Russia's neighbors

[mendeleyev]

I'm moving the North Korea discussion here so that it doesn't clog up the Russian diplomatic thread.

[mendeleyev]

No it is not humanitarian to offer aid in the form of food and medicine to an enemy.  You know that.

I agree and that is why I don't consider Franklin Graham or any of the other aid groups as aiding the enemy.

LT, were you to travel in NK you'd realize that the enemy is really the few at the top. Everyone else is part of what I consider to be the largest prison camp in the world.

Last year several large humanitarian organizations made a very painful decision to suspend aid to NK because they were not allowed to direct where the aid would go. Who can blame them? They raise funds and deliver food and medicines only to have it redirected to the Army and the NK elite.

I supported that suspension. It got the attention of the government and some aid is now again being delivered to needed areas and the organizations are demanding that they be allowed to supervise the distribution. The problem of course is that the government wants the people to think that their loving and great leaders are responsible, not the outside world.

Feeding starving children in NK is equal to humane treatment of prisoners of war. Those people didn't ask to be born in the world's largest prison camp. They didn't choose to live in a society so controlled that the act of thinking for themselves is a crime worthy of execution.

[lordtiberius]

Ok.  I can go along with this strategy.  It seems reasonable.  But for how long?  When is enough enough?  There was talk of a General's coup.  But let's be fair, North Korea is not Burma.  I am not alone in stating that the many of us across the world, don't have patience for North Korea and should ration our aid to places where we can have some success like Venezuela - an erstwhile Russian ally . . .

[lordtiberius]

http://news.yahoo.com/why-russian-bombers-buzzing-japanese-airspace-171726111.html

Why are Russian bombers buzzing Japanese airspace?

Russian planes skirted Japan's territory twice this past weekend – an oddly provocative move given recent improvements in Russo-Japanese relations.

[lordtiberius]

A former Bushie who is more pro-Russian than this Bushie