"I'm ronery..."

:D

Shit, that took some serious balls. I'm reminded of the lone guy in front of the tank...

Cool! Maybe it's starting ...

Maybe the generals are tired of the little tyrant.

I'm reminded of the lone guy in front of the tank...

I hope this iteration goes better...

That's a wonderful story, Brian. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Let's all rise to drive out the dictatorial regime

In other words even the resitors can only phrase things in group terms

"In other words even the resitors can only phrase things in group terms"

You would rather he write "I plan to single-handedly overthrow the government"?

This omlette will require a lot of eggs.

Bon appetit.

If Samizdata slogans of the day were self-referential "I plan to single-handedly overthrow the government" would be a good one.

Xavier - V. good!

BTW, with reference to the young man who kneeled in front of the tank and refused to move, in Tiananman Square - the Chinese government had been wily enough to bring soldiers in from the nether lands of China to quash this rebellion. Provinces far, far away. They knew that local troops would be too sympathetic to their own people.

But even that young tank driver from thousands of miles away, and probably speaking a different language, couldn't bring himself to kill a fellow Chinese who had only his brave spirit to defend himself, and swerved at the last minute.

At that moment when I saw him swerve, I knew that that act of mercy had had an effect on the whole world. It was a very powerful moment. It was a human face to mysterious China. Since the horror of Tiananmen Square, China has moved forward.

I hope the people of N Korea will also find a way of joining us bustling, rich capitalists because they will be more than welcome at the table. If they can deep-six Kim Il Jong. But, without internet access, how?

"Down with Tony Blair. Let's all rise to drive out the dictatorial regime"

This omlette will require a lot of eggs.

Billlll - I fear you're right. No doubt someone's skull will be cracked for this. Justice must be seen to be done - for the benefit of the top echelon, anyway. I doubt the state media would display such dissent to the masses, even with Blairite-strength spin on it.

The state apparatus is simply too strong, too brutal. All those with the power to effect any change are also those with the most to lose.

You'll need some over-ambitious fool who thinks he can grab some more power at Kim's expense to start the ball rolling. And only then the people of NK have a chance to arm themselves and get going.

There is and has been for many years, a constant drip of stories from Korean / Japanese sources of outspoken resistance to the regime in the DPRK. It is interesting that these are now regularly surfacing in the Western media, which suggests some degree of co-ordination... Pictures of the Great leader being removed, the Dear Leader being cold shouldered, shortage of cabbage, absurd stories of hair cut regulations and now the Torygraph showing a beautifully overwritten and composed graffiti on a portrait of dubious and extraordinarily remote provenace (noticeably unglazed - a solecism of care for portraits of the Dear Leader which would not be countenanced) and evidently not written in haste, that is produced to suggest a determined anti-authoritatrianism is afoot and active. The hand suggests a degree of educational accomplishment it would be unlikely to see outside the cadres of Pyongyang.

Forgive me, but I will pass on this one.

There are people, no doubt, in the world who would wish to foster this idea - there are no doubt people who are happy to produce this kind of stuff to foster such an idea - there are people who having done that, then pass it on to the supporters of the struggling proletariats around the world - such as the Barclay Brothers employees, to write stories about.

My leg remains unpulled.

But seriously the implication is that only if everyone acts can the regime be overtaken, whereas it only takes about 15% of the adult population of britain to overthrough Blair.

Edward might therefore have a point - this protest is written in "collectivist" languague which suggest it may be a plant. Why? Well Kim may think its in his interests to encourage the idea that the regime might peacebly fall on its own and thereby disocurage outside intervention. Possible?

Giles & Edward - the NK leadership must be pretty dumb if they think a bit if tactical scrawling is going to convince nasty old Bush&co that there's a good chance of a revolution emanating from within so let them deal with it...

But more importantly, nobody has the power to do anything about it. The US is too tied up at the moment; China doesn't give a damn.

North Korea can wait. Iran first.

My friend reckons Kim Jong Il has been dead since 1995 but he remains head of state anyway.

I really don't know where on earth he got that idea from.

I agree with eddie. It's all agi-prop.
And the 'we don't have enough troops' is moronic.
You only need troops if you are going to stay and occupy. Regime change is not the same as Nation Building. The Bush administration made that connection in Iraq out of fear that the Shittes would just take over and turn Iraq into another Iran. No real evidence of that, but a classic example of taking council of one's fears.
The DPRK would be easy. Use a smaller nuke (200 K tons or so ) on their only launch site and at about the same time take down what little AD they have. Than Ask Kim if he wants a villa in the South of France or a spider hole. Gunboat diplomacy was used for centuries because it works. Replace the gunboat with B2's and JDAM's and there you go.
I expect to see a much more muscular State with Condi working the throttles and wheel. 90% of the problems in Iraq are the result of the State department and the CIA.

Stehpinkeln : I don't share your opinion re ease of violent regime change in the DPRK. The Army has been conditioned to treat the People as "politically unreliable", and if anyone would be unwise enough to strand in front of an advancing DPRK tank, they'd be track lubricant.
Moreover, there are several thousand artillery pieces in caves within reach of Seoul. These cannot easily be taken out, even by nukes. There would be several million eggs broken, assuming the DPRK nuke programee was "neutralised": (which I, like you, think is 99% likely). The remaining 1% is a risk worth taking. The certainty of mass megadeath from conventional warfare isn't, at least, at this stage.

Paul: It's Kim Jong-ils father Kim Il-sung who's been head of state in mortentia. North Korea is the worlds first and only dynastic stalinist state.

Remember the spring of 1989. No-one would've guessed that the people in the eastern bloc would rise.

It's all about math and gauss curves.

First the most brave writes grafitti. Then the second most brave protests. Then the third most brave protests. Then...wooosh! Its 1989 again. Beacuse after a certain limit, you'll draw more suspicion by staying at home than protest.

I think what everybody missed was that yeah, Tiananmen was great and all...

But the Communist Party is still in power, and dictating the pace of political reform(such as it is).

Without the guns, they're not going anywhere. And with the attitudes of many of the chinese, they're not going anywhere soon. They call us Singaporean Chinese gullible fools for trusting the rule of law and "My word is my bond", while we call them cheaters, swindlers, and backstabbers.

After getting some anecdotal evidence from friends, I'm beginning to think that while the chinese might be industrious and hardworking individually, as a group there are still certain self-destructive tendencies that tends to hold back progress.

Let's not even talk about the Koreans. The south koreans and their rabid hatred for the Japanese and the Americans ensuring their safe butts is completely nuts.