C-Span finally put up a video from the NK Human Rights Week held last month in Washington. I don't know if the media player here will handle RealMediaPlayer links, so here is the link itself you can plug into realplayer if you have it on your computer.

rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/ter/ter042707_korea.rm

The most ---- check that ----- the only true hawkish people I have ever heard talk about North Korea have been North Koreans. Everyone else balks at the thought of how much bloodshed and money and instability a collapse of the Kim Jong Il regime would bring with it.

The only non-NK I've heard say the US should bring the regime down even if it takes using the military was a Russian Korea specialist. He said he grew up under a system and regime that was not even as bad as Pyongyang but bad enough that he understood what such a society is all about - and he said it is all about getting and keeping as much of the pie for yourself as you could and human rights and freedom are not even considered. He said the US should take the regime out and that the North Koreans would thank us for it...

I still tremble at the thought of the costs (to others) if such a policy is followed. ('to others' highlights that if we balk at the costs to non-North Koreans we are kinda accepting the costs to the North Koreans themselves - with since 1994 has been perhaps at least 3 million dead....)

But, the more I hear North Koreans who know the situation so intimately telling me we should collapse the regime and do it soon ---- I start to lean in that direction....

[media]rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/ter/ter042707_korea.rm[/media]