Senate Asian Geopolitics

But you're acting like you're the only one who feels this way. I personally am from the US but I've been all over, and I hate the US for the most part. You're acting like you are the only person who could possibly feel this way.

Not only that, some of us have connections to other parts of the global south. For instance, my mom used to teach at a school in Zambia and I have friends there who used to be their students. So my concern about China buying up all their good copper land and exploiting the people there is also based in a personal connection.

That doesn't mean I ignore Rhodes and the evil things the west did there. But it just means I can keep that in mind while also continuing to criticize BOTH the west AND China.

 

Sounds like North Korea flung a missile over Japan. It spooked the emergency systems of Hokkaido and people were told to seek shelter.

 

Scary.

 

There have been murmurs that a nuclear test might be planned for the near future. That would be bigger news. They haven't done that in quite some time.

 

I think it's interesting that people here are saying it's "scary" that North Korea is doing a missile test. We're doing military exercises near there but I guess that's not scary.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-...sile-says-warhead-did-not-explode-2022-10-05/

 

Oh it’s almost certainly got something to do with it. I am not worried about North Korea hurting anyone outside of North Korea well I guess if you can’t drugs that’s a different story.

 

I feel like you needed a different word somewhere in that sentence.

 

Isn’t the US / South Korea scheduled to have a missile launch of their own as well?

As for the North Korean missile over Japan. The scary part was the missile alerts. Apparently people in part of Japan were issued a mass alert of an inclining missile on their phones. I’d imagine that would be a scary,

 

Count. I don’t know what happened there.

 

Yeah, it's... so interesting that we find missiles flying over our heads from an extremely hostile nation to be way scarier than whatever missile tests allied nations are doing nearby. Maybe someone should write a thesis on it.

I do fear for my friends in Yokohama who live near an American base because that is a potential target for North Korea. They’re now looking to move to Saitama because of that.

 

Really?

1. Announced tests are less scary than unannounced one by definition. That’s why movies use “jump scares”
2. Firing into an ocean is different than firing towards a populated area.

The general point that military exercises can be threatening is good. The specific way you chose to make this critique is dumb and overwrought.

 

North Korea has done this for years/decades. They just want attention. We all know it's bluster.

 

Again I am not concerned by this other than that it will hurt the fish. North Korea has done the same thing for decades. Kim won’t attack the south if he wants to live.

 

The buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea may not be such a demilitarized zone at the end of the day:

North Korea fires artillery shells near the South Korean border

 

This has happened before and nothing much has come of it, even when North Korea artillery hit South Korean settlements. Kimmy doesn't want the world to forget about the big and strong DPRK as Russia is creating turmoil in Europe and subsequently the China/Taiwan issue is brought to mind.

Maybe we should send Trump to tell Kim to settle down. They seem to like each other. Although Trump has an appointment with Congress soon.

 

So I guess this goes here. BTS have announced, after a few years of being jerked around by the government about an alternate service, that they are all going to enlist in the South Korean military over the next year or so (service is 18-21 months depending on the branch).

This is a major middle finger to the Korean govt, who kept saying they'd discuss alternative service and really wanted BTS available to continue promoting SK tourism and industries (they are spokespeople for Hyundai, Samsung, and Fila). Instead BTS were like "nah we're sick of waiting, we're going in" without warning to the government before announcing it publicly.

As a fan, I think the exemptions process is clearly corrupt (the current president never served in his day, and the songs of industry captains also somehow get out of it), but I'm glad BTS took things into their own hands.

This has brought up a lot of discussion around mandatory enlistment though. South Korea has it for men for obvious reasons, but I'm still not sure why women don't at least have to do some civil service if not military as well. Of course the society would have to view women as equals which they definitely don't...

Anyway, BTS generate something like $3+ billion a year for the SK economy. One report showed 800,000 tourists who went to SK in a year went because of BTS (this was 7% of all tourists). They just held a (free streaming and free tickets) concert that got 49 million views. To say to the government "we know we should probably be exempted by your standards, but we're going to do what ordinary men have to and serve anyway" is really interesting to me.

 

Craving for attention, eh?

"I'm sad to see that nobody pays attention to me because my buddies in Russia and in China are already making a mess around."

 

Don't know where else to post this...


There's been a crowd crush in Itaewon, Seoul, SK. 100,000 people were there for Halloween celebrations. Crowd control I guess was terrible because a crush started... Washington Post reporter is saying 120 are dead and that number will probably rise.

 

Well, maybe if it was K-POP related...

 

China is banning social media posts that reference blank sheets of paper. No, really.

Apparently the newest form of protest is to hold up blank sheets of paper with nothing on them.

 

The ironical statement being "they can't arrest us for saying nothing, right?"

Yes, they can.