# Auf Wiedersehen To Kim Jong-Il **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 19, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712 "2011-12-19T05:02:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/1 "2011-12-19T05:02:16Z")
Kim Jong-Il’s the only dictator today who can compared to Pol Pot or Stalin-he let a milllion of his citizens starve to death while spending money on nuclear weapons and his luxuries. This fiend was just as much an enemy of the Korean people as Tojo Hideki or Hideyoshi. His death may finally bring about reunification and the triumph of freedom in Korea… ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/2 "2011-12-19T05:13:11Z")
Kim Jong-il was just a modern version of Qin Shi Huangdi. Why do you act so sanctimonious when you’ve named yourself after an unbelievably brutal emperor? ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/3 "2011-12-19T05:30:14Z")
I wonder how many North Koreans will starve in order to pay for the funeral? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/4 "2011-12-19T05:35:20Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > Kim Jong-il was just a modern version of Qin Shi Huangdi. Why do you act so sanctimonious when you’ve named yourself after an unbelievably brutal emperor? WO going off topic, I consider having this username like that of “Darth Vader” or whatnot and the First Emperor’s reign actually managed to unite China and improved the country. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/5 "2011-12-19T05:47:12Z")
You are pretty out of touch if you think the majority of Koreans are still yearning for reunification. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/6 "2011-12-19T05:52:49Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > WO going off topic, I consider having this username like that of “Darth Vader” or whatnot darth vader is a fictional character. You don’t see any Adolf Hitlers or Pol Pots here. > [@](#): > > and the First Emperor’s reign actually managed to unite China and improved the country. Who says China needed to be united? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/7 "2011-12-19T05:53:03Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#): > > You are pretty out of touch if you think the majority of Koreans are still yearning for reunification. Why wouldn’t they? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/8 "2011-12-19T05:55:01Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > darth vader is a fictional character. You don’t see any Adolf Hitlers or Pol Pots here. But I’ve seen on similar boards Genghis Khans or Attilas which QSH is more comparable to. > [@](#): > > Who says China needed to be united? I mean he ended the various interstate warfare, and imposed a unified system that produced a rich culture. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/9 "2011-12-19T06:05:52Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Why wouldn’t they? For one thing, because it would be an economic disaster for South Korea. Integrating East Germany has been hard for West Germany, and East Germany was much better off than NK is. It would be more like Canada trying to absorb Somalia. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/10 "2011-12-19T06:17:49Z")
For another, the two societies, discounting the differences in the economic sytems, are simply too far apart for them to realistically be reunified. For yet another, the few North Koreans who have managed to make it to freedom in South Korea are not treated all that well by South Korean society. Can you imagine how the general population would react if they were required to deal with mass influx of people they simply don’t treat well in the first place? ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/11 "2011-12-19T06:19:43Z")
I gotta say as annoying as the OP is with his infantile outrage and such, blasting someone for picking a Chinese Emperor _who has been dead for over 2,000 years_ as their forum name is kind of weak. It’s not anything at all like using Adolf Hitler or Pol Pot as your name, those guys are modern day and some of their victims are still living. Qin Shi Huangdi is literally ancient history, it’d be like blasting someone for having Caesar in their forum name or as the OP said, Genghis Khan or etc. There’s a forum poster who is named **Tamerlane** and I don’t see him regularly getting shit for it. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/12 "2011-12-19T06:21:34Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > For another, the two societies, discounting the differences in the economic sytems, are simply too far apart for them to realistically be reunified. > > For yet another, the few North Koreans who have managed to make it to freedom in South Korea are not treated all that well by South Korean society. Can you imagine how the general population would react if they were required to deal with mass influx of people they simply don’t treat well in the first place? If the North Korean regime ever falls I think it would have to enter into some sort of conservatorship, or something. China would probably be willing to sink money into it, and Japan too, and South Korea and then the U.N. at large. Basically you’d have to keep it as a separate state indefinitely because it really would just be impossible to merge with a first world country like South Korea at this stage. Maybe after many decades of being rebuilt under international leadership its people might be at a point where you could start having talks of some sort of referendum (by both North and South) on reunification. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/13 "2011-12-19T06:37:47Z")
60 years is long enough for two countries to evolve into two different cultures and nationalities. North Korea and South Korea may share a language and some history, but so do the U.S. and Canada, Germany and Austria, France and Belgium. There’s no more reason for the Korean-speaking nations to reunify than there is for the Arabic-speaking nations to reunify. ---
**Author:** ![raskolnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e47c2d/32.png) [@raskolnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raskolnik)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/14 "2011-12-19T06:57:56Z")
People are forgetting that SOUTH Korea was a backwards isolated place until the 60’s. Korea modernized in 40 years. North Korea would modernize in 10 years. They share the same racist xenophobia that is the glue of korean narodnost. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/15 "2011-12-19T06:59:30Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > For another, the two societies, discounting the differences in the economic sytems, are simply too far apart for them to realistically be reunified. > > For yet another, the few North Koreans who have managed to make it to freedom in South Korea are not treated all that well by South Korean society. Can you imagine how the general population would react if they were required to deal with mass influx of people they simply don’t treat well in the first place? A friend of my mom’s works as a volunteer teacher for North Korean refugees. It’s quite shocking how illiterate they are - many of them are teenagers and can barely read and write. She has to volunteer because there is very little support from the government. Most South Koreans are pretty strongly against reunification. I think they’d be willing to help them out, but they no longer feel sentimental about the prospect. The generation of families torn apart by the 38th parallel has almost all died out. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/16 "2011-12-19T07:20:45Z")
I was under the impression that the literacy rate in North Korea was actually extremely high, on the order of 99% or more. Are these numbers being inflated by the government? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/17 "2011-12-19T07:24:26Z")
> [@HazelNutCoffee](#): > > Most South Koreans are pretty strongly against reunification. I think they’d be willing to help them out, but they no longer feel sentimental about the prospect. The generation of families torn apart by the 38th parallel has almost all died out. I imagine there’s also a sense of realism involved. If Korea were reunified, what you’d get is twenty million people fleeing the northern half of the country to relocate in the southern half rather than staying up north while the work of rebuilding the country went on. That many internal refugees would do a lot of damage to the southern economy, which would further slow down the rebuilding process. The Republic of Korea’s a lot better off keeping the north as a separate country while they help bring it up to code. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/18 "2011-12-19T07:25:43Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > I was under the impression that the literacy rate in North Korea was actually extremely high, on the order of 99% or more. Are these numbers being inflated by the government? Are you suggesting the North Korean government would lie about conditions in their country? ---
**Author:** ![PrettyVacant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/49beb7/32.png) [@PrettyVacant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PrettyVacant)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/19 "2011-12-19T07:31:03Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Kim Jong-Il’s the only dictator today who can compared to Pol Pot or Stalin-he let a milllion of his citizens starve to death while spending money on nuclear weapons and his luxuries. This fiend was just as much an enemy of the Korean people as Tojo Hideki or Hideyoshi. His death may finally bring about reunification and the triumph of freedom in Korea… At least he didn’t do it ten thousand miles away in the gulf, for oil only with the majority of his country yahooing support. Well, at least until the cost mounted up. > [@](#): > > A recent CBS poll asked: “Do you think removing Saddam Hussein from power was worth the loss of American life and other costs of attacking Iraq, or not?” (50% no, 41% yes), and “Do you think the result of the war with Iraq was worth the loss of American lives and other costs of attacking Iraq, or not?” (67% no, 24% yes). “Amercian lives”? AMERICAN lives? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2011, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712/20 "2011-12-19T07:37:41Z")
One question for Qin. “Auf Wiedershen”? Under what circumstances do you expect to run into Kim Jong-il in the future? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/auf-wiedersehen-to-kim-jong-il/606712.md?page=2)