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Real Estate Jumps In Chinese City Bordering North Korea
[...] Occasional trains are some of the only traffic left on the China-Korea Friendship Bridge. This is the crossing point for 70 percent of goods entering North Korea from China — things like coal, fuel and household appliances — which are typically transported from Dandong, a gleaming metropolis, to drab Sinuju, the North's second-largest city.
But these are atypical times: United Nations sanctions on North Korea for its nuclear and weapons tests have reduced traffic on this bridge to a trickle. The effects are hitting the economy of this Chinese city hard as well. But in April, Dandong's hopes were suddenly lifted. A historic meeting between leaders of North and South Korea provided raised optimism here that the closed country across the river may soon open for business. The summit planned for next week between President Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un has added more fuel to the anticipation. And investors from across China have flooded in to this border city of 2.4 million. [...] "I've never seen anything like this in Dandong," says [Bob] Li, as workers scurry around him. "We'd have several buyers coming in from all over China buying up apartments. To them, the homes were very cheap, so they would buy as many as possible."
[...] "The rumor around town is that if the North opens up, it'll finally build a road to the new bridge, and our city will be linked to Seoul by road," says Li. "Pyongyang would just be a stop on the way."
Also at Reuters.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Subsentient on Monday June 11 2018, @08:10AM (3 children)
In the imho unlikely event that Kim Jong-un is not merely toying with western leaders, it still spells mostly bad news for the people of North Korea. If relations between the DPRK and the west stabilize, the chance of deposing that absolute abomination of a human being becomes much smaller. I don't want a war, by any means, but I don't want people to stop paying attention to North Korea's atrocities simply because it's no longer considered an imminent threat against us.
Even if North Korea's economy improves a bit from the opened trade, it's extremely unlikely the government would tone down the brutality.
Funny, if ever there was to be somewhere the USA *had* to wage war against, I would definitely choose North Korea as the target. I'd probably even try to sign up for the armed forces service to fight them, though it's very doubtful they'd take me.
I want to see Kim Jong-un die a slow, agonizing death, in public view for his victims. I'd risk my life to have a realistic chance of having that come to pass.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday June 11 2018, @10:24AM
That's the least necessary outcome. If he could be coaxed into exile in Switzerland with a few billion dollars in his Swiss bank account, that would be acceptable if it meant that the current hostage situation (entire population are the hostages) could be brought to a close. There's too much at stake.
Nobody should be expecting these talks to solve the problem. NK has played the diplomacy game before. But if the situation does "stabilize", it doesn't necessarily mean that the regime will be in power longer. Even with some sanctions lifted, less military posturing could mean more military plotting. Economic activity also means more contact with the outside world. It's reported that millions of North Koreans own cell phones (concentrated in Pyongyang) and USB drives are used to spread (at a minimum) foreign entertainment. The cell phones only communicate domestically, but they *might* be used to organize initial protests (up until the network is switched off).
Predicting the future is hard, don't get too caught up in it. And you better try to join the Air Force or Navy now, because if that war starts, it will be over fast.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 11 2018, @11:00AM (1 child)
I suspect this is just more of that "anti-trump blindness". Peace with north korea is actually bad because Kim Jong Un is evil, china, etc. Stock market being up is actually bad since the crash will only be bigger later. Super Corps bringing money back from overseas and investing in the US is actually bad since it makes ceos richer. Trump curing cancer is actually bad due to overpopulation, etc.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2018/05/30/trump-is-wrong-about-north-korea-says-the-cia/ [washingtonpost.com]
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/business/corporate-tax-cuts.html [nytimes.com]
http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/10/investing/stocks-week-ahead-ben-bernanke-recession-economy/ [cnn.com]
https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/The-President-Saved-My-Life-Trump-Meets-Cancer-Survivor-Who-He-Gave-10K-473638753.html [nbcwashington.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by DeathMonkey on Monday June 11 2018, @05:43PM
Now if only a single one of your examples had actually happened you might have a point!