1y ago

North Korea celebrated its founding with a military parade featuring dump trucks modified to work as rocket launchers

www.businessinsider.com North Korea celebrated its founding with a military parade featuring dump trucks modified to work as rocket launchers

The parade was intended to demonstrate the country's readiness for a war, featuring members of North Korea's militia units.

North Korea celebrated its founding with a military parade featuring dump trucks modified to work as rocket launchers

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I sat reading the comments and nodding along and then realized that all this discourse is essentially 'poor country can't afford nice things '. I'd be really upset at someone that made fun of a person over the junker they drove because it was all they could afford.
- How sad can you be if the "nice thing" they can't afford is rocket launchers
- I mean, if folks were making fun of their housing I'd agree but this is the equipment they're buying to threaten their neighbors with, instead of feeding their starving population
  
  I'm certainly not pro military, but if I was NK I would focus on military parades too. Every year(?) the U.S. and SK practice invading NK the people who live near the DMZ are always under threat or told that they are under threat of invasion. So yeah dump trucks with missile launchers are great, because of nothing else the people near the DMZ know they can at least have mutually assured destruction on their side.
  There are entire generations of people who have lived in the fighting grounds of the U.S. and China. These parades show that these people will still put up a fight for their home.
  So yeah us rich and militaristic Americans can always have a good laugh at the poor parts of the world we threaten.
  
  The country has never starved itself for fun. North Korea has <20% arable land and relies on other countries to provide that supply. With sanctions it is very hard to import high quality food to provide for people. The fact that the government offers free housing, healthcare, and education tells me they would do everything in their power to feed its population if they were able to trade with more countries.
  
  Holy shit, what a bad take.
  Why doesn't the government take actions to reduce sanctions then?
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/24/obama-response-north-korea-nuclear-tests-deal
- This is more the shitty gun they bought to scare their neighbor. Also, their kids are skipping another meal.
  
  Just to extend that metaphor a little bit:
  It’s like making fun of the cheap gun they bought to protect themselves after a gang set up shop in their neighborhood, took over their neighbors house and did a home invasion where 1/5 of the family was killed and the house itself was completely destroyed.
- Poor country can afford nice things, poor county instead spends money on crimes against humanity and propping up a monarchy.
  
  Where's the monarchy?
  
  I am having trouble assuming good faith in your question. The Supreme Leader there is the son of the previous Supreme Leader who is the son of the Supreme Leader before him. One family has had absolute control over that nation for 3 generations, passing from father to son. Like the Ottoman Empire monarchy they have resolved the whole uncle vs son dilemma pretty brutally.
- If I had a poor neighbor that relied on me for food and financial support during hard times and then turned around and told everyone what a piece of shit I am and how much they're going to fuck me up next time they see me, and how much better their car is than mine? Yeah, I would call them out for their shitty ass car when they pulled it out of the driveway and the door was duct taped on. And I wouldn't really feel that bad about it.
  
  And then after you recall how it's all your fault that they're on that situation? And you've kidnapped half their family and are using them as slaves for your interests? What do you think then?
  
  Not sure you're going to be able to make me feel sorry for the Kim Jong Un regime. They do terrible things to their people and while the US is far from perfect, I really don't think we're the shittier neighbor. I don't think we're enslaving anyone either but if you have a source I'd be happy to read about it.
  
  They do terrible things to their people and
  Just as a quick test, see if you can remember what these things are and whether they're true or not.
  Regarding slavery in the USA, you guys run the world's largest network of slave camps. You have 20% of the world's prison population, mostly black and other minorities. Slavery is legalised in the American constitution.
  Recently slaves in Texas were dying in their cells at a rate of 2 per day from the heat, because the prison camps had made the water too expensive for them to drink.
  Nothing that happens in the DPRK comes close to that depravity.
- Eh. It's sad how their military needs to do this when it sucks up so much money already.
  If they just invested in their people instead of their war, north korea would be a much better place to live.
  Never forget how there is literally only one fat person in the entire state, and that's their 'supreme leader.'
  
  The NYPD has more funding than North Korea's entire military. Tell me how many people are going hungry or homeless in New York alone. The US has no excuse whatsoever for relying on slave labor, either. Oh, but thank god we have more than one fat person in New York, so the problem will be perfectly solved when another New Yorker gets fat.
  
  is there more hungry in new york than north korea? you want to bring up possibly the dumbest whataboutism ive heard this week, im gonna want to see your facts to back up your hilarious claim
  
  🥱
  
  How is it not a good place to live? Who have you been listening to?
  E: s/got/not
  
  What?
  
  Same comment in upper case.
  
  You're not making any sense.
  
  Typo corrected.
  
  I don't understand? Why are you defending a monarchy?
  
  The DPRK is not a monarchy, nor am I "defending" anything except the truth.
- They have the option of joining South Korea anytime they want, that option has always been open to them
  
  To join up with a country that supported this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chun_Doo-hwan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodo_League_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwangju_Uprising https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_massacres
  The South Korea that was allied with the US, who makes agreements like this to achieve their goals? https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ap-us-allowed-korean-massacre-in-1950/
  
  Ah yes let's blame the country for their war crimes. There's pretty much no country in the world without a cruel history in some way. How is this relevant?
  
  Go look at the status both countries are at today instead of referencing 70 year old events. Whatever path South Korea took clearly worked and North Korea's path did not. A rational, intelligent person would admit when they were wrong and concede
- Not really, more like:
  Poor guy claims to be able to afford nice things, waves a load of junk dragged from the local scrap yard in front of the local homeless guys claiming it is amazing.
- This is literally it. North Korea is just a poor country that offers its citizens free healthcare and education. If a poor country in Africa became "communist," you can bet these same people would be laughing at them when kids have to pick up guns to defend themselves from an American invasion. "Ha ha look at those inferior kids thinking they deserve to fight back. Kill them! I wish they died quicker and were sanctioned harder."
  
  Looking at the picture again, why are they wearing hard hats?
  There's something else going on than 'we can't afford rocket launchers '
  
  Do some research for 5 seconds. The country has been at war for decades for no fault of their own. I don't laugh when the US is sending billions of dollars of military equipment when I see dozens of new homeless people every day. It's just not funny. Military expenses are irrelevant, anyway. Feeding people could be done with or without spending on military. The difference is that North Korea is under sactions when they have like 18% arable land.
  
  Dude, why the hostility?
  Reread my comment. Why are they wearing hard hats?
  
  They joined 4h ago and has been mainly active on military stuff, I don't think you'll get an answer from them ☹️
  
  Wonder who is paying them.
  
  They are workers, nothing more to it.

121 comments