If there was ever such thing as a country run by Grinches, North Korea would be that country. Why? Well, according to the BBC, North Korea has warned neighbouring South Korea of “unexpected consequences” if South Korea decides to light up Christmas trees near their border.
North Korea’s biggest beef with the Christmas lights is that they feel that South Korea is using those lights to “spread the Christian message” to North Korean citizens. Paranoid, much? Yes! The “unexpected consequences” would have to do with some sort of “psychological warfare” on South Korea. What does that even mean? I’m thinking NK has no idea what that means but as long as it’s provocative (shout out: Will Ferrell), it’s completely fine with them.
South Korea had previously turned off the Christmas lights on the Christmas tree near the border but started lighting it again last year due to the deteriorating relationship between the two countries. The tree in question is actually a 100 foot tall steel structure that is illuminated with lights and is located 2 miles from the border and can be seen from North Korea’s side. What’s really great is that South Korea doesn’t give a hoot about NK’s psychological warfare because they’re planning on lighting two more trees along the border this year. Merry Christmas North Korea! [BBC, Image Credit: AsiaNews.it]
light487
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 11:44 AMIf there’s ever been a more shining example of real communism vs. the westernised communism we see in China, this is it..
adam
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 12:00 PMI think you should learn to differ from communism and dictatorship.
Ren
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 2:42 PM^^ THIISSS!! hahahaha.
bdc
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 10:02 PMlol exactly, it’s too often people use the term communism or socialism when they actually mean authoritarian or the like.
If ever you here someone mention those words in a short one line argument you can be almost guarantee you are dealing with someone poorly educated or someone trying to whip up the poorly educated.
On another note, we don’t even know if communism works, because our examples all have one major flaw, they all begin with the biggest powers in the world doing everything they can to destroy any state that ever took it up.
I’m not actually for communism anyway, a socialist capitalist mix is by far the best option.
And hopefully the first socialist law that was passed would be the banning of christmas carols in commercial places.
After 5 minutes of doing my grocery shopping tonight I wanted to murder the 2 people singing ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’…..why do they torture their customers?
Daniel
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 9:59 PMIt’s not so much communism what they’re doing as communism implies a communal advantage as opposed to class and power.
If anything, north korea’s leadership relies heavily on class and power to sustain itself.
They’re essentially dictating their nation’s religious beliefs. I.e. anti-christianity (or religion, for that matter), as evident from this article.
wsDK_II
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 11:56 AMNorth Korea could do with some christian messages
adam
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 12:01 PMYeah, what with the whole hating gay people, blowing up abortion clinics, hating muslims and jewish people, what could go wrong? christian is obviously a great religion.
TSH
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 12:29 PMhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westboro_Baptist_Church does not represent mainstream Christianity…
Drew
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 12:46 PMNot far off it.
monkeymind
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 1:02 PMNo but pretty much all of what Adam said applies to ‘Mainstream Christians’. It is just that the Westboro freaks are more honest about it.
Pyrotechnika
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 1:17 PMI’m a christian, I don’t hate Muslims or Jews..
Nor do I hate homosexuals. However, I don’t agree with the beliefs systems within the other religions Nor do I feel that homosexuality is something that should be done.
God loves all people, it is just the sin in their lives that he doesn’t love.
Romans 2:1-4
Romans 12:9
Romans 5:8
Have a read.
Timmahh
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 1:56 PMYou know why everything you just said is complete nonsense?
Cos there is no God, there is no heaven and there is no hell. Actually there is no such thing as evil either, just varying levels of human sickness of the mind! I don’t even know how religion is even a part of the discussion, Jesus was not born on the 25th of December,.. hell he wasn’t even the first messiah, there was a bunch of em!
James
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 2:46 PMok, so you have mentioned your belief, and it is different to ours….but with the same conviction that you say you are right, do we say that we are right.
the only difference is that you believe it is also ok to insult our beliefs based only on the fact that they are different to yours, without offering any proof to back it up.
I bet you wouldnt take to kindly to being on the other end of someone like you either, so why be a hypocriate?
Timmahh
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 3:36 PMWTF … Hypocrite? I’ve never heard so much drivel. What is it exactly that you want me to prove? Natural selection, science gathered and proven by empirical evidence? There is no unproven facts in not believing in a God! Religion can only be believed in using faith…. that is the only criteria involved…. just believe. So if you want to pull down my belief in the facts, go right ahead, I promise I won’t cry!
Sylphier
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 4:03 PMTo the casual by stander, people who are fanatically anti-religious show just as much arrogance, intolerance, disrespect and self centred “I’m right, your wrong” as religious fanatics.
The whole concept of “Proving that I am right, and if you don’t agree with me then you are wrong and a complete idiot” have been used by both groups of fanatics too many times.
Jaezass
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 4:26 PMI’m going to take a guess and assume you are religious? Now! because there is no way to prove a negative, there is no way to prove that there is a God! However there is massive amounts of proof that science, evolution and even Mother Nature exists, OK lets call it Nature so we don’t get confused. You have to be blind and arrogant to deny the facts!
Eccentric
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 1:03 PMNorth Korea could do with some what now?
Christianity has been the cause of more human misery and death than all the wars and religions out there! inquisition or crusades anybody?
wsDK_II
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 1:23 PMeveryone says this, but please provide proof.
Godless
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 1:36 PMErm,… it’s in all the history books,… pretty sure actually ;)
Freeman
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 2:13 PM“Crusades.”
Wait….that was the cathlics, there the same as cristians right?
Godless
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 2:28 PMHeh, yeah last time I checked Catholics were Christians too, although whether or not they were religious or just thugs during the Crusades is up for contention!
James
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 2:48 PMThe american military killed 100,000 civilians during the last 10 years in the middle east. They were not on a holy mission.
Godless
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 3:40 PMI wasn’t aware that the US military was a religious organisation?
What’s your point? Are you trying to say that religion is not as bad as the US military? Because the last I checked they were fighting an organisation that are primarily Islamic fundamentalists, who are… wait for it…. religious!
Squeaky4all
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 4:08 PMbut the US isnt a secular government, i may be wrong but isnt, “in god we trust” in their consitution?
Godless
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 4:29 PMFace plant… Oi Ve!!
Ghazarios
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 4:21 PMhttp://commonsenseatheism.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/darkages.gif
bdc
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 10:13 PMlol, best gif ever.
Ghazarios
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 7:17 PMHaha I know right
Mitch
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 3:14 PMHe is right about the December 25th though…
Jeff
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 3:25 PMSeriously… some people still believe in god ? honestly… come on… your living your life based on some stupid book that makes no sense and contradicts itself…..
Tim
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 10:07 AMOne point you can’t deny is that at the top of that tree is a cross, the south Koreans are mostly Christians, and they haven’t threatened ‘Psychological warfare, in fact, they haven’t made ANY threats! To say all Christians do all this harm like blowing up abortion clinics (The guy who did that was an extremist) is simply absurd. If it was true you’d see south Korea starting war with the NJ’s by now!
Just This Guy ...
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 12:05 PMHeadline is misleading:
NK is accusing SK of being the ones using Psychological Warfare for placing Christmas lights near the border areas.
NK are the ones saying “You guys using Psychological warfare on us, we will retaliate”
Casey get the details right.
Ozoneocean
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 12:48 PMIdiots on both sides.
olearymo
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 12:55 PM‘unexpected?
North Korea: Okay, that’s it, we warned you! Now prepare for unexpected consequences!
South Korea: How are they unexpected? You warned us of them and just warned us again now!
North Korea: … …shut up! That’s how!
smurfydog
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 10:06 PMHahaha!
I just about had a coffee incident. Only with beer, which would have been a tragic waste!
Realist
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 3:00 PMGuns Don’t kill People… People kill People!!
dubtronica
Tuesday, December 13, 2011 at 9:21 PMIsn’t it obvious? North Korea is just pissed that the South HAS lights.
MD
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 12:50 AMWhy must this turn into a Religious debate.. This article is bout the stupidity of the North Korean Regime, nothing to do with religion, just a show of Pretty lights on the border…
In the end, One can’t Prove God exists to one who doesn’t want to believe, and one cannot show the progression of the evolutionary thornbush to one who will believe in creation.
Interesting Questions. forget evolution that’s the easy part…
What caused the Big Bang??
Or should I say Who caused the big bang.
What or who existed before the big bang…..
If it was nothing (because time and space only came into existence at the initiation of said event..
What or who provided the energy source needed to drive the expanding universe…… (lots of energy needed, replicate that in your little laboratory Scientist…)
Take Pascal test..
There is a God, you don’t believe, you burn in hell (or whatever your take is)
There is a God you believe live a life in line with beleif and live forever….
There is no God, you live a decent life, have loads of friends, enjoy family etc then die.. (and if the dying is a bit messy there are real friends and family to comfort and help you along..)
There is no God, you live as if there is no God, screwing, thieving, murdering, pissing up, suffer family breakup, sexual abuse, drug dependency, suffer from diseases caused by such excess, and in the end die in misery lonely, no friends, no family…. not a happy life… (ok it is an extreme..) (maybe even your face would fall off..)
Now want to bet… What’s the cost to avoid the bad things..
Tim
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 10:10 AMNice way to end the debate, MD :D
God
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 12:36 PMIts my son’s birthday coming up and we are going camping, so don’t be dissing me, I will get all righteous on your ass’s with the smiting and the pillar of salting…
So sayeth me!
Just This Guy ...
Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 5:49 PMha ha ha..
Also, it seems I’m replying to God. :)
While I’m at it then, there’s a few little issues I’d like to discuss with you.