Why should we, as the collective west, spend soldiers lifes and money on "liberating" a population that hates us? Oh, and please mind: "Liberating" a country normally also includes killing a shitton of civilians in this process.
this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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Can't do anything as long as China wants the situation to stay like this.
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China would be really pissed off about that.
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The major problem is what do you do with the massive humanitarian crises you after you remove the regime?You will have to care for millions of people who have had everything given to them.
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Tthis is really messed up, what is the economic interest in doing something about it?
The short answer is that they have nukes.
You can't treat governments like they're people. The same detachment from the human spirit applies as it does to any sufficiently large corporation, multinational, politburo, royal court, whatever.
Even if your specific nation holds your specific code of ethics and standards, there can be severe consequences to holding all other nations to the same standard.
Unless you're a superpower, in which case you're the oppressor, simply by engaging in diplomacy.
Given all of this, what you're asking for is for one nation to have perfect foreign policy that would compel change in North Korea. Then, all other nations would need to adopt and extend the same policy, but independently and without external pressure.
iirc one of the issues is that even if things go perfectly on a military front no one is quite sure how to handle and de-program/rehabilitate 25.5 million people a large quantity of which likely lack any skills that would be useful in western economies.
No one wants the ugliness of a war over NK, but everyone wants their natural resources, estimated to be one of the largest deposit of minerals in the world.
First of all, there are a lot of people willing to die for their country as it is. As soon as people are willing to give up their lives, you're not changing shit. These people didn't grow up like you and me.
Secondly, there is a world of difference between stepping in and stepping in. One of the main reasons that North Korea is so isolated is because of sanctions. That is also a form of stepping in.
Thirdly, we already saw war and foreign meddling in that area. That's exactly why America is the great evil opponent of North Korea. That's not a coincidence or just because Kim Il Sung, Kim Jung Il or Kim Jung Un hated "freedom".
Now you ask, what other solution is there?!
Well, a lot of people are actually working on that. By launching information campaigns and spreading Western/foreign music into the country. Real change comes from within. But please remember that this country is now lead by the third generation of absolute leader.
He’s always threatening to nuke countries
Empty threats and geopolitics. It's also complicated because the guy is crazy. What would you do? Also there are a lot of dictatorships that are more dangerous for us. Remember Irak?
Anyway the whole thing is philosophical. Do you want to bomb everyone because they are the bad guys? Nowadays the bad guys are the USA, would you agree if Europe invaded the USA because they elected the ultimate dictator?
There is no answer.
Kim will execute kids if they don’t cheer hard enough at his birthday party or something?
Rosie O'Donnell?
He’s always threatening to nuke countries and is probably has the highest domestic kill count out of any world leader today.
Again, Trump.
I don’t disagree, the US definitely are the bad guys today on the global stage. But just hearing and seeing the stories from North Korea breaks my heart. Has the NATO or any western country tried some sort of diplomatic deal with Kim for better living conditions for his people?
The official line is that North Korea is thriving - it'd be political suicide for Kim Jong Un to accept help.
The comparison with the US isn't unwarranted. The respective propaganda machines are the reason both countries are the way they are.
When people are told daily how their country is the best in the world, the ruling class can get away with an awful lot.
It's 2025, and many places in the US don't even have clean tap water. People are being "disappeared" off the streets by government agencies. People are dying from easily-treatable diseases. The wealthy ruling class live lives of luxury, while poor people work multiple jobs and still exist below the poverty line.
So, with all that said, do you think Trump would accept a deal that would allow better living conditions for his people? I think we both know the answer.
The problem is, for all the problems the country has internally, a "deal" with the west is going to turn out the same way it turned out for other countries: Forced "market reforms" that really just mean allowing western capitalists to exploit the country's resources and labor. There is no good path for a country that involves western intervention. We'll just make it worse, or at least as bad, but for out benefit.
Besides, why would they ever trust us? We bombed them to smithereens within living memory and since then have gone out of our way to punish the people living there for whatever reason you choose to believe was our motive. If we cared about the people there we wouldn't have invaded or embargoed them in the first place. And since then it's not like we've stopped acting like that to the rest of the world. If the US cared about freedom and democracy or people's living standards, we wouldn't be allies with places like Saudi Arabia or Israel. We wouldn't have installed right wing dictators in all the countries we tried to stop from having self-determination.
The best thing that could be done if we actually cared about people's living standards would be to back the fuck off and let people sort out their own politics without a global superpower breathing down their necks. They already fought one revolution, if they really want to change their government I'm sure they could do it without our "help." Maybe if they didn't have an existential enemy they could deal with their own problems more easily.
Nuking North Korea is an absolutely ridiculous idea. Not a solution. How has the world forgotten the mastery the CIA possesses over political assassinations and coups? Like, c'mon. A couple of coups could probably at least help the world out. As long as you don't just peace out as soon as the government gets destroyed, or install a dictator. Basically, don't be too much like the CIA.
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One thing I have not seen brought up yet is that Seoul is within artillery range of North Korea. Even if North Korea didn't have nukes they could bombard the city with conventional arms or even chemical weapons and kill hundreds of thousands in the first day or two.
Watch Time Ghost's series on the Korean War.
Loads of reasons. It has (or at least had) protection from China who doesn't want a Western nation at it's border. It can wreck havoc on SK if invaded. It would cause loads and loads of casualties to invade.
In any case: The way SK is going now, all NK has to do is wait another 30-50 years and they can just walk in empty land, there.