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Comment by dev_dull | Hacker News Reader

> Two US officers were bludgeoned to death with axes and clubs.

It’s really amazing to me what North Korea “gets away with”. It reminds of that kid we all knew in school who gets into trouble so much that they simply stop punishing him in any material way.

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There is another side to the "bludgeoned to death with axes and clubs". They took those implements from the american team. So the unarmed North Koreans disarmed several of the Americans, turning those weapons around to kill two officers. That is a massive humiliation, particularly for the types of people selected for DMZ duty at that time. That humiliation was a factor in the american response, but equally it was a point of pride for the North Koreans.

Leaders on both side saw this back-and-forth, realized the emotions involved, and pulled back. That makes the incident a learning experience that, ironically, increased faith and probably defused tensions in the long term. Similar dustups would occur throughout the cold war and continue to this day.

Kim Il Sung, ruler of N. Korea at the time, formally apologized and sent letter saying so. Only time he did so in fact.

All because of the show of force. There was a MASSIVE show of force because of the killing.

It's no different than the crazy person I walk by every morning on the way to work. They have nothing to lose. I have everything. It's not worth it for me to get involved.

North Korea not crazy, but incredibly intelligent and calculating. It's rather foolish and dangerous to think otherwise.

What was intelligent and calculated about the incident in question?

Their demonstrated willingness to defend against even trivial encroachments.

Asserting their power projection over the DMZ, whether it is legitimate is irrelevant.

It's the same with the development of nuclear weapons. There is a near-zero probability that North Korea will engage in a first strike with nuclear weapons, but a very rational way of self-preservation.

The North Korean regime is reprehensible but their actions are rational, from a self-preservation perspective.

Yes. They have extracted concessions and aid from the western world for decades, and have essentially never kept any of their promises. They are excellent at the game.

They have crazy priorities, which they pursue in a calculated and intelligent fashion.

What about their priorities are crazy?

As the old saying goes, you're not crazy if everyone is actually out to get you.

Their single-minded pursuit of self-reliance has led to enormous suffering and, ironically, a strong dependence on a few other countries to keep them afloat. The extreme economic hardships mean they have a tough time deterring aggression (a quarter of their GDP goes to the military and, even so, the nukes are the only reason anyone takes them seriously).

Consider a world where they followed a similar path to countries like China and Vietnam. Their people would be a lot better off, they’d have a much stronger military, and they’d be able to be much more of an equal partner with their allies.

China is 50 times North Korea’s size, which was why it was able to prioritize economic development at the expense of the military.

It happens all the time. Iran Air 655, for instance? You should be horrified that that or KAL-007 happened. But everyone kinda got away with both, and those were innocent civilians.

These sort of border skirmishes happen every once in a while on heavily militarized borders between hostile nations, usually to much less fanfare.

Indeed. For example from February this year:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93Pakistan_border_...

2 is fewer than 178,000+.

Arguably, the US doesn't quite have the moral high ground in Asia...

In the 1950's? Do tell.

A lot of people were displeased with the way the Korea was divided at the end of WWII.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Order_No._1

The Soviets had declared war on Japan 9 days prior and were allowed control of half of Korea.

How does impact if the US has the moral high ground? If anything, the reason South Korea isn’t entirely a communist dictatorship is because of the US soldiers who died there defending it (amount a number of other western countries).

The view is that Korea could be one united country and the war entirely avoided if the US had not capitulated to the Soviet demands. US soldiers did die defending South Korea from the North Korean and Chinese invasion, and that is admirable, but don't forget that far more Koreans have died and continue to die.

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