not so weak that'll fall apart and they'll have to deal with the vacuum and people. Its really shameful what South Korea has and hasn't done for its own people in the North.

Anyway North Korea is kind of my pet issue, if I could end any human rights disaster in the world it would be this one.

Id go with AIDs in Africa, but that only counts as human rights if you count medical care as a human right, which I do.

I hate that the North Korean problem is completely ignored by the world, for example there's a UN special committee form for damn near every single problem in the world, except North Korea. In a way they are given credibility and acknowledge meant by being a regular member of the UN. I mean there are who knows how many international groups devoted to helping Palestine, but very few for the North Korean people and none in the UN.

It might just be that I'm not paying attention, but you don't exactly see the North Koreans clamoring for a change. The U.N. and the international community in general has always had a very "Can't help those who won't help themselves" attitude about these sorts of things. I'm sure if we started seeing them rioting, they would garner much more support.

Only someone who doesn't really understand North Korea would expect them to riot. The country has been under the same Stalinist type of government since 1948, so nearly every single person in North Korea has been raised under their system. They don't know any better. Its just not in these people to start a mass movement, words like individuality, self-determination, and protest have been basically removed from the language. Imagine if you wanted to start a protest of government policy but didn't know how to convey ideas like protest, riot, demand, etc etc. How could you organize such an event? Especially under the kind of surveillance and monitoring the government uses there.

That's why I hate North Korea and people like Kim Jong-Il so much. They have quite literally taken nearly everything it means to be a human, there's no free thought, no free action, every action and quite literally every thought is pre-determined by the state. The people there exist for nothing other than to serve the state, the entire population is enslaved.
I don't want to sound cruel but at least if you are in aids infected Africa or Darfur you understand your problem, you know how wrong it is, you can struggle against it(even if it is futile you can), your actions are determined by yourself and are for the benefit of yourself and your family. At least you can think. I'd rather have aids than lose my ability to think.
Thats why I want to see a total and complete embargo of North Korea, because there is no way the leadership there will understand how to produce enough food to feed their population enough to keep them under control. If there is one thing that will override any condition you've had to obey the state, love Kim, etc etc it will be overcome if you are starving. If "Our Dear Leader" says don't cross the border into China, and you're starving and know there is food over there(which some people do) you are going to go. Well some people will actually die instead of disobeying Kim, but plenty won't.
At that point its not a far leap from that action to thinking, "Hey, maybe Kim isn't the God he says he is." Or imagine if you are forced to grow your own food, which goes against Communist ideology, which means you have to hide it. Someone is going to think "its bullshit that I'm starving and would get killed for growing food."

In the 1990s, after the USSR fell, North Korea was totally out of food. They couldn't feed their population and more importantly they couldn't feed the Army. That meant that there were literally millions and millions of armed, trained, fighting men with no food which makes people pissed. According to most accounts the Army almost took action, which would have meant battles between the regular army the Personal Guard of Kim, that would have probably ended North Korea.

I see. It's an interesting situation. I still stand by what I said though. While I don't expect the North Koreans to rise up randomly, I'm just saying that the attitude of the international community has seemed to expect that.

Copypasta'd from NineSpine:I see. It's an interesting situation. I still stand by what I said though. While I don't expect the North Koreans to rise up randomly, I'm just saying that the attitude of the international community has seemed to expect that.

That I wouldn't disagree with.

To be honest, unless there is some kind of money to be made by helping North Korea, I don't see the American government doing anything about it.

will replace Kim.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7849205.stm

Kim's oldest sons says "He's not interested in power." Its good to know that one of the few known potential successors doesn't want the job, power changes are tough for hardcore communist countries and they are especially tough if they happen rapidity. Look what happened to the USSR before Gorbachev.