Pyongyang-Singapore Relations
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I recently realized that there is actually diplomatic relations between the Republic of Singapore and North Korea. How good do you think the relations of Singapore and Pyongyang is?
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Adapted from website Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore:
Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
Embassy of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
Diplomatic Relations established on: 8 November 1975
Chancery 7500 Beach Road
#09-320 The Plaza
Singapore 199591
Telephone 64403498
Fax 63482026
Office Hours Mon - Fri
9.00 am - 12 noon
2.00 pm - 6.00 pm
National Day The Day of Founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
9 September
Trade Section
Address 371 Beach Road, #16-05 Keypoint
Singapore 199597
Telephone 63920784
Fax 63920789
E-mail [email protected]
Office Hours Mon - Fri
9.00 am - 12 noon
2.00 pm - 6.00 pm
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
1. His Excellency Ji Jae Suk
Mdm Kwon Ok Nyo
Counsellor
2. Mr Hong Won Jun
Mdm Kim In Hwa
Trade Commissioner
3. Mr Kim Kyong Chol
Mdm Ryu Kyong Suk
Second Secretary
4. Mr Yun Hye Chol
Mdm Pak Ye Jin
Third Secretary
5. Mr Pak Ryong Ryon
Mdm Kim Myong Hwa
6. Mr Kim Hi Jae
Mdm Choe Sun Im[/b] -
Just some formality perhaps...
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We even had a relationship with farking China, so whats with a smaller commie nation?
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Even in the height of the Cold War, the US and the Soviets had embassies in each other's countries.
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please do not contribute irrelavant commentsOriginally posted by laurence82:We even had a relationship with farking China, so whats with a smaller commie nation? -
its 'irrelevant'Originally posted by huaqing:please do not contribute irrelavant comments
u got unbanned liao har?
congrats
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China and North Korea are both nations with communist ideologies, albeit with the former embracing more and more capitalist teachings.Originally posted by huaqing:please do not contribute irrelavant comments
So please explain why laurence's comment is considered irrelevant. -
In fact, its not surprising.Originally posted by fudgester:China and North Korea are both nations with communist ideologies, albeit with the former embracing more and more capitalist teachings.
So please explain why laurence's comment is considered irrelevant.
We have close military ties to Myanmar, which EU and US got something to say, and we have close ties with Israel, which our neighbours have something to say about.
China supply Pakistan and DPRK with weapons and other materials *ahem*, which is annoying UN to heck.
Iraq during Saddam's time also enjoyed some form of technology transfer from French and German companies
And the list goes on
Its no longer surprising any sort of ties exist. Nations would look towards guarding and promoting their interests than to uphold values and morals. -
If you have noticed, every year's 16 of February (aka Kim Jong Il's birthday) DPRK embassy will place an advertisment in local dailies...
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China is captalist communist. get what i mean?Originally posted by fudgester:China and North Korea are both nations with communist ideologies, albeit with the former embracing more and more capitalist teachings.
So please explain why laurence's comment is considered irrelevant. -
what do you mean?Originally posted by laurence82:its 'irrelevant'
u got unbanned liao har?
congrats
please watch your language -
and now talking about DPRK not PRC...now you understand the obvious why already? good.Originally posted by fudgester:China and North Korea are both nations with communist ideologies, albeit with the former embracing more and more capitalist teachings.
So please explain why laurence's comment is considered irrelevant. -
that's interesting!Originally posted by potong jalan:If you have noticed, every year's 16 of February (aka Kim Jong Il's birthday) DPRK embassy will place an advertisment in local dailies...
next year must see... -
Well, as long as the CCP is still the ultimate state organ in China, I will still consider it a Communist state.Originally posted by huaqing:China is captalist communist. get what i mean?
Capitalism is just a mode in which China operates in. It's institutions and organs, not to mention military central control, is still communist in origin and process. -
No, I don't.Originally posted by huaqing:and now talking about DPRK not PRC...now you understand the obvious why already? good.
laurence was talking about how our relations are with communist countries in general. If the fact is that we can have good relations with communist countries like the PRC, then diplomatic relations with the DPRK are not quite something surprising.
You can call the PRC 'capitalist communist' or anything you like, and the fact remains that they remain communist-centric.
As I've said before, the US and the Soviet Union had embassies in each others' countries in the height of the Cold War. So it's not a precedent for the North Koreans to have an embassy here.
I fail to see why you would wish to write off laurence's attempt to expand the discussion as 'irrelevance'.
Or are you going to write off my talking about the US and the Soviets as irrelevance as well? -
To be truthful, I think they are a bunch of hypocrites.Originally posted by fudgester:No, I don't.
laurence was talking about how our relations are with communist countries in general. If the fact is that we can have good relations with communist countries like the PRC, then diplomatic relations with the DPRK are not quite something surprising.
You can call the PRC 'capitalist communist' or anything you like, and the fact remains that they remain communist-centric.
As I've said before, the US and the Soviet Union had embassies in each others' countries in the height of the Cold War. So it's not a precedent for the North Koreans to have an embassy here.
I fail to see why you would wish to write off laurence's attempt to expand the discussion as 'irrelevance'.
Or are you going to write off my talking about the US and the Soviets as irrelevance as well?
Capitalist communist is oxymoronic. I am a Chinese, and I can say, we have a culture of profit and greed more profound than any other cultures. The idea of a communist country abhoring ideals of capitalism yet allowing its economy grow like boils down to one word: greed.
I would say, to be more accurate, it should be capitalist-dictatorship, where the economy grows with capitalism, and political control is extreme. Funnily, this also sounds like a little country in SEA. -
Hypocrisy isn't just confined to the PRC. As it is, the very name of the 'DEMOCRATIC People's Republic of Korea' is hypocrisy in itself. The North Korean juche system is anything but democratic in its precepts, and we all know that already.Originally posted by laurence82:To be truthful, I think they are a bunch of hypocrites.
Capitalist communist is oxymoronic. I am a Chinese, and I can say, we have a culture of profit and greed more profound than any other cultures. The idea of a communist country abhoring ideals of capitalism yet allowing its economy grow like boils down to one word: greed.
I would say, to be more accurate, it should be capitalist-dictatorship, where the economy grows with capitalism, and political control is extreme. Funnily, this also sounds like a little country in SEA.
And hey, there's the official name for the former East Germany as well: 'German DEMOCRATIC Republic'.
Somehow I find it funny that communist nations would claim to be staunchly pro-communist and anti-democratic while openly using democracy in their names. One would think that if they were truly proud of their communist ideologies, they would have reflected that in their names.
Seems to indicate an apologetic stance on their part for their communist status.
But of course, hypocrisy isn't just limited to communist states. The US, for instance, is a pretty good example of legalised hypocrisy in the guise of democracy. You don't have to think too far to think of one example of this: the indefinite confining without trial of 'enemy combatants' at Guantanamo Bay certainly goes against their ideas of personal liberties. -
Singapore without even acknowledging the word 'Democracy' will go through the motion of having a supposedly 'fair electoral process' every four to five years.
Yet Singapore is as much - if not even more - a Communist Government as PR China is Communist in its Political and Socialist Systems, and Capitalist in managing its Economy.
While the Singapore Government politicise the control mechanisms over the population with similar Communist efficiency, it does not accept those Socialist Responsibility as does the Communist States.
The Communist State Security Police has a free hand in executing their assigned responsibility of dealing with all forms of oppositions towards the legislation and policies rubber-stamped through the Communist People's Congress.
Singapore has the Internal Security Department with a special Internal Security Act', which is a law that is designed to make their work legal, and protect them from prosecution for violating any other legislations embodied in the Singapore Constitution that protects every Singaporean. -
USSR became a commie country before WW2, DPRK in 1948, PRC in 1947. Singapore established diplomatic relationship with USSR, now Russia in 1968, with DPRK in 1975 and PRC in 1990. I cannot see any relationship between singapore's diplomatic relationships among these three countries, regardless of their polticial ideologies.Originally posted by fudgester:China and North Korea are both nations with communist ideologies, albeit with the former embracing more and more capitalist teachings.
So please explain why laurence's comment is considered irrelevant.
It should be noted that singapore had relationship with DPRK 15 years ahead of PRC, the statement that "We even had a relationship with farking China, so whats with a smaller commie nation?" is totally irrelevant, not logical, and ignorant of facts.
The relevant question remains "what kind of relationship we have with a country like DPRK?" we had protested over the nuke test, can we severe tie? will our participation in economic sanction be effective? can we afford to?
Lets stop all these nonsense about whether singapore is democratic or not? Singapore IS NOT a democratic nation, SO? does that mean we should stop protesting against the nuke test? -
I dont understand. Your first paragraph underscores what all of us have been saying all these time, and your second paragraph take a sudden U turn. Huh? What talking you?Originally posted by sgdiehard:USSR became a commie country before WW2, DPRK in 1948, PRC in 1947. Singapore established diplomatic relationship with USSR, now Russia in 1968, with DPRK in 1975 and PRC in 1990. I cannot see any relationship between singapore's diplomatic relationships among these three countries, regardless of their polticial ideologies.
It should be noted that singapore had relationship with DPRK 15 years ahead of PRC, the statement that "We even had a relationship with farking China, so whats with a smaller commie nation?" is totally irrelevant, not logical, and ignorant of facts.
The relevant question remains "what kind of relationship we have with a country like DPRK?" we had protested over the nuke test, can we severe tie? will our participation in economic sanction be effective? can we afford to?
Lets stop all these nonsense about whether singapore is democratic or not? Singapore IS NOT a democratic nation, SO? does that mean we should stop protesting against the nuke test?
And I dont understand your last two either. Why sudden talk about protesting nuke test and severing ties? -
Originally posted by huaqing:China is captalist communist. get what i mean?
ok i get what you mean.
Kim Jung iL's irrational.
he should retire to Waikiki and sell North Korea to
his neighbor Hu Jintao.
no problem. now everybody can go home eat dinner.
Bloomberg says China's foreign-currency reserves surged to almost $1 trillion, the most ever held by a single country, driven by a record trade surplus that U.S. critics blame on an artificially undervalued yuan.
China had reserves of $988 billion at the end of September, the Beijing-based People's Bank of China said on its Web site today. That's 28.5 percent higher than a year earlier.
The reserves are growing at a rate of almost $30 million an hour, mostly driven by a gap between exports and imports that tripled to $102 billion last year. The government's policy of not allowing the yuan to strengthen to reflect demand for the currency keeps the nation's export prices low, further fuelling the trade surplus.
With a more flexible yuan, ``the currency would have appreciated and we wouldn't have seen this reserve accumulation,'' said Qing Wang, head of greater China research at Bank of America in Hong Kong and a former IMF official.
China's record holdings exceed the output of every economy in the world bar the eight largest. They reflect a global imbalance that's mirrored in the $805 billion U.S. current-account deficit, itself fueled by demand from the nation's consumers for cheap Chinese imports.
``The U.S. continues to live beyond its means and China's reserve accumulation is partly a result of that,'' said Barry Eichengreen, an economic historian at the University of California, Berkeley. ``Another year where no one does anything and somehow hopes the problem will solve itself will only set us up for a bigger fall.''
Currency Changes
China has recently shown signs it is responding to repeated calls by the finance ministers and central bankers of the U.S. and the other Group of Seven industrial nations to make its currency more flexible.
Premier Wen Jiabao has also acknowledged that reserves have caused a surge in the money supply that triggered a credit-fuelled investment boom the government is now trying to cool.
Central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan on Sept. 16 called on China's lenders to prepare for changes to the currency so they can better manage risk.
The government in April moved to loosen strict capital controls by letting companies and individuals invest outside China and allowing some outflow of funds. -
kewl, i din noe dat.
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Not surprising.
You can trace back the history of forex to Soviet Union. -
our relationship with PRC has no relevance with our relationship with DPRK. this is what I am saying.Originally posted by laurence82:I dont understand. Your first paragraph underscores what all of us have been saying all these time, and your second paragraph take a sudden U turn. Huh? What talking you?
And I dont understand your last two either. Why sudden talk about protesting nuke test and severing ties?
Thread starter is surprised we have a relationship with DPRK. Why do we have diplomatic relationship with a country that ignores the safety of all their neighbour and explode a nuke amid all the protests? That is our concern, no?
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It doesOriginally posted by sgdiehard:our relationship with PRC has no relevance with our relationship with DPRK. this is what I am saying.
Thread starter is surprised we have a relationship with DPRK. Why do we have diplomatic relationship with a country that ignores the safety of all their neighbour and explode a nuke amid all the protests? That is our concern, no?
In fact, its a trend that shows what countries we are hobnobbing with.
As for your second para, why dont you ask the topicstarter?