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Subject: South Korea Prepares For War
SYSOP    12/23/2014 5:23:50 AM
 
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Blacktail       12/23/2014 10:50:10 PM
There are two critical errors in the premise of this article;
 
1- South Korea and North Korea have been in a state of total war since 1950, and still are. They have a cease-fire agreement, which is not the same thing as an armistice or a peace treaty. The chaos of the early 1950s  isn't over --- it's only on pause. That's why all that shooting takes place, and no one bats an eye. C'est le guerre. Remember the sinking of that frigate a few years back? All the artillery duels? The tunnels constantly being found and demolished under the DMZ? You get the idea.
2- South Korea is just as strongly opposed to unification as North Korea is, for less-obvious reasons. Remember when East and West Germany were reunified? A major portion of the unified German economy ever since has been devoted to cleaning-up East Germany's messes, and South Korea has taken note; they don't want to be dragged-down by North Korea's undertow. Photos of Berlin from space demonstrate that the eastern half (formerly belonging to the East Germany) are dimmer at night, reflecting comparitively puny commerce and industry compared to the Western half (formerly belonging to West Germany);
 
Moreover, consider that while the western half of Berlin is lit primarily be LED streetlights, the streetlights in the eastern half are almost all sodium vapor lamps (a metaphor for how troublesome the unification still is for Germany), which you can see in this photo;
 
Or to put it another way, notice all the industry and agriculture south of the DMZ, and all the decaying factories, barren rural wastelands, empty pockets, and empty stomachs in the north side. South Korea wants to remain an economic powerhouse they are today, but if they reunify with the North, that economy will come to a crashing halt.
 
Seoul is very mindful of this dilemma, and the idea of reunification is an anathema to them --- as is the notion of a lasting peace, because it would obviously be an eventual catalyst for reunification.
 
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keffler25       12/24/2014 2:08:47 AM
 
Try research before you make a claim.
 
 
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Blacktail       12/25/2014 8:50:01 AM
Who doesn't know what they're talking about?
 
 
 
 
 
Further reinforcing my premise...;

"The Berlin Wall may be physically disappearing – David Hasselhoff went there to campaign for its preservation last month – but some things last longer than mere bricks and mortar. Town planning, for instance, as Colonel Chris Hadfield demonstrated when he took this picture of Berlin from the International Space Station on Wednesday last week.

The Canadian astronaut has become a social media star thanks to his efforts to normalise space flight by telling us about his experiences through the medium. And what better way to engage humanity than by showing it pictures of itself and the planet on which it lives from his heroic perspective?

His snap of Berlin, taken from about 200 miles above the Earth, clearly shows the line of the old wall as expressed by the difference in streetlighting between the former east and west.

"Berlin was divided into two parts for over 40 years," explains Christa Mientus-Schirmer of Berlin's city government. "And although we've made a lot of progress in the 20 years since the wall fell, we haven't had the money we would have liked to equalise the two parts of the city."

Daniela Augenstine, of the city's street furniture department, says: "In the eastern part there are sodium-vapour lamps with a yellower colour. And in the western parts there are fluorescent lamps – mercury arc lamps and gas lamps – which all produce a whiter colour." The western Federal Republic of Germany long favoured non-sodium lamps on the grounds of cost, maintenance and carbon emissions, she says.

Hadfield's intriguing shot of Berlin can be filed alongside other artefacts of reunification, including the term "Mauer im Kopf" meaning "the wall inside the head" of former Ossis (easterners) and Wessis (west Germans) that has led, for instance, to the radical Left party gaining three times as many votes in the former communist east than in the FRG.

Berlin's 43,000 yellow sodium lights, at least, are steadily vanishing as the city strives to become carbon neutral by 2050. Someone call the Hoff?"

 
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keffler25       12/25/2014 10:30:40 AM
 
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joe6pack       12/26/2014 2:44:43 PM
The one group opposed totally to unification (since they would be the losing party), is the North. 
 
There will be none, unless the North collapses or re-starts the war with the South.
 
As for not wanting re-unification..  I think that is a short sighted outlook held by some of the industrial elites in South Korea.. and granted, they seem to have a considerable say in the political system.
 
That said - the younger generation is more open to patching things up with the North and less inclined to put up with conscription..
 
If looking for a second party that wouldn't be thrilled about a unified Korea,  I'd put my money on the Chinese...
 
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manny       12/29/2014 2:50:56 AM
I word of advice to south korea. Don't follow the U.S on military matters, they suck.

Conscription is the main reason why anyone in your country wants to have kids. Get rid of it and your birth rate will plummet even further.

In addition, the feminization of your culture will continue doing most damage among the elites, who without conscription will turn into latte sipping hipsters like the U.S.

And this will make south korea even more vulnerable to the sociopathic masculine aholes which makeup the north korean elite. Eventually leading to south koreans falling to their knees for chinese protection. (U.S has already proven it's lack of staying power)

 
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