Is North Korea successful?

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Above us only sky
Posts: 361
Joined: February 12th, 2012, 9:03 am

Is North Korea successful?

Post by Above us only sky »

Recently a Russian friend of mine returned from North Korea after having a two-week holiday there. She told me North Korea is not what you think it is, actually it is quite successful in nation-building, here is her reasons:

1.North Korea is not Egypt or Iraq right before another revolution, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is not a poor desperate third-world unstable country, on the contrary, it is a highly-developed right-wing ultra-conservative egalitarian state with a super stable single-party system.
If you go to India, you will see tons of very poor people of lower class under the Indian caste system. If you visit downtown Shanghai, you will see lots of beggars sitting right before the front door of major super-malls every morning to beg for food and money. However, in North Korea, there are political prisoners but no beggars. People there are poorer than you, they have no access to the internet and no smart phones, BUT they are really not people living a life of absolute poverty: under the egalitarian planned economy, they enjoy a fair amount of food ration, free housing, free education, free health care, free holidays, even free condoms. Of course, every thing ( :shock: INCLUDING condoms :shock: ) is of low-quality, but thing is, If that Kim guy provides all those things for you free of charge, will a North Korean wish to get rid of him? . Also, don't forget the unemployment rate in Spain is 27%, that figure is 0% in North Korea.

2.North Korea WILL NOT COLLAPSE in the face of sanction whatsoever.
Believe or not, the Soviet Union collapsed not because of American sanction and boycott, it collapsed due to two major reasons:
1. its own ideological crisis, when the Marxist-Leninist Utopia the Soviet Union claimed to be to its people turns out to be a dystopia, the Marxist-Leninist state will loose legitimacy and collapse whatsoever.
2. too much involvement into the global free market. The Soviet Union remained the No. 1 oil export country in the 1980s, it maintains a certain level of standard of living for its people by selling oil into the global free market then use that oil money to pay their military bill and buy food and consumer products then distribute the goods via the domestic central planning system to its people. But when the global oil price collapses near the year 1989 the Soviet Union has no means to make ends meet let alone distributing enough consumer products, and people will protest and seek change when their living standards is falling.

North Korea is very different:
The ideology that sustains that state is not leftist Marxist-Leninism or Maoism, it is an ultra-conservative ideology, called the Juche Idea. the Juche Idea has a major advantage over Marxist ideology, it did not promise anything Utopian in the future therefore when that Utopia did not come nobody will experience any ideological crisis.
Also, unlike the soviet union with its dependency on global oil price, the economy of North Korea is a very self-sufficient one, it has no much oil to sell. If you visit North Korea, you will see that lots of cars there even don’t need gasoline, they burn coal to run. And in a 100% central planning economy, there is no such thing called Great Depression.
In the end, sanction will only make a highly self-sufficient economy more self-sufficient than ever.If you are in the daydreaming process of a North Korea collapse, think of Cuba.

Like North Korea or not, what can you do about it?
BTW, here is the sort of singer my friend met in a bar exclusive for turists in Pyongyang, Gee! If Paul McCartney had met this North Korean gal in this video he will certainly write a Back In The DPRK!!!!!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock:
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Sy Borg
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Re: Is North Korea successful?

Post by Sy Borg »

If millions of citizens are undernourished, then maybe NK is not doing so well:

reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files ... 202017.pdf
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) is in the midst of a protracted, entrenched humanitarian situation largely forgotten or overlooked by the rest of the world. An estimated 18 million people are dependent on Government food rations while 10.5 million people are believed to be undernourished. A lack of access to basic services including water and sanitation, as well as a weak health infrastructure further threaten the well-being of the population, particularly young children and pregnant and breastfeeding women.
Eduk
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Joined: December 8th, 2016, 7:08 am
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Re: Is North Korea successful?

Post by Eduk »

Do you have any sources other than your 'friend'? Because much of what you say flies in the face world wide opinion.
For example most would not consider the Juche Idea to be conservative, it is presented as socialist to the world by NK but commonly interpreted as a dictatorship.
Unknown means unknown.
Steve3007
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Joined: June 15th, 2011, 5:53 pm

Re: Is North Korea successful?

Post by Steve3007 »

Also, don't forget the unemployment rate in Spain is 27%, that figure is 0% in North Korea.
In a centrally planned economy, the unemployment rate is 0% by definition. Using the same definition of what it means to be "employed", the unemployment rate in a country like Spain is also 0%. 27% of the population are employed by the government on a very low wage (A.K.A. welfare payments) to do nothing.
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LuckyR
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Re: Is North Korea successful?

Post by LuckyR »

Above us only sky wrote:Recently a Russian friend of mine returned from North Korea after having a two-week holiday there. She told me North Korea is not what you think it is, actually it is quite successful in nation-building, here is her reasons:

1.North Korea is not Egypt or Iraq right before another revolution, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is not a poor desperate third-world unstable country, on the contrary, it is a highly-developed right-wing ultra-conservative egalitarian state with a super stable single-party system.
If you go to India, you will see tons of very poor people of lower class under the Indian caste system. If you visit downtown Shanghai, you will see lots of beggars sitting right before the front door of major super-malls every morning to beg for food and money. However, in North Korea, there are political prisoners but no beggars. People there are poorer than you, they have no access to the internet and no smart phones, BUT they are really not people living a life of absolute poverty: under the egalitarian planned economy, they enjoy a fair amount of food ration, free housing, free education, free health care, free holidays, even free condoms. Of course, every thing ( :shock: INCLUDING condoms :shock: ) is of low-quality, but thing is, If that Kim guy provides all those things for you free of charge, will a North Korean wish to get rid of him? . Also, don't forget the unemployment rate in Spain is 27%, that figure is 0% in North Korea.

2.North Korea WILL NOT COLLAPSE in the face of sanction whatsoever.
Believe or not, the Soviet Union collapsed not because of American sanction and boycott, it collapsed due to two major reasons:
1. its own ideological crisis, when the Marxist-Leninist Utopia the Soviet Union claimed to be to its people turns out to be a dystopia, the Marxist-Leninist state will loose legitimacy and collapse whatsoever.
2. too much involvement into the global free market. The Soviet Union remained the No. 1 oil export country in the 1980s, it maintains a certain level of standard of living for its people by selling oil into the global free market then use that oil money to pay their military bill and buy food and consumer products then distribute the goods via the domestic central planning system to its people. But when the global oil price collapses near the year 1989 the Soviet Union has no means to make ends meet let alone distributing enough consumer products, and people will protest and seek change when their living standards is falling.

North Korea is very different:
The ideology that sustains that state is not leftist Marxist-Leninism or Maoism, it is an ultra-conservative ideology, called the Juche Idea. the Juche Idea has a major advantage over Marxist ideology, it did not promise anything Utopian in the future therefore when that Utopia did not come nobody will experience any ideological crisis.
Also, unlike the soviet union with its dependency on global oil price, the economy of North Korea is a very self-sufficient one, it has no much oil to sell. If you visit North Korea, you will see that lots of cars there even don’t need gasoline, they burn coal to run. And in a 100% central planning economy, there is no such thing called Great Depression.
In the end, sanction will only make a highly self-sufficient economy more self-sufficient than ever.If you are in the daydreaming process of a North Korea collapse, think of Cuba.

Like North Korea or not, what can you do about it?
BTW, here is the sort of singer my friend met in a bar exclusive for turists in Pyongyang, Gee! If Paul McCartney had met this North Korean gal in this video he will certainly write a Back In The DPRK!!!!!!!! :shock: :shock: :shock:
And your Russian friend decided to move there and become a citizen of this paradise, right?

I didn't think so....
"As usual... it depends."
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Atreyu
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Favorite Philosopher: P.D. Ouspensky
Location: Orlando, FL

Re: Is North Korea successful?

Post by Atreyu »

I don't see how a country can be called "successful" when virtually nobody living outside of it would want to live there....
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