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Originally Posted by Nedusa
I think the West is playing the North Korea issue all wrong. Instead of punishing the regime for it's actions which as you say results in the average North Korean being punished for the actions of it's mad leadership, it should instead supply copious quantities of Food Aid and all normal household goods including some luxury goods including radios,TV's Computers etc...
If the people in NK start to feel better about themselves and have some limited access to the outside World then dissent and disobediance will grow in the masses.
It is well known that a few people well armed and well organised can control and even brutalise large numbers of dispirited and browbeaten citizens. We have seen this in many fascist regimes where a few can control the many ie Nazi Germany, East Germany, Cambodia.
But if the North Koreans do not have to worry about food so much then maybe they can see they are being brainwashed and manipulated, possibly some parts of the Army might be more progressive and perhaps at some point a coup could be on the cards.
I think the West needs to change strategies with NK and try other methods to engage this brutalised nation.
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Very sadly, it's unlikely that the NK regime would accept aid like that from the west to be supplied to the people, for exactly the reasons that you outline really. It might make many of them think too much about what's being done to them.
The second part of the problem being that the reason for the people being so poor / starving, is that NK spends an absolutely huge proportion of it's GDP on the military. I don't think the exact figures are known but estimates range from 16% right up to a whopping 33% (compared to 2% here, and 4% in the US).
Which essentially means that, unlike other countries where the people are exceptionally poor, the NK can actually dictate what does and doesn't get into the country.