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Originally Posted by Ledgem
I don't have any evidence to paint him one way or another, and I don't mean to push that scenario as if it's the absolute truth. It's just something I wonder about. Kim Jong Il may have traveled to other nations, but he never really lived outside of North Korea (as far as world records indicate). In many ways it's not surprising that he continued to push North Korea more or less in the same direction as it was previously. But Kim Jong Un is different. He lived and studied abroad, in a Western country (countries?).
Granted, experience living abroad doesn't necessarily mean that he'll want to change North Korea. There have been plenty of Muslim extremists who lived in the United States of America for years, only to continue claiming that they desire to impose Sharia law over the entire world. But you have to wonder... if Jong Un really did want to make a change, how could he do it?
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It'd be a nice thought, but I don't know. I recall reading about an African warlord who was educated in the US as well, can't recall his name, but I don't know if that exposure really changes how these people think.
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Originally Posted by Sumeragi
Because Japan happened to be the first actual country to give a damn about the island. That goes a long way.
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Well, there were indigenous inhabitants, with some remains showing occupation as long as 20,000 years back...
I've also read they may have been the ancestors of the other Austonesian groups.
Though by now, I believe there has been much genetic admixture and you wouldn't find any 'pure' Taiwanese aborigines.
Also, I thought Europeans were the first to really play an active colonial presence on the island?
As for who has a 'right' to the island, I don't have any opinion beyond the people already living there... much like in the US, I sympathize with the indigenous population, but what's done is done. I do think, from my outside perspective, it should remain its own country and drop the Chinese rhetoric.