Down the street from my home in Bangkok, next to a tailor and a nail salon, sits a peculiar outpost of the North Korean state. Inside the Pyongyang Okryu restaurant, five tall, pale waitresses float among the tables in sparkly dresses and carefully cultivated smiles. “Are they really North Korean?” my wide-eyed young son asked, a bit too loudly, on a recent visit. He’d been reading about the country’s isolation and the fusillade of insults and threats exchanged by President Trump and Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader. A waitress overheard him and nodded, but her blank smile — a rictus of nonrevelation — never wavered.
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WNU Editor: Five years ago .... there was zero debate in China on limiting their ties and support of North Korea. Today .... thanks to President Trump's pressure on Chinese President Xi and the actions of the North Korean government itself .... that debate is now raging in China. Will China continue to be a "lifeline" to North Korea ... I do not know. But if you follow trends .... do expect a curtailment of Chinese support.
Update: This is why China will not be completely on board with sanctions .... 'Many people will die' as North Korean sanctions bite, defector says (Nikkei Asian Review).
4 comments:
Five years ago? Unless I missed something and it is possible I did I don't think there was any debate on limiting support to North Korea even six months ago within China.
This is an amazing turn of events. Unfortunately it is probably to little, to late, and any Chinese support is simply to tepid. As such, we are probably going to be at hot war with North Korea very soon. They've backed us into a corner and we have no choice.
With that said there is a ray of hope for peace. In China possibly not supporting North Korea would have once been completely unthinkable. If a deal can be reached, this would be awesome!!
There probably will be parts of it we may not like. This may mean the Kims are allowed to live out their lives in luxury in a tropical paradise. The new North Korean leadership will be just as brutal as the previous one as long as it doesn't threaten America. If part of this agreement means America FINALLY gets to withdraw its forces from South Korea this would be really awesome!!
Are they factoring into the debate the possibility of US base in North Korea in the future, or do they think that a take over, by whatever means of NK means the US military will just leave the area?
No that wouldn't be "really awesome", bposter, that is the plan china had all along. You not seeing that or pretending not to see that and cheer it on as "really awesome" should let everyone here understand where you stand ;) three nations who'd find that awesome: China, North Korea and Russia. Forgot which country you usually hail as the supreme overlord everyone should bow down too...ah now I remember. ..Russia ^^
Bob,
Obviously part of any settlement is going to mean the US the US leaves the area. This is fine. In fact, POTUS when he was a candidate pretty much pointed out that the South Korean "alliance" needed to be rethought. He was correct.
As for a US base in North Korea, no one in the region will tolerate that. Perhaps their may be a base there in which South Korea takes the lead under tight restrictions imposed by China. Part of this will likely include a timetable for complete US withdrawal from the area.
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