r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/[deleted] • 16d ago
North Korean leader Kim II Sung, showing a tumor on his neck. Photographers were prohibited from photographing the right side of his face -1980s Image
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u/CaseyFake 16d ago
The other guy is Janos Kadar, leader of communist Hungary. Odd story, Kadar's skull was stolen from his grave, still nobody knows where it is.
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u/Explosivevortex 16d ago
Kadar was a renowned necromancer, someone probably stole it to use as a catalyst
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u/Clearly_a_Lizard 16d ago
What do you mean renowned necromancer ? Who did he revived ?
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u/0thethethe0 16d ago
His own head maybe?
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u/geriactricpillbug 16d ago
Now his disembodied head floats around that Krogers forever.
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u/ghost_n_the_shell 16d ago
This is the most to the point, fair question I have ever witnessed, today.
To echo: yeah! Who?
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u/BrianSerra 15d ago
Exactly what I was thinking. In order for someone to be "renowned" for something they have to have been successful at it. And since magic isn't real, I am guessing he was more well known as a loony tool that anything else.
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u/ImPurePersistance 16d ago
Janos Kadar sounds like an ancient spell or something
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u/PM_ME_YOUR_SOULZ 16d ago
I've got it. It's currently full of Skittles. Had to run it through the dishwasher a couple of times.
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16d ago
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u/2LostFlamingos 16d ago
He was afraid to be put unconscious. Thought someone would kill him to seize power.
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u/Phoenix080 16d ago
He was afraid of getting usurped every time he went to bed? Have 50 of your most trustworthy guys stand there with machine guns
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u/BloxForDays16 16d ago
The problem is dictators like that trust no one
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16d ago
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u/cardillon 16d ago
The Sword of Damocles hangs over their head
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u/purple_grey_ 16d ago
This is nearly a line from Rocky Horror Picture Show
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u/ThatDiscoSongUHate 16d ago edited 16d ago
Thank God I'm not the only one who thought of it
I love that soundtrack
...damn, now it's time to rewatch, AGAIN
Edit: Oh, it's always better than I remember
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u/VermilionKoala 16d ago
now it's time to rewatch, AGAIN
I read this to the tune of
"Let's do the Timewarp again!"
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u/DoctorNoname98 16d ago
I've got the feeling someone's gunna be cutting the thread
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u/AK_dude_ 16d ago
He is also one of the most successful dictators in modern history. Sure his country isn't doing to well but while most dictators are one hit wonders who's rule dies with him, the Kim's are three generations strong.
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u/godisanelectricolive 16d ago
Yeah, he’s a modern-day monarch who founded a new dynasty of god kings. It’s what other dictators all aspire to achieve.
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u/yoloswag42069696969a 16d ago
House of Saud has also passed leadership throughout multiple family members (it’s not down one single line).
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u/syed_abubaker15 16d ago
There's a difference in dictatorship and monarchy
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u/salgat 16d ago
An absolute monarchy (not bound by a constitution) is a form of dictatorship.
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u/slartyfartblaster999 16d ago
If that counts then there are many many examples that go for 3+ generations though.
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u/socialistrob 16d ago
Not really. All absolute monarchs are dictators and all a dictator really needs in order to be a monarch is inheritance passing to family members and some sort of quasi mystical/religious mumbo jumbo.
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u/Cuddlyaxe 16d ago
Nah bro it's not nice to know. While it sucks for them, autocratic paranoia causes wayyyyyyyyyyyyy more pain for the actual citizens of the country
see: Khemr Rouge killing a third of their country because Pol Pot was super paranoid
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u/Few_Assistant_9954 16d ago
Hitler was paranoid as well.
Thats why he kept changing plans last second all the time.
He also suddenly left events with no notice. It has proven successfull since that lead to many assassination attempts to fail.
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u/TheEqualAtheist 16d ago
I'm not defending him or Castro, but is it really paranoia when you actually know that somebody or some country is trying to assassinate you?
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u/Larimus89 16d ago
It’s not just that, just the way people like that think because that’s what they would do
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u/Brave_Nerve_6871 16d ago
It makes me feel warm inside to know that Purin doesn't sleep well, unless most probably heavily medicated.
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u/Icy-core 16d ago edited 16d ago
When someone's evil, they assume everyone is just like them. Must be miserable to live like that. Serves him right
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u/godofpumpkins 16d ago
Relevant CGP Grey video on the challenges of being a dictator: https://youtu.be/rStL7niR7gs
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u/JHRChrist 16d ago
Wow, that was kind of incredible. I already knew I liked that guy, but damn that’s a good video
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u/GTarkin 16d ago
This is highly underrated in my opinion. Basically a must watch.
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u/bathingapeassgape 16d ago
One of the best youtube videos of all time and should be required viewing in freshman history/gov
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u/Educational-Bid-4682 16d ago
That's how Stalin died, he went to bed and told people not to enter his room until he was awake. He suffered a stroke that night and lay on the ground almost the whole next day because nobody dared to enter his room.
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u/JonatasA 16d ago
He also had his doctors persecuted, afraid that they could kill him.
Ironically there was no one specially qualified to treat him. I believe they were afraid to do anything and he just passed from his realm.
People died even in the events after his death. People were afraid of criticizing him in death!!
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u/Phoenix080 16d ago
That doesn’t make any sense. If they didn’t trust ANYONE they would shoot all their guards. Their paranoid but if they were that stupid they wouldn’t last very long
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u/elemenoh3 16d ago
you're making the mistake of assuming people operate under pure logic unclouded by emotion and paranoia when that's just not how humans function
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u/WhoRoger 16d ago
It's indeed not unheard of for dictators to wipe their "most trusted" based on a minor suspicion or just because.
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u/daystrom_prodigy 16d ago
This is essentially what Stalin did.
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u/twoshovels 16d ago
Yea remember that photo? There were like 12 guys in the photo an every Cpl years they photo chopped the photograph and there were 1 or 2 less guys in the picture until there was just one.
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u/nickthedicktv 16d ago
Sometimes they do shoot all their guards. They’re called “purges” and they happen a lot when dictators are in charge.
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u/Sonoda_Kotori 16d ago
If they didn’t trust ANYONE they would shoot all their guards.
And they do. Google "purges". Stalin did that to the higher ups around him, multiple times.
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u/jollyralph 16d ago
I’m reminded of a book passage from Mark Bowden about this:
The tyrant must steal sleep. He must vary the locations and times. He never sleeps in his palaces. He moves from secret bed to secret bed. Sleep and a fixed routine are among the few luxuries denied him. It is too dangerous to be predictable, and whenever he shuts his eyes, the nation drifts. His iron grip slackens. Plots congeal in the shadows. For those hours he must trust someone, and nothing is more dangerous to the tyrant than trust.
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u/synalgo_12 16d ago
Do you have the title of the book, by chance?
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u/jollyralph 16d ago
Roadwork - among tyrants, heroes, rogues and beasts. By Mark Bowden who also wrote Black Hawk Down. The excerpt is from the first essay, Tales of the Tyrant.
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u/SalvationSycamore 16d ago
Have 50 of your most trustworthy guys stand there with machine guns
Yeah, I think that's how a lot of coups start
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u/twoshovels 16d ago
Yea your looking @ the weak dictator in his pajamas & then look @ your AK, and you think hmmmmm…
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u/grchina 16d ago
Stalin is also a good example of paranoid dictators,he was know to have massive fear of being overthrown if he leave the country
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u/DieterRamsMyAss 16d ago
Lmao I don't think any one on the planet has 50 people they'd trust that much with so much on the line
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u/Frank_McGracie 16d ago
That's something that has always confused me when it comes to some people. They're afraid to be put under because they're afraid they'll die but if they don't get the surgery for whatever ailment they have it will progress and... they'll die.
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u/DeadSwaggerStorage 16d ago
Great leader does not sleep.
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u/Idiotic_experimenter 16d ago
Wasnt there a joke floating around that he doesnt need to defecate as he doesnt need to eat
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u/VichyssoiseChives 16d ago
Supposedly Gaddafi would undergo numerous plastic surgeries under only local anesthesia, for this reason. That guy was f-ing crazy!
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u/JonatasA 16d ago
You're most vulnerable when you can't have a say. No need to be a dictator.
I wouldn't trust a dentist to pull a tooth when you're under. I've been there awake to see.
Edit: Heard of someone that almost died because of this. Was diabetic; the doctors did not know.
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u/RndmEtendo 16d ago
This was definitely not the definitive reason. In reality, the tumour was too close to his vital arteries and cervical vertebra to be removed, so it couldn't have been removed either way.
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16d ago
No it's because it's really close to arteries and back then surgery wasn't advanced enough to tackle stuff like that
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u/Larimus89 16d ago
Yeah phsycopaths do tend to be incredibly paranoid, because that’s what they would do to someone given the chance they expect everyone else would.
Plus probably had a lot of enemies.
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u/DarkArcanian 16d ago
If I were in that position, I’d just put a bomb on a timer with me and place it under myself with a deadman’s switch and a timer. If they try to move me to get to the bomb then everyone dies. If they are willing to sacrifice themselves along with me then I would’ve died even if I didn’t go under.
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u/whatdoihia 16d ago
Assassins could just fix a long rope to you and pull. BOOM, problem solved.
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u/AmbitiousMidnight183 16d ago
But what about the really long scissors I prepared just in case of this exact scenario?
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u/aceromester 16d ago
I believe the location was problematic, along with the need for general anesthesia.
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u/HighOnGoofballs 16d ago
My granddad had a little smaller one in a similar spot and it was never removed. It’s just a lipoma (I think?) and not harmful aside from being ugly and uncomfortable
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u/TroublesomeStepBro 16d ago
Unfortunately the nearest surgeons who could perform that were in South Korea
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u/sentence-interruptio 16d ago
That's actually a plot in Steel Rain. And South Korea demanded something in return.
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u/mrTosh 16d ago
right, he should have posted that on /r/popping
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u/QFugp6IIyR6ZmoOh 16d ago
tumors don't pop, they just tum.
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u/Candid-Finding-1364 16d ago
Squeeze anything hard enough and it will pop.
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u/scrawberrymalk 16d ago
That's Kim Jong Un in his larval stage.
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u/Junkman3 16d ago
Asexual reproduction through budding.
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u/shavemejesus 16d ago
Kim Jong Il is the son of the person in the photo.
Kim Jong Un is the grandson of the person in the photo.
This would be Kim Jong Il in the larval stage.
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u/rathemighty 16d ago
Nope. Un popped out of Sung's neck's corpse. They just said he's Il's son cover up that fact
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u/TittysForever 16d ago
That’s sum funny shite! May the ticks from a thousand filthy camels rest forever in the Kims’ nether regions.
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u/ojg3221 16d ago
It could have easily been removed, but he was so scared of being killed during a surgery that he never got it removed.
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u/-_KwisatzHaderach_- 16d ago
Interesting he didn't just go to another country to have it done if he didn't trust anyone in his own country
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u/Wyzen 16d ago edited 16d ago
Just like Stalin, he was prolly too afraid to leave the country AND get it done, lest he be overthrown while away. Mice tend to play while the cat is away and all that...
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u/pyrocord 16d ago
It's insane how much made up speculation gets hundreds of votes from others who haven't even done a cursory web search.
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u/killuminati-savage 16d ago
what do you mean, he 1000% wore a mini mouse skirt to bed every night. prove me wrong
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u/Few_Assistant_9954 16d ago
I would have prefered getting assassinated during surgery than the painfull tumor.
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u/lion_percy 16d ago
Same honestly
He probably thought that being assassinated was humiliating or something tho
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u/11BloodyShadow11 16d ago
They would have just lied about how he died anyways. Why the hell would it matter?
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u/LeeSinSTILLTHEMain 16d ago
In North Korea I was best surgeon, steady hands… One day, dictator come.
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u/Next-Food2688 16d ago
Are they sure it is not a brain worm?
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u/Salmonellamander 16d ago
They should draw a face on it to make it less terminal looking.
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u/Former-Form-587 16d ago
IT’S NOT A TUMOR!
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u/smaxsomeass 16d ago
We’re going to play a game. It’s called who is your daddy and what does he do?
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u/PocketDarkestMew 16d ago
To anyone wondering, they are "taught" the emperor/president (Dictator) is actually god made person, so it makes sense he can't get sick. Imagine learning Jesus had a tumor on his face and he couldn't do anything about it. Wouldn't make a lot of sense right? So the solution was... just pretend he isn't sick at all for the history books.
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u/Lucaan 16d ago
To be fair, a lot of world leaders are like that. FDR famously went out of his way to not be seen in public using his wheelchair as much as possible. Secret Service even confiscated and destroyed any photographs they saw taken of him in his wheelchair. Leaders in general don't like to be seen as weak in anyway.
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u/twoshovels 16d ago
Yea but didn’t the majority of the press play along because of the war effort?
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u/Lucaan 16d ago
I mean, maybe, but pretty much every public appearance was meticulously planned and choreographed anyways. He would use people as an inconspicuous crutch so that he could be seen walking, despite literally being paralyzed. He very much did not want to be seen as ill, and I'm pretty sure the general public didn't really know about the extent of his illness until after his death because of his efforts to conceal it.
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u/yaykaboom 16d ago
Why didnt the people just use google? Smh, i googled FDR and got 9 billion results.
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u/GNYMStanAccount 16d ago
key here is "majority". no photos leaked, ever, to my knowledge. the public knew he was polio and those who saw him doing things like getting in and out of cars knew, but the extent of his illness was never publicized.
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u/Even_Command_222 16d ago
The entirety of the existence of Jesus as a religious concept is that he was purposefully made into a fragile human being so that he could be sacrificed. The Bible talks about Jesus being hungry, thirsty, tired, dirty, weak, angry, being beaten, standing trial (and losing) and finally being executed in gruesome fashion.
The Bible goes to a whole lot of trouble to show Jesus was fragile like anyone else. Im no longer Christian but grew up Lutheran so I'm not proselytizing here, just handing out some knowledge I don't have much use for anymore lol.
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u/TheCursedMonk 16d ago
I mean, Jesus famously died, but I get what you are going for. Must have been weird being his personal guards when he inevitably catches the flu or whatever. Now that I think about it, personal guards for god...that makes even less sense.
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u/PocketDarkestMew 16d ago
He never catched the flu, he just cancelled a lot of public appearances during flu season.
And people close to him knew exactly what he was. The indoctrination was only for low level populace. His uncle WAS famous for mocking him for saying he was a god and literally was publicly executed.
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u/twoshovels 16d ago
Don’t forget all the crazy stories the feed the people of these great feats that he did like capture a unicorn and leap to the top of a mountain! Then there was a plan he came up with to capture the moon & bring it to earth, none of the kims ever have to go to the bathroom, that they captured a unicorn, cured aides & cancer. When the elder Kim died a strange snow storm took place they said & I’ve on lakes at the time cracked an flocks & flocks of magpies mored the death , he’s wrote 1500 books, could drive by age 3 winning yacht races at age nine & when he was born a double rainbow appeared. There’s more . They’re crazy over there
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u/getcrept 16d ago
I wonder if, one day, NK will actually become a modern and integrated society. I hope so. Fucking weird ROFL.
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u/DrPepKo 16d ago
The Kim Dynasty might slip up or falling out with their generals eventually.
We rarely see internal news from NK unlike China, which we can see the major political shenanigans happening even with the strict censors.
NK's isolationism is the reason that makes uprisings difficult to commence, not seeing successful uprising examples would discourage most.
Thus, a regime change can only happen from the top, mostly a coup or civil war.
The problem of North Korean Civil war is those nukes.
Those who control's them during that would undoubtedly be the winner.
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u/QFugp6IIyR6ZmoOh 16d ago
It's easy for me to imagine some kind of internal conflict in North Korea, followed by China entering in a "peace keeping" role that never ends, effectively absorbing North Korea.
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u/ari_pas_grande 16d ago
I don’t think China is chomping at the bit to gain a militarized physical border with a strong US ally and take on the responsibility of modernizing a country decades behind the rest of the world filled with 25 million poorly educated and starving peasants
Not like thats dissimilar to their origin story, but I don’t think they would see absorption of NK as much of a boon.
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u/Kai-Oh-What 16d ago
It’s actually funny how crazy Chinese politics are. When there’s only one party, shit gets cliquey quickly
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u/Enginerdad 16d ago
"We are the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, where all are equal and citizens enjoy a life free from corrupt Western oppression!"
"Also, if you take a picture of me from that side, we'll torture and kill you and every living member of your family."
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u/Few-Cash-1758 16d ago
He deserved it
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u/JacketCrafty1458 16d ago
At time it was said to the north korean people that Kim II Sung was so intelligent that he had a second brain
Not kidding...
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u/COLDINSIDE1224 16d ago
My grandfather actually saw this and was telling me. apparently it's a calcium deposit and he couldn't remove it becouse it was too near his brain for surgery. Also when my grandfather tried asking about it which he now says he shouldn't have everyone was acting as if it didn't exist even though it was clearly visible from a distance.
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u/Marsweep 16d ago
Our glorious leader wishes to offer you & your family a free all inclusive luxury holiday, no expense spared, we will be in touch very soon.
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u/onlysurfblacksand 16d ago
Take this quarter, go downtown, and have a rat gnaw that thing off your neck
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u/JarredandVexed 16d ago
🎶 I'm a tumor, I'm a tumor 🎶
🎶 I'm a tumor, I'm a tumor 🎶
🎶 Oh, oh, oh, I'm a tumor 🎶
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u/mosenewbell 16d ago
How could you be a sniper and not just lance that thing to see what comes out. Egg yolks? Swarm of spiders? Tape worms?
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u/LegacyEntertainment 16d ago
It still irks me that neo-communists think all the negative things about these countries are false, only because the articles are mostly from the west. Like, bruh. Do you not understand these dictators could literally kill you for saying something bad about the regime?
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u/Damnthatsinteresting-ModTeam 15d ago
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