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North Korea: Explained

2013-04-05 · Hank · watch on YouTube · World affairs · news analysis

Hank answers the most-searched questions about North Korea during its 2013 threats: it almost certainly won't attack, its worst threat is to its own people, it is a hereditary dictatorship rather than communist, and it needs the US as an enemy; giving in to its tantrums may only encourage more.

What is said

00:00:16 — Is North Korea going to bomb us? Who it could reach, decades of crazy threats, and four reasons for the current escalation

  • ★★ Hank says North Korea's missiles can't reach him, but could reach South Korea, Japan or even Guam. — 00:00:19
  • ★★★ Hank says North Korea almost certainly will not bomb anyone. (hedged) — 00:00:32
  • ★★ Hank says North Korea has used crazy threats for over 50 years; the current ones are extra crazy but the pattern is normal. — 00:00:32
  • ★★ Hank's first reason for the escalation: recent UN sanctions anger North Korea, especially because China, its only ally, supports them. — 00:00:48 · China
  • ★★ Hank says South Korea just got a new president, and North Korea tests each new South Korean president by acting crazy. — 00:00:56
  • ★★ Hank says yearly joint US–South Korea military exercises always raise North Korea's rhetoric. — 00:01:02 · United States
  • ★★ Hank says no one knows how Pyongyang's internal politics work, so there may be an internal reason for the escalation that we will never know. (hedged) — 00:01:08

00:01:20 — Is North Korea a threat? Nuclear weapons, but above all to its own people: malnourished children and hereditary concentration camps

  • ★★★ Hank says North Korea is a threat: it has nuclear weapons and is probably the only state left crazy enough to use them. (hedged) — 00:01:20
  • ★★★ Hank says North Korea's biggest threat is to its own malnourished people; the average North Korean child is five inches shorter than the average South Korean child. — 00:01:28
  • ★★★ Hank says people easily declared enemies of the state go to concentration camps with their whole families, where generations live and die, some because grandparents sympathised with the South in the Korean War. — 00:01:39

00:02:07 — Is North Korea communist? A 'democracy' with one candidate; a totalitarian hereditary military dictatorship

  • ★★ Hank says North Korea is not really communist: it calls itself a democracy, but ballots have one candidate and a write-in can make you an enemy of the state. (playful) — 00:02:07
  • ★★ Hank calls North Korea's system, in effect, an absolute totalitarian hereditary military dictatorship (jokingly adding 'multi-party' and 'Did I say that right?'). (playful) — 00:02:22

00:02:31 — Why North Korea hates the US: the Korean War alliance and a dictatorship's need for an enemy; tantrums win concessions, like a screaming child; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank says North Korea hates the US first because the US supported South Korea in the Korean War, which defines North Korea, and remains its strongest military ally. — 00:02:31 · United States
  • ★★★ Hank says military dictatorships need an enemy; rattling sabres at the US lets the regime pretend to its isolated citizens that it is a global power. — 00:02:48 · United States
  • ★ Hank says most North Koreans know nothing of the outside world; it is the only place on Earth where you can't buy a Coke. (playful) — 00:03:02
  • ★★ Hank hopes North Korea's leaders are less idiotic than their rhetoric and says they know the US would wipe them off the map if they bombed another country. (hedged) — 00:03:11 · United States
  • ★★★ Hank says North Korea's tantrums have won concessions; since everyone wants a stable Asia, giving in may sometimes be better, but continued giving gives them no reason to stop. (hedged) — 00:03:23

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