You haven't even read the book yet. No wonder you behave the way you do. You don't even bother to read anything before making up your mind. Nevermind that this book isn't fact checked, it's just one guy's account, and naturally he, like every other exile, doesn't have every incentive to exaggerate. Nevermind that Blaine Harden lost his credibility, if he ever had any, in 1991, when he was busy exonerating Ustashe Croatia of their wartime record, setting the tone for the media bullshit fest that was to follow throughout the 90s. It seems whenever there is some socialist country to bash, Harden is there.

National Review, indeed, when you want a credible book review, go to the people who wrote long op-eds in defense of Jim Crow and 1980s South Africa.

Putin you be lovin' the North Koreans?

I mean I take the American hardline against some middle eastern nations with a large grain of salt, due to our obvious interests there, but there is no economic value in North Korea, right? Isn't it just the truth that they are in general a pretty terrible regime?

You be lovin' imperialism and war, YJ?

Nope, I detest America and American foreign policy.

What's your defense for NK?

Any country that uses its resources for its own development is deemed an enemy. DRPK has extensive mineral deposits - gold, iron ore, copper, etc. Resource-wise it is richer than the South.

A relentless campaign to annihilate the country has been waged since the 1950s, and there is still no peace treaty. These are the same people who bombed DPRK into the stone age in the Korean War and committed atrocious war crimes against them. They refuse to sign a peace treaty. They refuse to establish normal relations. They refuse to open up trade. They refuse to stop their warmongering.

Interesting perspective. Who are, "these people?"

and don't you find it mildly Ironic to type the "D" in DPRK?

DRPK isn't the kind of nightmare it is made out to be in the imperialist press, and by unthinking parrots like Invictus. The WHO called the DPRK's healthcare system the envy of the developing world. That's not a small compliment, and speaks to the priorities of its critics. DPRK has irrigated and/or terraced most of the country (only 14% of the country is arable), dramatically increasing food production after the problem years in the early 1990s. The DPRK was denied positive terms of trade for grain by the international community, leading their self-fulfilling prophecy that if they treated the DPRK like trash and starved them on purpose the DPRK would suffer and allow for them to score cheap propaganda points about food aid. China in fact cut its exports of grain at precisely the same time when the DPRK was in a state of crisis. This led to a severe problem with the rationing system at about the same time as the death of Kim Il Sung, and the DPRK, contrary to popular belief, did everything it could to address the food crisis. It opened up its country to hostile NGOs, it appealed to the international community for help and tried to import more and more grain. The food aid that did come was late in arriving, which could have prevented deaths. This an assessment of the efforts of the DPRK to help their own people by Lee Suk

"Previous FAO/WFO assessments have indicated that the Korea DPR faced a large
cereal deficit and severe food supply problems in 1996. Perhaps the most important
reason that there was no wide scale famine during the year was an effective Public
Distribution System, which ensured food, albeit at a much reduced level, to the
entire population. In Korea DPR the effects of food shortages have been uniformly
spread over the population and the PDS has proven itself to be a highly effective
channel for food assistance…in particular rations for children were not lowered
throughout the period.
55"

No, to anyone who understands what democratic means it is not ironic.

Thank you for the perspective in your longer post. In the shorter, I always thought democratic meant effectively that each individual gets his own say in the government, most often expressed through a vote.

Am I incorrect in my understanding that this does not reflect the processes by which North Korean officials are appointed and North Korean laws are made?

First, nobody here has been to North Korea (unless you were in Panmunjon, and got to stop into North Korea in the meeting building, and they do that for tourists).

Second, unlike 99% of you I lived in South korea for 5 years, and have spoke to South Koreans who have been there (yes, they are allowed into that country on a limited basis).

here are some staggering facts. South Koreans on average, are over 4 inches taller than north Koreans. How is this? Is it their incredible healthcare? Or their diet? it is EXACTLy why, because the insufficient resources going into it.

For a country that has food issues, they should NOT be launching rockets, and have 100,000 airborne troops, and over a million man standing army.

Now, I do not support what the US is doing to North Korea, as I think its for greed only, but, please, let us not pretend North korea is some special country of Utopian love.

Stressed I'm inclined to agree, but I want to hear what Putin has to say.

yellowjacket, he will open up his 'Communist Manifesto' turn to page XX, and roll out some slop, and expect us to think he is right. Again, I am not supporting their overthrow, but, I also think they are some evil shits in their own right.

The DPRK has elections and votes on laws. Citizens can recall deputies to the people's assembly at any time. The assemblies have a much higher turnover rate than in bourgeois "democracies".

But democracy is more than that. Democracy is about popular control, not just having proles cast a meaningless vote between two factions of billionaires, meanwhile the entire economy, culture, and society is controlled by a handful of plutocrats. Democracy means active participation in the daily life of the country and it also means a government which responds to the needs of the broad masses of people, not just a clique of the filthy rich.

can you point to a 'democracy' in the west, Your word 'bourgeois' comes right from Engle/Marx.

their turnover rates are not from elections always, either, they have '50 cent solutions' to their assembly members also.

the country is NOT doing what is best for its people. Then again, neither does ours, so I am not really complaining, but your defense of them is interesting, if not misplaced.

"here are some staggering facts. South Koreans on average, are over 4 inches taller than north Koreans."

What do you have to back up this so-called 'fact' other than the unaccountable testimony of a country that refuses to sign a peace treaty and instigates conflict with Pyongyang at every opportunity, with the full backing of the huge US military presence there?

"they should NOT be launching rockets, and have 100,000 airborne troops, and over a million man standing army."

You're right, they should just let the the puppet government in Seoul waltz into the North unimpeded, with Washington's blessing. They've spent everything they could on increasing food production and food imports, without simply giving up their independence & sovereignty to foreign aggressors.

Putin, stop putting words in my mouth, ok? I never said that, not even once, or insinuated it. take your strawmen somewhere else, ok? I support them defending themselves,. They have a nuke arsenal. Need they continue to invest such insane amounts on propaganda (the rocket launches)?

All anti-communists think a democracy involves is 25-40% of the public showing up to the polls once every 4 years or so and casting a vote for one of two or so parties that are run by some clique of super rich parasites who control the entire country. Meanwhile homelessness increases, underemployment increases, poverty increases, the gap between the superrich & poor expands ever more, disillusionment and cynicism increases, but all of that is called 'democracy'. The Greek and Italian bankers coups are called 'democracies'.
"can you point to a 'democracy' in the west,"

Not really, no.

Well, the sum of it will be that one has to realize that there is no such thing as *innocent politics*.
Any society claiming *happiness guaranteed for all* is a fake, just as well as the stories made up of "terror regimes". If they were so horrible in killing their own people as they are portrayed they could not be surviving at all for years and decades.
A regime that is not artificially upheld from the outside must have a strong base of support in its own country.

I expect that if you mingle with North Koreans and Chinese in average you'll meet with a lot of pride in the kind of development their nations have fought for in strict independence from a hostile world.

It doesn't mean we need to like it, though, even if we should do our best to understand it

How much do you claim they are spending on rocket launches?

Putin, would you deny (as many observers have claimed) that North Korea has among the worst human rights record of any government in the world? I would assume so, since you describe it as a democratic system. I don't think I've ever met anyone online or in person with such a perspective, so I'm interested to know.

That sure *sounds* good, Putin, but is there more than one name on the ballot? With "the party," winning EVERY seat, and near 100% voter turnout, can you really tell me that you consider North Korea a representative government?

yes, because the same family has held power for its entire history. Sure. And btw, THAT is not communism either.

What observers? Freedom House? The same coterie of organizations that called Iraq a 'hell on earth' before it was bombed to bits? You know, that country that won an UNESCO award for its social policy? Provide me one single objective measure of human rights & democracy. There have been countless lies told about the DPRK, so I don't believe 95% of what I hear about it, maybe closer to 99%. Because time after time this propaganda is exposed for being untrue. That's what happens when you base all your information about 'human rights' on organizations who are hellbent on destroying a country.

"a representative government?"
Representative of what?
The "people", I suppose you will say...
I suppose, yes... it is the regime the North Korean people is producing.

This dream of a good *people* and a regime innocently representing it...

well, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_North_Korea , the following international groups have criticized some aspect of how North Korea treats its citizens: Amnesty International, the UN, Reporters without Borders, Women's Voice International (whoever that is), Freedom House, National Human Rights Commission of Korea, and the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

"yes, because the same family has held power for its entire history. Sure. And btw, THAT is not communism either."

Winning a war for your country's very existence tends to make you popular. Terrible, I know.

Well... though it is not part of my vocation to promote North Korean policies in the world...

Why should we assume that the North Korean people cares for the same things as "Reporters without borders"? And don't just assume that such an organization is an embodiment of some transcendentally pure innocence.