Kim Jong-Il(North Korean leader) banned from buying PS3's and iPod's(Deja vu...)

[Sephiroth_VII]

Ah, America. Land of political WTF-ery. In one of the strangest foreign policy moves "ever done" during the Bush administration (http://ps3.qj.net/tags/bush-administration/831), the US government is trying to impose trade sanctions against North Korea, specifically against items that Kim Jong-Il likes or which are gifted to him by loyalists.

What does the North Korean leader like, aside from platform shoes and bling-bling? Why, tech stuff and other assorted luxuries, of course. The Associated Press report says that, in addition to any new tech, such as iPods, PS3s and the like, they also want to ban just about everything else, even sports equipment (Kim compensates for his short stature with a love for basketball, apparently).

The AP article cites a lot of other items among those to be placed under trade sanctions:

But the list of proposed luxury sanctions, obtained by The Associated Press, aims to make Kim's swanky life harder: No more cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes, artwork, expensive cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles or even personal watercraft, such as Jet Skis.

Now, let's get some perspective on this. The man makes secret nuclear tests in his country and the people under his rule suffer from food shortages. That's a result of rather selfish decisions on Kim's part, as well as a lack of foreign aid because no one really likes him for messing with nukes right now.

The plan, as "creative" as some of the supporters of the trade sanctions might think of it, would only push North Korea's world leader to use more money to purchase the same things through the black markets (or eBay). If the leader of nuclear-capable nation wants a PS3, why would you try a stunt like this to get him to listen to you?

Robert J. Einhorn, a former senior State Department official who once went to Korea, said of the plan, "It can't hurt, but whether it works, we don't know." Trust a gamer to tell you this plain and simple: if PS3 fanboys are willing to wait out in the cold for days to get a PS3, and grey market sellers don't mind shooting people for those goods, you are wrong in assuming it can't hurt.
Source (http://ps3.qj.net/Bush-bans-Kim-Jong-Il-from-buying-PS3s-and-iPods/pg/49/aid/74615)

[ZipIt]

that is the most funniest piece of news evar!~

[F089/H]

Ha!

[CreativeWriter]

Well, there was a ban on PS2s to some places because the chips could be used as missle-guidance systems. I'm sure the PS3 could be turned into a much more powerful weapon...

[Leedogg]

Well, there was a ban on PS2s to some places because the chips could be used as missle-guidance systems. I'm sure the PS3 could be turned into a much more powerful weapon...

WOW you got a link to that??

[CreativeWriter]

Well, there's this: http://www.nahrain.com/d/news/00/12/25/lmy1225e.html and http://www.firingsquad.com/news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=1587&filterLevel=1&up=&page=7 and http://www.thedmonline.com/media/storage/paper876/news/2001/01/16/Opinion/How-Saddam.Stole.Christmas-1578864.shtml?norewrite200611300950&sourcedomain=www.thedmonline.com.

There was a Law and Order episode about it, too...

[curryking1]

Well, there was a ban on PS2s to some places because the chips could be used as missle-guidance systems. I'm sure the PS3 could be turned into a much more powerful weapon...

Any computer more powerful than basically a 50 Mhz Pentium 1, even below that, can be used on a missile to guide it to it's target.

Just look up what the US launched their first manned space shuttle with, and considering that's a bit more complicated than firing a rocket, even if it's across the world, you'll get the idea of how little processing power is required to launch or target a missile.

[CreativeWriter]

Any computer more powerful than basically a 50 Mhz Pentium 1, even below that, can be used on a missile to guide it to it's target.

Just look up what the US launched their first manned space shuttle with, and considering that's a bit more complicated than firing a rocket, even if it's across the world, you'll get the idea of how little processing power is required to launch or target a missile.

Yeah, I'm with you. It's probably a fool's errand to try to limit the spread of consumer electronics. I can see how there might be ulterior motives for banning PS3s to N. Korea though... The original article seemed flippant about the whole deal.

[GodMachine_Iridius_Dio]

Obviously, PS3s, or any appropriately equipped computer systems can be strung together to produce computer systems powerful enough to simulate new nuclear weapon designs and their resultant explosions without actually having to waste materials building the actual bombs (which is far more costly than simulating them). The US does this, and that's why the idea of countries like North Korea getting computer resources of that kind, makes them uncomfortable. It makes plenty of sense, especially now... Now that everything lines up, Nuclear North Korea, cheap, commodity super-computers that are already designed to be blocked together to increase performance - It's a scary scenario for any civilized nation right now, who isn't North Korea.
It's scary to think that right now, all a country has to do is acquire a few ounces to a few pounds of plutonium or other material, keep it on hold, get a team of adept nerds to block a handful of PS3s together and hammer away in virtual for a few months to find which type of weapon would cause the greatest number of human casualties and the greatest contamination radius possible, and they can build one bomb and devastate a city, or a province, or a small country.

Dio

[Stelio]

Obviously, PS3s, or any appropriately equipped computer systems can be strung together to produce computer systems powerful enough to simulate new nuclear weapon designs and their resultant explosions without actually having to waste materials building the actual bombs (which is far more costly than simulating them). The US does this, and that's why the idea of countries like North Korea getting computer resources of that kind, makes them uncomfortable. It makes plenty of sense, especially now... Now that everything lines up, Nuclear North Korea, cheap, commodity super-computers that are already designed to be blocked together to increase performance - It's a scary scenario for any civilized nation right now, who isn't North Korea.
It's scary to think that right now, all a country has to do is acquire a few ounces to a few pounds of plutonium or other material, keep it on hold, get a team of adept nerds to block a handful of PS3s together and hammer away in virtual for a few months to find which type of weapon would cause the greatest number of human casualties and the greatest contamination radius possible, and they can build one bomb and devastate a city, or a province, or a small country.

Dio



...Thats a shame :P

[Khaos]

Haha..

Looks like my northern neighbor can't get a PS3 either. Though atleast I'm not ..

BANNED!

[curryking1]

Haha..

Looks like my northern neighbor can't get a PS3 either. Though atleast I'm not ..

BANNED!

LOL! That was a good chuckle.

GodMachine, ya it is pretty scary... North Korea obviously has the manpower to create their own missile operating computers probably anways, there are still a country after all. There's probably a few there who can do it.

But anyways, scary situation... Friggin Kim Jong Il... frigging communist, I hope he dies painfully. Stupid short mother f****** has to have platforms to walk and wears his hair up to make him seem taller. F****** moron. Starving a whole country, treating them like dirt, causing unnecessary amounts and magnitudes of pain both directly and indirectly... Stupid f***.

*breathe in/out 10X* Ok I'm done.

[dantruon]

im sure Mr Kim has enough money to make a ps4

[Pluto]

With all the piracy issues going on in Asia, I'm sure he wont have too much trouble getting a Playstation 3. [ Or even a bootleg! ]

Kim just wants to play b3yond. Don't hate. :/

[MaceSin]

That will show him not the mess with God!

[GodMachine_Iridius_Dio]

With all the piracy issues going on in Asia, I'm sure he wont have too much trouble getting a Playstation 3. [ Or even a bootleg! ]

Kim just wants to play b3yond. Don't hate. :/

That's true, it won't make anything impossible, but the idea isn't to make it impossible, but a pain in the ass for him to acquire in any quantity, what he wants.

[GodMachine_Iridius_Dio]

im sure Mr Kim has enough money to make a ps4


You're probably just joking, but I'll put it out there...

Building a teraflops-scale or multi-teraflops-scale computer might be within their reach, if they can acquire all the bits they need in a high enough quantity, and if they have skilled enough engineers to build it (I have no reason to think otherwise... they built a nuke, didn't they?!). It'd take them a few million bucks, maybe (keeping in mind the difficulty of acquisition of those materials would boost their price).

Building one in a DVD-player-size box, though, is a whole new level of pain in the ass. We're talking about an investment of billions of dollars. The infrastructure doesn't exist there, yet, so they'd require chip foundries better than those that Intel use. They'd need teams of hundreds of engineers for CPUs, GPUs, and other processor designs. They'd need a team for conceptualisation. They'd need a team for board layout, and likely for programming test-work.

Gets pretty daunting.

Dio

[rpgamer_2k5]

As GunMachine stated earlier, the PS3 would prove to be an excellent asset for rogue nations. And the PS3 with Cell capable impressive floating-point calculations and hence being used for physics-related simulations by various R&D firms or departments.

Just imagine if they had access to that, it wouldn't be that hard to establish sub-critical testing capability. A few nations have done it the hard way by clustering a bunch of antique systems together. Well that was the past, most of them can easily acquire AMD and Intel CPUs and develop new designs that can destroy the US more efficiently. Well now they'll be acquiring Cells as well.

However the Cell also has a lot of promise in the embedded solutions area which includes being used in MCs for radars, etc, etc. A lot of fancy fusion sensors stuff require high computer-power at a low cost (energy, size) so the Cell is excellent and its possible since a lot of military components these days are COTS. Seeing how many nations that have military sanctions placed on them by Western powers plus Japan, SK and Singapore, they may want to purchase a low-cost supercomputer. Knowing North Korea, they'll bundle the PS3 with missiles at no extra cost. O_O

That's what so scary about this technology but GPUs have often been proposed to be used for advanced simulations that required heavy floating point ops so the PS3 isn't the first of its stock.

;)

[Phryne Astynome]

This is old news people. NK has been embargoed during its whole damn existence. I can't believe anyone would actually call this "news".

[Garfunkel]

the allies (AUS, UK and US and NZ and Canada and all should all gang up on this bastard and punish him for what he has done to humanity!

[Sephiroth_VII]

Don't forget the EU!! Germany was the only exception, you know;)

[dantruon]

the allies (AUS, UK and US and NZ and Canada and all should all gang up on this bastard and punish him for what he has done to humanity!

i could've say the same about Bush.

[Garfunkel]

i could've say the same about Bush.

oh true true except i don't think anyone can take over America...well maybe if EVERYONE allies up and challenges them.

[Phryne Astynome]

oh true true except i don't think anyone can take over America...well maybe if EVERYONE allies up and challenges them.

America's fall will come internally not externally. All the great empires fell from internal decay not due to outsiders challenging them.

[rpgamer_2k5]

This is old news people. NK has been embargoed during its whole damn existence. I can't believe anyone would actually call this "news". I'm sure most of was aware of that so was Iraq before GW2.

As for US's fall, it probably would be due to internal decay but the US people can change their policies both domestic and internal. A lot of Americans within their nation are being run over so it's not too late to help them out. :)

[cpiasminc]

Sheesh. It sounds like a pretty normal trade sanction to me. I think media reporters are just making assumptions based on the explicitly listed categories. Sure, the DSPs in the iPod happen to be somewhat useful for improving radar reliability, but I think the point of sanctioning small electronics shouldn't be assumed to mean iPods and PS3s. It just means NK doesn't get imports of the handful of products they were previously getting. Things like "sports equipment" is a pretty broad thing ranging from basketballs to boats.

I love how these articles play on words like saying that it would "forbid U.S. shipments of Rolexes, French cognac, plasma TVs, yachts and more" as if they stand out from the list. The whole thing is more than likely a lot more generic than that.

[Stelio]

Sheesh. It sounds like a pretty normal trade sanction to me. I think media reporters are just making assumptions based on the explicitly listed categories. Sure, the DSPs in the iPod happen to be somewhat useful for improving radar reliability, but I think the point of sanctioning small electronics shouldn't be assumed to mean iPods and PS3s. It just means NK doesn't get imports of the handful of products they were previously getting. Things like "sports equipment" is a pretty broad thing ranging from basketballs to boats.

I love how these articles play on words like saying that it would "forbid U.S. shipments of Rolexes, French cognac, plasma TVs, yachts and more" as if they stand out from the list. The whole thing is more than likely a lot more generic than that.

Unfortunately, it doesn't end there. People dont know how to interpret, understand, and question the news that is being spoon fed to them.The sad truth is that it affects everything from politics, business, video games, and school yards too. A part of our lives I guess. One nations national security is another nations national or international insecurity. A vicious cycle indeed.

BUT...at least we have music, sports, sex, and..you guessed it, games. Afterall, what good is life without the ability to entertain ones self?

- STELIO

[rpgamer_2k5]

Of course, cpiasminc. It's just a bit of playing around on my behalf.

Even if North Korea had the money (which they don't) to not only reverse-engineer, but also create the required infastructure to manufacture the components for say a radar then we'd have to worry. In fact the other 'rogue' nations that have sanctions applied to them can't really do much with the PS3's technology

Sub-critical testing is another thing, but you do need to have the software prowess along with real test-results to base the simulations on. That's not going to work with one test and it's not going to get NK from a fission-based nuke to a multi-megaton thermo-nuke. O_O

[jaxmkii]

America's fall will come internally not externally. All the great empires fell from internal decay not due to outsiders challenging them. QTF! :drunk: :usa: i miss my country:cry2:

[CrumCon]

Dont let the man touch the CELL Broadband Engine and RSX!!!

We don't want another crisis like we had with Saddam when he got his hands on the Emotion Engine and GS!

and now look what happened to Iraq and all the innocents people.

[GodMachine_Iridius_Dio]

Sheesh. It sounds like a pretty normal trade sanction to me. I think media reporters are just making assumptions based on the explicitly listed categories. Sure, the DSPs in the iPod happen to be somewhat useful for improving radar reliability, but I think the point of sanctioning small electronics shouldn't be assumed to mean iPods and PS3s. It just means NK doesn't get imports of the handful of products they were previously getting. Things like "sports equipment" is a pretty broad thing ranging from basketballs to boats.

I love how these articles play on words like saying that it would "forbid U.S. shipments of Rolexes, French cognac, plasma TVs, yachts and more" as if they stand out from the list. The whole thing is more than likely a lot more generic than that.

Of course - It isn't any different from any other embargo, and while I only pointed out the reasoning for inclusion of powerful computer systems in my earlier explanation, just about any device or item can be utilized for devious things, in the right hands. That's humans, though; That's what our brains are great for, ingenuity.

Dio

[Pluto]

Kim Jong should just use the Xbox 360 as a target if he wants to guide missiles to them..

Less people will die. :ko:

[LaLiLuLeLo]

so wait, korea just..doesn't get ps3s and ipods? because if that's the case, I'm sure North Korea will fucking revolt on his ass, hahaha. I wish...

[GodMachine_Iridius_Dio]

I know I'd break a leg off in someone's ass if they deprived me of my Ipod!

Dio

[Garfunkel]

so wait, korea just..doesn't get ps3s and ipods? because if that's the case, I'm sure North Korea will fucking revolt on his ass, hahaha. I wish...

i see movies of his military on the news sometimes, truly terrifying stuff. Sick basdard.

[GodMachine_Iridius_Dio]

i see movies of his military on the news sometimes, truly terrifying stuff. Sick basdard.

As terrifying as me without my Ipod?!?!

[Garfunkel]

apparently not.

[Viper]

Anyone familiar with Kim Jong knows that most likely he will ban the PS3 or have its Internet capabilities severely limited.

He has already banned cell phones because he is afraid of the western influence his people will gain with communications capabilities outside of NK. Internet is also heavily regulated and limited there.

[curryking1]

I don't remember ever hearing of anything not limited in North Korea. News about the world outside North Korea is a big one, basically mind and information control.

[Garfunkel]

it's sick to think that people can be so cruel