North Korea

So while I think it's great and all that Christiane Amanpour has gotten access to this closed-off country and is broadcasting what she has learned around the world (and as a side-bar, I have infinite respect for Christiane as she is basically the only person on CNN who is a legitimate journalist) it sort of begs the question of, who cares? I mean, at the end of the day, North Korea is just another silly country stuck like 50+ years in the past and that oppresses its citizens and pulls crap like those parades of tanks and military personnel through the streets. Seriously, when you have to parade your defense system through the streets and broadcast it on international news, aren't you really defeating the purpose of having a defense system? Obviously, unless you are scared to death that someone is going to attack you, this just lets everyone know exactly where your strengths and weaknesses are and how to exploit them.
I'm a little biased against Korea in general due to a dispute a roommate and I had in London over the second gulf war (she was South Korean). We were watching the coverage in the first few days and she was basically all, the U.S. is going to get destroyed. And for me, that was kind of like saying, all major banking corporations will collapse in the next three days. Like, madness. And I sort of let it go, because it seemed so wildly off-kilter, but when the U.S. didn't go crashing down, she didn't take it well. I, on the other hand, being younger and less careful about my safety, promptly began traveling every weekend as prices were low. And to places like Istanbul. By myself. But what really got me was that she didn't give up on the downfall of the U.S. Now, I like the U.S. like anyone else, not really nutso about it, but I don't appreciate it when people we've spent massive amounts of money, people and general effort on over the past 50+ years are totally indifferent to our safety and our attempts to improve the quality of the world. So in sum, I don't get where the South Koreans get off with this anti-American attitude, given that their country, as they know it, wouldn't exist but for us. I mean, maybe we just live in an era now where people have no sense of decency, I don't know.