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News North Korea Renounces Truce-U.S. Military on High Alert

Discussion in 'Free Speech Alley' started by Cajun Sensation, May 28, 2009.

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SabanFan The voice of reason

red55 said: ↑

The ones who are quickest to call somebody a fag are the ones I always wonder about the most. :
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red55 said: ↑

You have the insight of a cantelope and the foresight of a monkey in a zoo.
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So, which are you? The cantaloupe or the monkey?

SabanFan, Jun 2, 2009

#61
red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

SabanFan said: ↑

So, which are you? The cantaloupe or the monkey?
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You defending HectorPector's silly shiite?

I pull tirk's leg because he finds me drugs, war movies, and prostitutes. I know he's not a fag.

Switch-hitter maybe . . . :hihi:

red55, Jun 2, 2009

#62
shane0911 Helping lost idiots find their village

red55 said: ↑

You defending HectorPector's silly shiite?

I pull tirk's leg because he finds me drugs, war movies, and prostitutes. I know he's not a fag.

Switch-hitter maybe . . . :hihi:
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You crack me up Amigo

shane0911, Jun 2, 2009

#63
LSUMASTERMIND Founding Member

Interesting story on North Koreas economy...
How North Korea Funds its Nukes | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com

How Kim Affords His Nukes
The myth of a failing economy.

North Korea, with its malnourished populace, frequent famines and obsolete conventional weapons, is as famous for its poverty as it is for its provocations. That has many observers now wondering how a country that can barely afford to keep the lights on can foot the bill for a missile and nuclear-weapons program.

Part of the explanation lies in the Stalinist nation's "military-first" policy, under which the Army gets to pocket a huge chunk of the national income—up to 40 percent, according to Marcus Noland, a North Korea expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

The other answer is that, contrary to conventional wisdom, North Korea isn't broke—and its economy has been moving away from collapse in recent years. The Hermit Kingdom may not be getting rich—the CIA estimates its GDP at roughly $40 billion, ranking 96th in the world. But it's not failing either, and for the past decade, its economy has grown at an average rate of about 1.5 percent a year, according to South Korean statistics. While Seoul estimates that the North's GDP shrank by 2.3 percent last year, some analysts say it actually expanded, arguing that South Korea's recent figures on the North are deflated for political purposes.

To understand how the Dear Leader has managed this, you must first drop a few of the myths surrounding his country. First, the North Koreans haven't been living in caves for the past two decades, nor is their economy de-industrializing, as is sometimes reported. Instead, with help from Beijing, Pyongyang has revamped its outdated infrastructure in recent years and repaired the mining facilities that were battered by massive floods during the mid-'90s. It now aims to shift from recovery to growth, with a focus on steel production, mining and light-industrial manufacturing.

Second, the North doesn't have to rely on the black market to support itself. True, Pyongyang has sold missiles to Iran, Syria and Pakistan, and annual revenue from such exports is roughly $100 million, but analysts say that other illicit activities like drug trafficking and counterfeiting add very little to that sum. According to a former U.S. diplomat in East Asia who asked not to be named discussing sensitive intelligence, during the Bush years Washington investigated the oft-heard counterfeiting accusations, and found that the notes in question had actually been produced privately by former Chinese military officials, in China. "The Treasury Department couldn't find a single shred of hard evidence pointing to North Korean production of counterfeit money," the American says.

The biggest myth is that North Korea remains isolated. Despite supposedly comprehensive sanctions, Pyongyang today has diplomatic and commercial relations with more than 150 countries, including most European Union members. North Korea trades its abundant gold reserves—estimated at 1,000 to 2,000 tons—in cities like London, Zurich and Hong Kong, and buys and sells shares on the New York Stock Exchange via a legitimate London-based brokerage firm it essentially owns. While there are no figures on the volume of such transactions, the former U.S. diplomat says that such activities are "a substantial source of hard currency for North Korea." In recent years, European firms have also begun eyeing investment opportunities there; In 2004, the London-based energy firm Aminex signed a 20-year deal with Pyongyang for exclusive rights to explore on- and offshore oil-and-gas deposits. Other companies are looking for ways to exploit the North's cheap labor supply, and while most of these deals have yet to take off for technical and political reasons, ties to the outside world are expanding. In 2008, the country's overall trade rose 30 percent from the previous year, reaching a record $3.8 billion, including imports of $2.7 billion, according to Seoul's Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency
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Read the rest in the link above.

LSUMASTERMIND, Jun 3, 2009

#64

1 person likes this.
StaceyO Football Turns Me On

red55 said: ↑

I pull tirk's leg because he finds me drugs, war movies, and prostitutes. I know he's not a fag.

Switch-hitter maybe . . . :hihi:
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Ah, so the truth about tirk finally comes out.

StaceyO, Jun 3, 2009

#65
red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

LSUMASTERMIND said: ↑

The biggest myth is that North Korea remains isolated. Despite supposedly comprehensive sanctions, Pyongyang today has diplomatic and commercial relations with more than 150 countries, including most European Union members. North Korea trades its abundant gold reserves—estimated at 1,000 to 2,000 tons—in cities like London, Zurich and Hong Kong, and buys and sells shares on the New York Stock Exchange via a legitimate London-based brokerage firm it essentially owns. While there are no figures on the volume of such transactions, the former U.S. diplomat says that such activities are "a substantial source of hard currency for North Korea."

In 2008, the country's overall trade rose 30 percent from the previous year, reaching a record $3.8 billion, including imports of $2.7 billion
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Sounds like a country that is very vulnerable to a naval blockade.

red55, Jun 3, 2009

#66
Cajun Sensation I'm kind of a big deal Staff Member

North Korea's communist regime has warned of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula while vowing to step up its atomic bomb-making program in defiance of new U.N. sanctions.
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NKorea warns of nuclear war amid rising tensions - Yahoo! News

Cajun Sensation, Jun 14, 2009

#67
saltyone So Mote It Be

Just once I would like to hear a world leader say..."Go ahead NKorea...do something...we dare you". I would pop some corn and sit back to watch the back and forth.

saltyone, Jun 14, 2009

#68
red55 curmudgeon Staff Member

saltyone said: ↑

Just once I would like to hear a world leader say..."Go ahead NKorea...do something...we dare you". I would pop some corn and sit back to watch the back and forth.
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When dealing with North Korea's crazed and inflammatory rhetoric, we sometimes speak louder by saying nothing.

Deep down they know that they can't use a nuke without massive retaliation and they can't change the game without going broke, like the Soviets did. Every move they can make is wrong, they live one move away from checkmate every living moment. It makes them very paranoid because everyone is actually out to get them.

red55, Jun 14, 2009

#69
Bandit88 Old Enough to Know Better

North Korea must remain relevant in regional security matters or they starve. They cannot make it all work without some kind of leverage. So they will do whatever it takes to make sure they're on the agenda.

If you think they're crazy, you're wrong. They're playing the hand they have. Just like the Iranians. They want what's in their interests. Same as it ever was.

Bandit88, Jun 14, 2009

#70

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