ForumGarden

North Korea said Monday its military has entered map coordinates of some conservative South Korean media offices as it threatened to strike their headquarters for their alleged insult to Kim Jong-un.

About 20,000 North Korean children pledged their allegiance to Kim as the North began a six-day festival on Sunday to mark the 66th anniversary of the Korean Children's Union (KCU).

In response, some South Korean media dismissed the celebration as part of the North's attempt to win support for Kim, who took over the country following the December death of his father, long-time leader Kim Jong-il. Channel A, a television arm of the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper, compared Kim to the late German dictator Adolf Hitler over the anniversary celebration. The North has long bristled at any outside criticism of its leader and has made similar threats against the South over the past several months, although no actual attack has occurred.

In reaction to the criticism, the General Staff of the Korean People's Army said the North is ready to bomb the Seoul headquarters of the Chosun Ilbo at coordinates of 37 degrees 56 minutes 83 seconds North latitude and 126 degrees 97 minutes 65 seconds East longitude. It also revealed the coordinates of the Joongang Ilbo and Dong-a Ilbo newspapers, as well as the KBS, MBC and SBS television stations and CBS radio. It is the first time the North has released coordinates of intended targets in South Korea.

The General Staff demanded apologies from President Lee Myung-bak, and threatened to be struck by the North otherwise. "If the Lee group recklessly challenges our army's eruption of resentment, it will retaliate against it with a merciless sacred war of its own style as it has already declared," the General Staff said in the ultimatum carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency. Moreover, the General Staff also warned that the North is "fully ready for everything" and "time is running out."

The problem is Seoul, the South Korean capital city of more than 10 million people and home to South Korean media headquarters, is within range of North Korea's artillery.

South Korea responded to the blatant threats by urging North Korea to immediately stop attacks against the South's media outlets. The North's move is a "grave provocative act" to South Korea's freedom and democracy, said Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk.

Also Monday, Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-suk urged the North to immediately stop threatening the South's media outlets. He said the North's threat was a grave "provocation" against South Korea's free and democratic system.

There is no freedom of the press in North Korea where authorities use state media as a propaganda tool to strengthen personality cults of the country's leaders. And without freedom, there is advancement. NK's Kim Jong-un must seek to stabilize the country by reviving the economy, and maintain a cooperative relation with the outside world, instead of provoking, bringing hell on earth go all out on haywire.

Jessica12;1395854 wrote: North Korea said Monday its military has entered map coordinates of some conservative South Korean media offices as it threatened to strike their headquarters for their alleged insult to Kim Jong-un.
Do you have a South Korean media office, Jessica? Because your insults to Kim Jong-un on this forum aren't "alleged" at all, they're very real.

If you'd join in with our discussions about Korea, or even bother to read them, we'd be grateful. Write-only posters are selfish twats, selfish because they aim only to please themselves, twats because the message they post just gets up the members' noses and antagonizes them toward the expressed point of view.

Can this person be banned? I don't think this person or thing has ever responded.

Seems to me this site is just being used as a propaganda outlet. I might approve of the cause, but I object to the method.

Clodhopper;1395916 wrote: Can this person be banned? I don't think this person or thing has ever responded.

Seems to me this site is just being used as a propaganda outlet. I might approve of the cause, but I object to the method.


Without Jessica's posts we'd have no trigger to discuss Korea, and how it got to be the way it is, and why various of South Korea's Presidents were sentenced to death and why they were never executed and where they are now, and whether having the highest suicide rate of any country on the planet is something which the re-unification of Korea might mend - my own suspicion is that the immense suicide rate is a spin-off of the aggressive Christian Evangelization Korea was subject to, which explains why it's now only a phenomenon in the South.

"...my own suspicion is that the immense suicide rate is a spin-off of the aggressive Christian Evangelization..."

How so spot?

AnneBoleyn;1395941 wrote: "...my own suspicion is that the immense suicide rate is a spin-off of the aggressive Christian Evangelization..."

How so spot?
Every time I've been anywhere in South East Asia I've been aware of the relentless attempts by South Koreans to waylay and evangelize on behalf of the more extreme Jesus sects that have sprung up since Westernization. I'm also reminded of the outrageous heights of fervor evoked during services at the mammoth Christian churches there. Either it's mentally healthy or it isn't. I have the impression it's anything but.

spot;1395942 wrote: Every time I've been anywhere in South East Asia I've been aware of the relentless attempts by South Koreans to waylay and evangelize on behalf of the more extreme Jesus sects that have sprung up since Westernization. I'm also reminded of the outrageous heights of fervor evoked during services at the mammoth Christian churches there. Either it's mentally healthy or it isn't. I have the impression it's anything but.
Still, blaming this is quite a leap.

AnneBoleyn;1395943 wrote: Still, blaming this is quite a leap.


Blaming aggressive Christian Evangelization in South Korea for the extreme suicide rate there is quite a leap? It depends on whether there's a demonstrable link between a fervent belief in heaven and killing oneself. I can think of examples over the last fifty years of groups willingly setting forth together, usually with cyanide laced soda-pop.

spot;1395944 wrote: Blaming aggressive Christian Evangelization in South Korea for the extreme suicide rate there is quite a leap? It depends on whether there's a demonstrable link between a fervent belief in heaven and killing oneself. I can think of examples over the last fifty years of groups willingly setting forth together, usually with cyanide laced soda-pop.
Yes. But. You are still speculating. It's ok. You're coming up with interesting stuff.

AnneBoleyn;1395945 wrote: Yes. But. You are still speculating. It's ok. You're coming up with interesting stuff.


Try to describe what it would take for me to do more than speculate. I suppose I could ask for the religious affiliation and church attendance for a random selection of the suicides but I'm not convinced that data exists in public even for England, much less for South Korea. Have I an alternative approach I could use?

spot;1395946 wrote: Try to describe what it would take for me to do more than speculate. I suppose I could ask for the religious affiliation and church attendance for a random selection of the suicides but I'm not convinced that data exists in public even for England, much less for South Korea. Have I an alternative approach I could use?
Well, if they all left suicide notes telling us why they committed suicide, I guess we would have data. Or, if the survivors were able to volunteer this information. Otherwise, it's just speculation. And why would heavy evangelicisation lead to suicide anyway? Would it be a culture clash? Guilt over leaving the religion of their forefathers? Jesus makes them feel inadequate?, that one can never live up to perfection? Even if you could get religious affiliation/church attendance, it still only would make it a Trend, but not a reason. No, you're just speculating, but hey, why not? The birthers speculate that Obama was born in Kenya. I call that "speculation with dangerous intent", but yours is benign speculation I suppose.

P.S.

Do you specifically mean 'the moonies'? The followers of Rev. Sun Myung Moon? With arranged weddings & arranged lives?

AnneBoleyn;1395960 wrote: P.S.

Do you specifically mean 'the moonies'? The followers of Rev. Sun Myung Moon? With arranged weddings & arranged lives?


Not as far as I know. Are they South Korean Jesus freaks who spend all their spare time trying to save whoever they meet, as though they have a quota to fill? South East Asia is packed to the rafters with them. Either they're so fanatical because of the pressure their society exerts on its citizens, or their fanaticism generates the pressure. Either way, the fact that they exist in such numbers is testimony to the warped nature of South Korean society.

This may help as background:THE KOREA HERALD, August 8, 2003

[...] In Korea suicide is often not thought of as a cowardly or thoughtless act. In contrast, most Western countries founded on Christian ideals view suicide as a cowardly selfish act. The Christian ideal imbedded in the soul of many Westerners believe that the victim of the suicide is not only the deceased, but the family, friends and business associates who are often deeply embarrassed and confused by the situation. The body is also viewed as something sacred that cannot be destroyed just to ease the pain of life. These nations' people often view suicide as a cowardly act, since suicide is thought of as the easy way out of a difficult situation.

In Korea the situation is different. Buddhism, which even has influenced Christian churches in Korea, focuses on the transitory nature of life, and the glory of death. Many Korean heroes including many students demonstrators have killed themselves in order to portray a message to their adversaries and to prove that their cause was so valuable it was valuable enough to die for. Many of these protestors believed that their act was an act of bravery and their death was glorious event that will help their cause. Accordingly, suicide is often considered a brave act of desperation. Also, after a suicide occurs people often point fingers at who drove this person to kill him or herself.

And an alternative point of view, broadcast four weeks ago on North Korean television and noted by the BBC Worldwide Monitoring service:Lee Myung-bak [current President of South Korea, ex-CEO of Hyundai Engineering and Construction and ex-mayor of Seoul], a rat born in Osaka of Japan, left millions of people jobless, many of them killing themselves, and thus turning South Korea into a kingdom of suicide unfit for human beings.

which is, I suppose, another possibility.