[imwithstoopid]

This stereotype is partly due to the efforts of the US advertising industry which worked with the military to rehabilitate Japan's image after WW2, given that the US intended to turn a bitter enemy into an ally.

American ad man transformed the image of a nation-sized race cult into a quaint provincial island of passive nobility.

[adrianmonk]

I have two reactions to that, neither of which I love that I'm having:

(1) It's a very interesting idea, and I'm not 100% sure if I believe it, but it definitely doesn't sound unbelievable either.

(2) Can we do it again with North Korea? Maybe there's a path forward after all.

[vasco]

Last time "doing it" involved lots of fire bombing and two nuclear explosions, so I'm not sure.

[adrianmonk]

Yeah, I don't want that part for sure. I could have been clearer, but what I meant is that the idea has been put forward that the people of North Korea have the Juche ideology so deeply ingrained in them that, if the regime were gone (hopefully through peaceful means), the country would struggle to put something better in its place.

Right now, things are pretty bad. People are starving, there are human rights abuses, etc. If you want to change the course of a country, you have to remove the old order and (the part everyone forgets about far too easily) fill the void by somehow creating a new order that is stable and effective. This second part fails really often in history. I think it might be a huge challenge for North Korea if they ever get to that step.

[red-iron-pine]

And no worries about the working, actually-pretty-nice, other part of Korea