Can someone please tell me exactly what N.Korea wants ?

[jaysunb]

I just don't have a clue.....food, land, dominance ,more Beyoncé records ????

I'm very serious.

[Kaleva]

1. An outside enemy to distract the people with.

[BannonsLiver]

16. Gee, that sounds awfully familiar.

[cyclonefence]

2. One thing they want

is for the United States and South Korea to stop having annual joint military exercises.

[bettyellen]

33. Those are coming up in a few weeks.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

3. They want to be a player.

Pretty much no one gave a shit about Pakistan or India for decades. They get a nuke and suddenly the world takes notice-- they MATTER. They become world players who are listened to, accommodated, and invested in. That's what NK wants -- they want a seat at the Big Boys Table a nuke would give them.

[underpants]

11. That's what I said below but you were more succinct

[nolabear]

20. Perzackly.

Hell, talk to them. I have no use for stupid pride and dick waving endangering millions of people. Make them act like adults and accept restrictions as we all have.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. Money

[panader0]

7. And lawyers and guns.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. dad, get me out of this!

[Strelnikov_]

26. Ha! n/t

Context for the young-uns.

[yuiyoshida]

5. Dennis Rodman as their basketball coach?

[Kaleva]

15. The guy on the far right is the center for the NK national team.

[NobodyHere]

6. Not to be invaded and for the Kims be taken seriously

[marylandblue]

8. Economic assistance

[underpants]

9. I'd go with something basic like respect

Now I'm not soft pedaling this - the Kims are nuts. Both father and son. They live in a vacuum/bubble that even Trump would think is too much.

They've been our adversaries for almost 60 years now. They also probably seen themselves as China's little brother. Since they cant get respect from the world community they ruthlessly imprison and kill their own people. They build fake cities merely for their need to seem important. They have a whole media infrastructure only meant to praise themselves.

That would be my guess.

[Nevernose]

10. Same thing every other country wants:

Last edited Tue Aug 8, 2017, 10:06 PM - Edit history (1)

Independence and non-interference. They're never done a single thing to the US. Ever. They're not doing anything that we ourselves have not done, and we're punishing them because they're not all aboard the America Express. We can't even claim it's because their government is evil, because we prop up arguably as bad/worse governments, so that's not it.

[LexVegas]

19. Bullshit. nt

[Nevernose]

22. How so?

Specifically.

[LexVegas]

27. The Kims are and always have been murderous tyrants.

Independence?

[Nevernose]

29. Murderous tyrants are a dime a dozen

And the US has propped up as many murderous tyrants as we've opposed. In fact, SOUTH Korea was a military dictatorship for 45 of its 65 years and we propped them up with no problem.

We lack the moral, ethical, or legal authority to be North Korea's judge or keeper.

[LexVegas]

30. ....

[BzaDem]

37. Assuming your premise (that we have enabled as many tyrants as we've opposed), how is that relevant?

More generally, how is our behavior relevant in the first place, when judging whether a threat deserves to be eliminated? A certain segment keeps touting this line of thought as if it is some sort of argument, without ever bothering to explain why. It is certainly relevant to some people's sense of moral superiority, but that is separate from whether it is related to what action makes sense for the U.S. to take.

When a young child says "but he started it!" as an excuse for unacceptable behavior, their parent would calmly explain that what "he" supposedly "started" at some other point is not relevant to the acceptability of the behavior. Yet when it comes to matters of life and death, some people seem to revert to this kind of childish Whataboutism.

To be clear, I do not actually accept your premise or your "we are the problem" worldview. (The idea that "they are not doing anything that we ourselves have not done" is laughable to the extreme.) But I am, for the sake of argument, assuming your premise, and asking, "so what?"

[marybourg]

12. All of the above nt

[WhiskeyGrinder]

13. To be taken seriously.

[J_William_Ryan]

14. They

don’t ‘want’ anything.

The West – and the United States in particular – is trying to understand NK in the context of a Western worldview, such as NK ‘wanting’ something; that’s the real problem and why ‘sanctions’ aren’t going to work.

[tblue37]

18. Security and respect. nt

[H2O Man]

21. Correct.

[Boxerfan]

25. R E S P E C T....but ya beat me to it.

[Strelnikov_]

23. What does the Kabuki dancer what from the other?

They are living in a cold-war world that no longer exists. The dance ended long ago.

NK is like the ex-con aunt that lives down the block with five pit-bulls, a gun fetish, and in the initial stages of dementia.

Eventually, the white collar gangster neighbor, or the pit-bulls, will finish her off. Only course of action is to bide our time . . . and leave the occasional food offering on the doorstep.

[defacto7]

24. To win the Korean War

[olddad56]

32. exactly, just like all the southerners who still want to win the civil war.

come to think of it, maybe the US should have at least given the confederates their independence after the war. Is it too late now. We could even throw in our fake president to make the south great again.

[ProudLib72]

28. For Kim Jong Un's popularity polls to surpass those of Donnie tRump's

And it looks very close. We may have a resolution to this.... No, wait, I'm getting intelligence reports confirming that tRump is now demanding that he is the most popular person of all time and is willing to nuke everyone who refuses to believe him.

[PoliticAverse]

31. An NBA franchise? (some other DUer mentioned that).

[SoCalDem]

34. unified korea..with kim in charge n/t

[Kurovski]

35. Well I can tell you what they DON'T want...

A repeat of Libya after they turned in their weapons program.

[BzaDem]

36. A nuclear arsenal and delivery system. n/t

[Rhiannon12866]

38. Respect.

That's what Jimmy Carter determined when he negotiated successfully with North Korea on behalf of the Clinton administration in 1994. Madeline Albright continued the face-to-face diplomacy. It all fell apart in 2002 when George W Bush included them in his "Axis of Evil."

[betsuni]

39. Emmental cheese.

Rumor has it that Kim Jong-un is addicted to it, gave him gout. Fondue diplomacy is the best bet to calm things down, but nobody listens to me.

[Dave Starsky]

40. The black-and-white episodes of Gilligan's Island.

Most syndication packages ship with only the color episodes.

Seriously? Kim Jong needs to keep his people scared. The Big Orange Loser wants the same for us.

[MoonRiver]

41. For many years I've heard that KJU just wants attention.

He's basically a laughing stock of the world, and this bravado is a way to make himself feel relevant and important. But really IDK what that fool is all about. How can any rational person make sense of his behavior?

[Orrex]

42. This was covered in depth years ago

Read about it here.

The discussion even included an elegant solution, complete with an attempt to implement it.

[haveahart]

43. Respect. A seat at the table of nations. Security from all the nukes surrounding them.

And the US military out of the region.

It always escapes me that we seem to believe that other nations that are surrounded by nukes from our allies should not want and are not entitled to have nukes of their own or even a nuclear program for domestic purposes.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you seems to mean nothing to so-called Christian nations.