South Korea Says North Korea 'Must Disappear Soon'

[DonViejo]

Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS

HYUNG-JIN KIM – MAY 12, 2014, 9:05 AM EDT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A rhetorical battle between the rival Koreas intensified Monday with a South Korean official saying North Korea "must disappear soon."

The comments, which will likely draw a furious response from Pyongyang, followed a series of sexist and racist slurs by North Korea against the leaders of South Korea and the United States. Pyongyang's state media likened South Korean President Park Geun-hye to an "old prostitute" and U.S. President Barack Obama to a "monkey" in recent dispatches.

South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters at a briefing in Seoul that North Korea isn't a real country and exists for the benefit of only one person, a reference to dictator Kim Jong Un. He said the North has no human rights or public freedoms.

South Korea has been highly critical of North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, including recent rocket and missile tests and apparent preparations for a fourth nuclear test. But the comments from Seoul on Monday are stronger than normal. South Korea tries to avoid publicly talking about anything that could be interpreted as a collapse of the North Korean government because of worries that Pyongyang would raise tensions.

-snip-

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/south-korea-says-north-must-disappear

[iandhr]

1. What provoked their response?

I thought the ROK's SOP when the North saber rattles was not to give them the dignity of an official response.

[DonViejo]

2. ...

From the second paragraph in the OP:

The comments, which will likely draw a furious response from Pyongyang, followed a series of sexist and racist slurs by North Korea against the leaders of South Korea and the United States. Pyongyang's state media likened South Korean President Park Geun-hye to an "old prostitute" and U.S. President Barack Obama to a "monkey" in recent dispatches.

[iandhr]

3. Yeah

I saw that. The North has said similar things before. The south didn't respond then to the best of my knowledge.

[penultimate]

9. but weren't those statements given by just some 'random' north korean steel worker?

While I'm sure there is a good chance what he said was dictated to him, but in the end it's still just a everyday steel worker saying it.

[joshcryer]

21. The monkey statement was.

But I think in general because it was reported on state news as factual was the issue.

[Blue_Adept]

4. Will Republicans support North Korea now?

I can see some of them - and the base - getting behind a number of those comments out of NK.

[Diclotican]

5. DonViejo

DonViejo

Maybe next time DKPR is begging for food aid - and loans who would never be repaid - ROK might point out how DKPR have been burning bridges as they came - and that DKPR might have to ask nicer to get the food aid - who for the most part is coming from ROK and the US... Even the country who keep its hand over DKPR PRC are not doing so much food aid as ROK and USA is doing...

No doubt DKPR is in deep problems - spesially as the only way the leadership is keeping its power - and control is by bying into the narative of an imiment attack from the South - and the narrative that pepole in DKPR should be happy living in the country - the world ouside of DKPR is far worse than inside the country - even if things are going from bad to worse in DKPR every day - mostly becouse of the falling infrasctrure - and the fact more and more is in the know - how things are on the outside of the country - specailly the ones who live by the border with PRC are pretty in the know - even if they are forbidden traveling over the border - it is pretty easy to look at the difference between PRC and DKPR.. .A Difference that have been posible just the last 25 year or so... And it is more easy now - thanks to new thecnology to make sure popole inside of DKPR is able to be in the know about how things are in ROK... Sope-operas from the South is popular in DKPR - even if it could end you up in prison for a lenghty time if you get arrested looking at the series..

Diclotican

[onehandle]

6. Both countries are equally looney.

The real difference is that the South has cash, resources, and fatten the coffers of our military industrial complex.

I really hope there is a plan in place to remove our troops, fast.

[iandhr]

7. You can't be serious

Both countries are equally looney. Where are the gulags in the ROK?

[penultimate]

10. Right here

http://kotaku.com/these-korean-rooms-are-compared-to-prison-cells-for-goo-1439844132/1440099557

[IronGate]

11. Difference is that one can freely leave that "cell".

whereas in the North, the only way one leaves a gulag is in a pine box.

[Ash_F]

12. Don't like your poverty? Just leave!

[IronGate]

18. I probably stated this badly.

What I meant was that in the South, a person can come and go as they please, whearas, in the North, that doesn't hold true, once you're in the gulag, that's it, game over, and chances are that the family will be joining the inmate.

[Ash_F]

19. I know what you meant

But when people are in poverty, things those more fortunate take for granted, such as being able to move out of the city they are in, become impossible.

This isn't a NK=SK argument.

Maybe you should have rephrased it as "they could move out, if they could afford it".

edit - Which really means they can't move out.

[IronGate]

20. Correct, if they could move, they would.

[EX500rider]

25. Except S Korea has nowhere near the poverty of the North..

South Korea
GDP per capita
$32,020 (2012 est.)
GDP Nominal: $1.130 trillion (2012 est)
Population below poverty line
15%

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_South_Korea

North Korea
GDP per capita
$1,800 (2010 est.)
GDP ~$40 billion
No figure for below the poverty line since it's just about everybody who's last name isn't Jong

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_North_Korea

[Ash_F]

26. I am aware, thanks. /nt

[jtuck004]

13. Because grinding poverty, servitude, slavery, even the very real pain of hunger,

hurt so much more when your leadership is non-Democratic, right? I mean, they are in a police state and everything. That's got to hurt worse.

I get what you are saying.

[mathematic]

17. S. Korea is looney because Samsung competes with Apple.

Seriously. That's the reasoning going on here.

S. Korea is one world's great success stories. Prosperous, democratic, and socially equitable. Yes, they have things to work on, like most (or all?) countries but equating them in any way to N. Korea is totally off the deep end.

[davidpdx]

22. On that you are terribly wrong

Yes, we have (and continue to) sell planes and other things to South Korea for their defense. Yes, we do have 28,500 troops stationed here in South Korea (might as well be specific since you were very vague).

Nothing is going to change, the South is a stable democracy. The North is an unstable dictatorship being propped up by China.

There is a huge difference between the two.

[Ash_F]

8. The current president of SK was the most rightwing of candidate of the last election

She is the daughter of a previous dictator.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Chung-hee
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Republic_of_South_Korea

The Second Republic saw the end of the severe curbs on political expression that had been in place under the Rhee regime. As a result, freedom returned, and with it came an increase in political activity. Much of this activity was from leftist and student groups, which had been instrumental in the overthrow of the First Republic. Union membership and activity grew rapidly during the later months of 1960.

Park came in with a military coup and put an end to this. It set back SK decades.

[jtuck004]

14. That's ok. People here say that about Republicans on a regular basis. <G> n/t

[freshwest]

16. These imaginative slurs waste time. Just use four-letter expletives:

See? Just a word that conveys almost every possible meaning.

[davidpdx]

23. Sounds like me when I'm mad

I can use the "f" word 4 or 5 times in a sentence.

[freshwest]

24. Filmed as I took a break from DU. Yes, I am a cat. For those who don't like cats:

[davidpdx]

27. Nice

I've never had a cat with white fur like that. Mine shed all over the place. We had to resort to giving them a "haircut" last year. Talk about freakout city. Never mess with a cat's fur or their nails.