N. Korea agrees to disarm

[froggeh]

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6356481.stm

I was almost certain this one would kick off sometime in the future...

I guess this shows diplomacy can work after all.

[JonB]

But do we trust them? Nobody really knows what is going on inside N Korea do they?

I'll believe it when I see it.
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[owdamer]

I'm sure good ole George W will find some other reason to criticise em.

[mchaggis]

So all we ever cared about was the nuclear issue?

Never mind the fact that North Korea is one of the most repressive, backwards and cruel regimes in existence. Torture and executions are routine and freedom of information is a fiction. Life is controlled by the state down to the smallest details.

For instance, all the television sets are fixed tuned to the national state run channels, and all radio sets have to be handed over to the police, who fix the tuning and hand them back. The people are all drilled to treat Kim Jong Il like a god, and they never know any better. Political dissent is absolutely forbidden, incurring life sentences in labour camps and gulags.

When Communist economies went tits up in the 80's and early 90's, they didn't pay attention. Others reformed, but they didn't. The economy is in tatters. Starvation and poverty are chronic. North Korea is a nasty joke of anything resembling civilisation by normal standards.

Shutting down their main nuclear reactor does not stop their nuclear program either. You can guarantee that it'll be started back up again once the heavy fuel oil has been delivered.
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