North Korea demands an ass-kicking at the hands of South Korea.

[Cain]

It's also worth noting, this is the 45th year anniversary of the Blue House Raid.

tl;dr version: crack commandos from the North Korean Unit 124 infiltrated South Korea, took part in a military parade, bypassed several checkpoints and tried to assassinate Park Chung-hee.

Also notable for the way they were busted by a bunch of woodcutters, who they took hostage for several hours and subjected them to several extremely long, boring speeches on the inevitable moral superiority and historical processes by which Communism would come to rule the world.  The woodcutters, duly impressed, reported them to the authorities once freed.

Also notable for the South Korean response, the creation of Unit 684, with the purpose of assassinating Kim Il-Sung.  The unit was disbanded before going operational, causing them to try and assassinate Park Chung-hee instead.  Most commited suicide via hand grenade when stopped by the South Korean military.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Well, yeah, they've HAD rockets.  Thing is, their bombs weigh TONS.

Right now, it's a race between them developing proper nukes (doesn't take long, once you have the initial tech, but I don't think they're there yet), and their nation starving itself out of existence.

Doesn't that kind of choice just make you love domesticated primates?

[Cain]

So, this just got fun:

The North Korean army has declared invalid the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War in 1953, the official newspaper of the country's ruling Workers' Party said Monday.

Since last week, North Korea had been threatening to scrap the armistice after the U.N. Security Council passed tougher sanctions against it in response to its February 12 nuclear test.

On Monday, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported that the Supreme Command of North Korea's army had done so.

And there is this:

The US and South Korea have begun annual military drills amid high tensions with North Korea in the wake of a UN sanctions vote.

Pyongyang has strongly condemned the exercises, threatening to scrap the armistice that ended the Korean War.

Seoul says North Korea also appears to have carried out a threat made last week to sever a cross-border hotline.

The drills come days after the UN approved new sanctions on North Korea following its nuclear test in February.

The test last month was the communist country's third. It followed an apparently successful launch in December of a three-stage rocket, seen as a banned test of missile technology.

North Korea's neighbours and the US fear it is working to build a nuclear warhead small enough to put on a missile, but believe it does not yet have the capabilities to do so.

But South Korean generals don't seem to think it is too serious:

Local newspapers have reported that dozens of teams of military officials, including generals, played golf at a military golf course on Saturday and Sunday, sparking criticism that it is wrong for them to play at a time when they need to be on standby to handle tensions with the North.

[Doobie]

All North Korea needs is a friend.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

North Korea is kind of like Earth's Steve.

[Junkenstein]

There's apparently a new kim-jong around too.

You know you're fucking up when even china is exasperated with you. CHINA.

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/28/north-korea-prepares-rockets-for-strike-against-u-s/

[P3nT4gR4m]

From where I'm sitting, someone needs to just slap that stupid little fuck around the head until he quits being an asshole. Politics doesn't allow for this. Ergo politics is rubbish!

[Cain]

Jong-Un's not in charge.

It seems the KPA has wrested back power from Kyong-hui/Sung-taek.  Or is attempting to, and is using international provocation to strengthen their hand internally.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Interestingly i had considered that this was probably due to some sort of internal politics matter. The names are meaningless to of and hard for me to remember. But i imagine that youve become an influence on how i perceive stuff like this.

[Cain]

It's always a good idea to factor in domestic and elite perception issues when it comes to foreign policy analysis.  You can understand some events without doing either...but only in the most facile and abstract of ways.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Yeah. I cant really see much of a foreign policy purpose to this. And by that i mean i cant see what north korea as a whole seeks to gain with this so i figured there was some sort of internal matter influencing this

[Cain]

Rumours that Jang Song-taek tried to stage a coup against Kim Jong-un are making the rounds.

[MMMW]

[Anna Mae Bollocks]

YOINKED.