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[10ebbor10]

Rare earth's are in all high tech products, in extremely low quantities. It's kind of hard to force the relocation of the entire high tech industry to South Korea.

Besides, rare earth's aren't exactly, well, rare.

[Duuvian]

Alright, that makes sense then. I was misled by the name. You would think eventually they would be called something else if it's no longer accurate.

[10ebbor10]

Well, they're mostly called rare because while they're found everywhere, they're seldom found in profitable quantities(In fact, almost all rare earth mines produce rare earth's as a byproduct). Combine that with an actually rather low demand, and you have a very tight profit margin. Hence why it's very easy for one nation to corner the market.

However, that is unable to happen again after China inflated rare earth prices massively a few years ago by cutting supply. Now you got several strategic mines in some countries.

[mainiac]

You can't get dutch disease when you have a large underdeveloped sector that can (and will) be modernized with very high reliability.  Dutch disease is about an imbalance where domestic production outstrips domestic demand.  But the underdeveloped North Korea would be a huge, practically bottomless pit of domestic demand that would last for decades as North Korea was built up to South Korean standards and the North Korean people given basic education and standards of living.  You would see Korea run very large trade deficits as a natural product of this development.  But such deficits would be completely sustainable because they are matched with increases in the productivity of the undeveloped North.  This matches the pre-80s debt development framework where trade flowed from the developed countries to the undeveloped ones, except South Korea doesn't have any of the pitfalls that lead to this framework falling apart.  South Korea is capable of protecting Korean economic sovereignty, has v. solid credit and has a political environment that is very adept at promoting development (one could even argue that they are too development oriented right now, but a unification scenario would certainly absorb the excess and then some.)

Whether or not North Korea has natural resources is pretty irrelevant to this.  It would be like the natural gas boon in the US state of Pennsylvania.  Yes it lead to a boom in 3 rural counties that were lightly populated, but that was irrelevant to a state of Pennsylvania's size.  What's much more important is the population and the investments in economy wide capital stocks, real estate, inventories and most importantly of all human capital.  Compared to those the heavy machinery needed to mine billions in natural gas is a drop in the bucket.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Alright, that makes sense then. I was misled by the name. You would think eventually they would be called something else if it's no longer accurate.

It's rare earth because of the difficulty of separating and refining said materials.

[Guardian G.I.]

Oh boy, here we go.

Interestingly, according to Reuters, a former student of the boarding school where KJU used to study (who also used to be friends with KJU) described him as "a very intelligent and a good student"

He was a good friend. He was very quiet. He was a nice guy.

Washington Post and CNN describe KJU as a psycho in order to justify American policies towards North Korea.  Today madman Kim Jong-un decides to purge some officials, tomorrow he'll probably launch missiles at America, for sure.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Oh boy, here we go.

Interestingly, according to Reuters, a former student of the boarding school where KJU used to study (who also used to be friends with KJU) described him as "a very intelligent and a good student"

He was a good friend. He was very quiet. He was a nice guy.

Washington Post and CNN describe KJU as a psycho in order to justify American policies towards North Korea.  Today madman Kim Jong-un decides to purge some officials, tomorrow he'll probably launch missiles at America, for sure.

Considering what he's done so far and is continuing to do, Washington Post's description of Unkimbo looks far more in line with reality than Reuters.

Besides, there's also the aspect that this guy was friends with him. Most people are nice towards their friends, even fucking lunatics.

And seriously Guardian, the major news networks don't give a shit about helping the US government. They only care about making money and continuing to be successful.

[Sergarr]

helping the US government

=>

making money and continuing to be successful.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

helping the US government

=>

making money and continuing to be successful.

Don't even bullshit me. What sells better than controversy? You think the government and the people who make it up like being exposed and reported upon like that? The news are not controlled by the government, and if they are, whomever is pulling the strings is doing a shit job.

[mainiac]

helping the US government

=>

making money and continuing to be successful.

Don't even bullshit me. What sells better than controversy? You think the government and the people who make it up like being exposed and reported upon like that? The news are not controlled by the government, and if they are, whomever is pulling the strings is doing a shit job.

+1.

Anyone who thinks the Washington Post is a mouthpiece for the US government should read the coverage of Syria.  One day the US is supporting child soldier using rebels, the next they are starving rebels to death by failing to deliver aid.  There are tons of issues with the Washington Post (in particular the incestuous relationship between some reporters and some government and political sources) but that doesn't mean you can make up anything you want about them.

[MorleyDev]

The fastest way to drive a person homicidally insane is give them the power and means to, without restriction or risk, be homicidally insane. Then present them with threats, both real and imagined, and make it very difficult for them to differentiate. Human nature will handle the rest.

[Guardian G.I.]

Even with the desire for profits put into account, a lot of Western mass media still try to manipulate public opinion.
For example, when US President Barack Obama was considering launching a bombing campaign against Syria, the public opinion in the United States was generally against it. In response, major American television channels, newspapers and news sites ramped up the reports about the war crimes reportedly committed by Bashar Assad against the Syrian people and how the Syrian people suffer because of Bashar Assad. BBC also did the same thing when the British parliament was discussing Britain's participation in the American armed operation.

In my opinion Western news sources are not directly controlled by the Western governments. The Guardian's coverage of Snowden's leaks and the British government's backlash against the newspaper shows that they can operate independently. However, it's possible that owners of some newspapers or news channels, especially those affiliated with certain political forces periodically receive recommendations from people lobbying for particular political actions about what should be published and what should not be published. I wouldn't disregard such a possibility because some of the mass media exposed the US government's wrongdoings several times.

[Owlbread]

Indeed, in many respects our press is no less biased than that of Belarus or Russia.

[nenjin]

News organizations also do, from time time, consider themselves agents of social change. So while them being in bed with politicians is plausible, it's also equally likely they take up issues because they believe in them and want to expose as many people as possible to it.

Unfortunately, if you accept that x news organization is acting as an agent of social change, you kind of have to accept all of them.

[Lagslayer]

No such thing as unbiased.