Images from Bush vs. The Axis of Evil

[dorkasky]

Pyonghwa Motors' first generation model Hwiparam, circa 2005 in Seoul. After the war, Pyonghwa Motors in Nampo, a joint venture between the former North Korean government in 2000 and the Unification Church, was rebuilt using South Korean knowhow and Northern labor.

Pyeonghwa Motors - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

The car company is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tongil Group Chaebol, currently the fourth largest conglomerate of Korea.

OOC: I think @PauL62 could be interested in alternate Pyonghwa Motors car thread now that they won't definitely use Chinese car designs as in OTL.

 

[L'amateur d'aéroplanes]

Concerning nuclear aircraft carriers, unless we make a ''big'' series with two Britons, or even an Italian (with a huge butterfly effect), or unless the European Union participates financially, the France would have a hard time having three in line.

@PauL62 N'hésitez pas à le mettre sur le forum francophone 😅

 

[theg*ddam*hoi2fan]

Concerning nuclear aircraft carriers, unless we make a ''big'' series with two Britons, or even an Italian (with a huge butterfly effect), or unless the European Union participates financially, the France would have a hard time having three in line.

Thanks for the feedback - I've brought it down to two (I know the original plan was for a two-carrier fleet, so two seems plausible given what has to be significantly boosted defence spending).

EDIT: That said, I do imagine greater collaboration between France and Britain re naval development ITTL - especially since if there's the worry about the US going flakey again, they'd be the ones having to keep the Atlantic open if a war did break out.

 

[PauL62]

@PauL62 N'hésitez pas à le mettre sur le forum francophone 😅

Pourquoi pas ma foi, ça pourrait faire un bon sujet d'uchronie 😅😅

 

[theg*ddam*hoi2fan]

Foreign Legionnaires on the ground in Mali, 2018. With the advent of the Second Cold War, the Legion has been increased in size…and has drawn a great many recruits from countries now dragged into the Russian sphere of influence, as non-negligible numbers of young men from Ukraine, Belarus and Chechnya in particular flee their home nations and seek to gain citizenship in Europe (in the hope this will allow them to bring family members ultimately). Chechen recruitment especially has seen major growth as news of Russian ‘mercenary’ involvement in various African conflicts spread: many recruits of late have been long-standing veterans of conflict against Russia, and join less for citizenship and more for the opportunity of killing Russians.

Iranian ‘Rustam’ heavy bomber drone. Iran has proven to be a major leader in the development of drone technology, something that they have demonstrated on a number of occasions in regional conflicts such as a recent border flare-up between Armenia and Azerbaijan, in supporting Yemeni rebels…and possibly in a major explosion that took place at Saudi Arabia’s Ghawar oil field (the official story involves domestic sabotage, though it had been noted that the explosion led to a major redeployment of the Royal Saudi Air Force and a seeming disinclination to send aerial assets overseas).

Gavin Newsom, Governor of California 2010-2018, President of the United States 2020-present. A moderate Democrat, Newsom has managed to balance retention - and expansion in some cases - of certain Wellstonian policies that lasted through the previous Republican administrations and advancement of progressive causes on the one hand, with a pro-business agenda and a proactive military and foreign policy on the other. He’s proven to be effective at compromise, managing to work with moderate elements on both sides to get legislation passed - much as President Bush did in his second term.

It has been noted by some that the Second Cold War in many ways has given rise to a new ‘Cold War Consensus’, with political polarisation being somewhat ‘papered over’, and a rise of bipartisan efforts (such as President Bush’s major Infrastructure Bill in 2013). How long this will last, of course, only time will tell - fringe elements on both sides are not entirely happy with the status quo.

​

 

[L'amateur d'aéroplanes]

If the Kyoto Protocol came into force in 2005, global negotiations concerning the climate have generally been a failure since the 2010s with the disagreement between the West and the Sino-Russian bloc. The 2015 Paris conference only allowed declarations of principle to be made, and only the pandemic initially passed over in silence by Beijing of Covid 21 made it possible to limit industrial activity for a few months.

 

[Lalli]

Muammar Gaddafi was dictator and leader of Libya since 1969 until his death in 2014 altough he was mostly out of public life during his last couple years. Gaddafi was without any doubt one of most curious dictators of history. He was one of longest lasted rulers of republican nation and he often shifted his allegiance depending what saw being good. About his first 30 years he was pretty hostile to the West and allied almost anyone who opposed the West and his country became basically one of largest terrorist camps of the world and even Reagan had bomb the country which didn't do anything for Gaddafi's power.

It was just after 9/11 when Gaddafi begun his approachment with the West and even finished his nuclear program. But even then Gaddafi continued controlling his nation with iron fist. In other hand he was able get new investments and develope Libya further. Gaddafi faced some serious opposition in 2011 but he managed to crush that. Gaddafi anyway begun suffer issues of old age and there is even claims that him had dementia what Libya hasn't ever officially admitted. Gaddafi died in 2014 after ruling Libya 45 years. There was massive funeral procession, almost royal level and Gaddafi was intended to Gaddafi Mausoleum in Tripoli.

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi succeeded his father in 2014 and him became president of Libya. Younger Gaddafi has continued being in good terms with the West. He has too commited some minor reforms but has refused from transition to democracy.

 

[dorkasky]

Hyunmoo-3 missile of Korea, allegedly loaded with nuclear warheads aimed at China, especially the Northeast region.

Since the Second Korean War, Korean scientists recruited ex-North Korean nuclear scientists in exchange for not serving a sentence, to complete its own nuclear program. The Republic of Korea left the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty in protest of China's harassment of Korean airspace.

In 2009, Japan and Poland eventually left the NPT as well, with the latter exploding their own nuclear weapons. Russia and the EU are protested this development, but as of 2024, could not do anything about it. Moreover, with the NPT being almost moribund, fewer countries have reservations about nuclear arsenals.

Motoyumi Kobayashi's Second Korean War manga, originally published in 1994. Due to the actual Second Korean War, Kobayashi revised the story in 2007 and made it a fictionalized account of the actual Second Korean War.

(OOC:Yes, it exists: https://en.namu.wiki/w/제2차 한국전쟁)

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/5150193 (Credits to Masara /マサラ from Pixiv, this is just fanart, not official art)

Character of Korea from the animated series Hetalia Axis Powers.

While the character was somewhat controversial (the uniform is somewhat incorrect, and is somewhat cheerful, which ), he is one of the more popular characters in the series. He is portrayed as someone who once treated China as a bigger brother but was later disillusioned when China said he will bring North Korea to his house. He is a lover of K-Dramas and videogames, and is alleged that his portrayal as a geek playing videogames all day was a euphemism for PTSD treatment of Second Korean War veterans and trying to stop North Korea to go to a certain church was an allusion to the controversy with the Unification Church. Both Koreas are voiced by Mamoru Miyano.

If anything, the character of Japan itself was somewhat more controversial, as he was said to have been longing for the atomic bomb, and was seen conversing with Korea and Poland about how to get the bomb. This cause an ire in Japanese circles, especially left-leaning ones, accusing author Hidekaz Himaruya of endorsing Japanese rearmament and acquisition of nuclear weapons.

(in This timeline, while Korea will be controversial, some of this backstory was changed (e.g. the part where Korea wants to have a tunnel with Japan is seen as not controversial as in OTL, and the groping part never happened.)

 

[ajm8888]

The JGSDF Type 22 Wheeled APC is a replacement for the long aging Type 96 APCs which showed their fight in the Second Korean War, while initial versions of the Type 22 will be armed with a M2 12.7mm Browning Machine gun and a FN MINIMI on the rear ramp There are plans to make an IFV version and an amphibious version for the Amphibious Deployment Division. Sales to Taiwan have been heavily rumored.

 

[Lalli]

Steve Irwin in 2005

Steve Irwin is one of most famous sea biologists, nature documentarists and enviromentalists of early 21st century. He has made lot of notable documents through 2000's and 2010's and he too continues working with his children Bindi and Robert. Irwin has too commented and spoken for protection of sea life and insisted actions from government to stop pollution of seas and ending throwing plastic junks to sea. He has too been worried over climate change which is affecting to sea life. In 2023 king Charles III knighted him over his work with enviromnent issues.

 

[Whiteshore]

Rare portrait of Kim Yo-Jong, youngest child of Kim Jong-il. Since 2008, the Kim Family has been living in exile in Cuba, keeping a low profile there with Kim Yo-Jong becoming a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Havana in 2019.

 

[Whiteshore]

It was also alleged by a former Al-Qaeda member named Ziad Jarrah who was arrested in Lebanon in 2002 for terrorism charges that the former Al-Qaeda were actually considered attacking again the World Trade Center instead of Hezbollah using similar methods; however, any similarities were simply coincidental.

"What childish fantasy, am I right? How could Al-Qaeda be able to achieve what Hezbollah did without being caught, especially as Al-Qaeda would not have had the support that Hezbollah enjoyed?"
-TTL's AH.Com on confronted with the idea of having Al-Qaeda and not Hezbollah do 9/11

(Though seriously, it is a nice allohistorical in-joke that I'd give a thumbs up to)

 

[dorkasky]

Marjane Satrapi, Iranian writer and film-maker, and later President of the Republic of Iran from 2009 to 2014. Nominated by the Tudeh Party, she supported progressive causes and encouraged more female and LGBT participation in society, in contrast to Reza Pahlavi's relative social conservatism. She was also willing to criticize other allies such as Israel, which somewhat strained the alliance between these two countries. Like Reza Pahlavi, she opted not to stand for another term, returning to writing afterwards.

Michael Ri Myung-Hun, a former North Korean basketball player and soldier and one of the tallest Koreans recorded, as well as the tallest former North Korean recorded. He was once considered playing for the NBA in the 1990s (here shown with Dennis Rodman postwar) but diplomatic disputes with North Korea and the United States prevented him from playing. During the Second Korean War, he served in the Korean People's Army, albeit in a limited capacity; he surrendered alongside other North Korean troops, defecting to South Korean lines. It was said that his reputation as a basketball player was the only reason why he and his unit spent fewer days in a POW camp; he later became the captain of a basketball team composed of North Korean POWs. In 2008, he was one of the few former North Koreans to immediately receive ROK citizenship due to his newfound loyalty to the Republic and to his is a coach of numerous Korean Basketball League teams, with one team he coached winning in 2013.

Megumi Yokota, in an undated photo before her rescue by South Korean forces during the Second Korean War.

After the Second Korean War, she lived with her daughter in Japan, with her eventually became a schoolteacher in Nagoya. Yokota was said to be very popular with students and not just because of her previous situation. She and her husband, a South Korean also kidnapped by North Korean agents, have since divorced. Like other kidnapped Japanese citizens, she testified at the trial of Kim Jong-il.

Her life was subject of numerous dramas and even one anime short in 2008 where she was credited as a producer.

 

[Lalli]

Victor Yanukovych, president of Ukrainian Sovereign State

Yanukovych was elected as president of Ukraine in 2004. Him became quickly Russian ally and increasingly puppet president who did whatever Moscow said. Yanukovych transferred Ukraine more authotarian way and soon several opposition leaders and anti-Yanukovych journalists noticed being either in prison or exiled to the West. There was too several unsolved assassinations which were probably orchestrated by government's security officials. There was some occassional protests but these were always crushed brutally. Yanukovych too agreed deployment of Russian forces to Ukraine and it became even more dependent from Moscow. In 2019 Yanukovych signed treaty which abolished even that little what was left from independence and formed union state with Russia and Belarus.

Many Ukrainians fled from their home country and Ukraine became extremely corrupt nation. Yanukovych himself is even called as Ukrainian Quisling. He still leads Ukraine with complete approval of Moscow.

Yulia Tymoshenko, one of most notable Ukrainian opposition leaders

Tymoshenko begun her political career 1990's and rose soon one of most prominent female politicians in Ukraine. She too took strong pro-west and anti-corruption stance. WhenYanukovych rose to power in 2004 she became soon leader of anti-Yanykovych opposition. After Yanukovych begun his actions against opposition Tymoshenko fled to London where she is still living nowadays. She has still continued critising of Yanukovych and called ousting of the dictator and democratic elections to Ukraine. There has been too some assassination attempts but these have been failures.

 

[Karl the Writer]

Former Ukrainian Boxer Vitali Klitschko interviewed following his 2022 assassination attempt in Berlin
​

Following the 2014 suppression of protests in Ukraine by dictator Yanukovich and the Russian Federation, many Ukrainians fled into exile as repression and violence abounded against anyone who disapproved of the government and its Russian puppet masters. This included Ukrainian boxer Vitali Klischko, who fled to the German capital of Berlin and denounced the Ukrainian government and Russian president Vladimir Putin. For this, three gunmen would be sent to his apartment in Berlin in February 23rd, 2022. Klitschko, who had become aware of this as a neighbor had texted him several minutes before that gunmen were storming their apartment complex, ambushed the would be assassins. The 6'7" boxer proceeded to disarm an assassin who had strayed from the other two, beating the mans face to a pulp before grabbing his pistol and shooting the other two. When Berlin police arrived, they found Klitschko with his hands bloodied but otherwise unharmed and three critically wounded assassins. Under intense interrogation by the Berlin police, one of the assassins would admit to being a Russian agent, an event which would severely damage Russia's international prestige.

 

[dorkasky]

Paul Wellstone, the 44th President of the United States, seen in a conference in 2006 in Los Angeles. He is the first non-Christian President of the United States.

Although relatively well-liked by the younger population due to his opposition to the War on Terror, and his socially progressive policies, his incompetence in handling the Ukraine situation as his failure to deflect the controversy with his Vice President John Edwards who caught in an adultery scandal. He was also subject to anti-Semitic attacks and numerous Neo-Nazi extremists attempted to assassinate him; while none of them are successful, Wellstone admitted that the attacks are "taking a toll with his life." This ensured that the next President after Wellstone was a Republican, but no one expected that George W. Bush will return to the White House in an upset victory over Hillary Clinton in 2012.

Psy, real name Park Jae-sang, a Korean singer, former Second Korean War veteran, and the flag-bearer for the modern Korean music scene.

During the Second Korean War, he fought in the Battle of Seoul, and was a signalman for the 52nd Army Infantry Division. After the war, he went back to his music career. Deeming the K-Rock scene "depressing", he then went to the K-Hiphop and K-pop scene to release songs demanding immediate reunification of the Koreas, the immediate withdrawal of American and Chinese forces in Korea, and for the Korean churches to stop trying to take power and instead help the North Korean refugees.

His song "Gangnam Style", a K-pop and K-Hiphop song satirizing Korean society in general, especially post-Second Korean War, became a global hit in 2012. While it elicited controversy for mocking Korean politicians, a scene that parodied Kim Jong-il's execution, and people dancing with what could be described as robes of the Unification Church, it became a global hit and was seen as the song that broke K-rock's dominance.

Hayao Miyazaki, a Japanese-Swedish animator. Following the revelation of Japan possessing nuclear weapons, he exiled himself to Stockholm, vowing to never step to Japan again. He resigned from Studio Ghibli, giving it to his subordinates to handle future animations on the condition they won't receive a penny from the Japanese government, and later established Studio Vindarnas, meaning "wind" in Swedish, an allusion to Nausicaa in the Valley of Wind. However, it is basically Studio Ghibli but in Europe, and it later hired more promising animators and writers from Sweden and other European countries.

 

[Gillan1220]

Glad to know Psy survived, although Gangnam Style won't be the same meme that it was in OTL.

 

[L'amateur d'aéroplanes]

15 april 2021 : Work to free the container ship blocking the Suez Canal has been blocked for weeks. Authorities in the two Egypts disagree over who should finance the rescue.

 

[theg*ddam*hoi2fan]

Mitsubishi F-3 'Eiko' fighter. Japan's fifth-generation fighter, R&D for the Eiko was done in partnership with Korea and a number of European countries, including Sweden, to defray expenses. The result was a highly credible fifth-gen aircraft that American observers judge to be superior to comparable Russian and Chinese models, which entered service with Japan Air Force combat units in 2017. To date, estimates indicate that Japan has between 60 and 70 in service, not counting test models, while the ROK Air Force has 40 of what it manufactures as the KAI T-60.

The island of Sakkiluoto, Southwest Finland. A privately-owned island up until 2016 - supposedly owned by an American businessman - the island briefly became an exclusion zone from May 2016, following which it has apparently reverted to the Finnish government. A number of rumours have swirled about just what went on here, though it seems clear that some form of military raid took part on the island - some rumours claim that French forces took part in some capacity as well - and some accounts indicate that there was a substantial exchange of fire. The consensus online is that there was some kind of covert Russian facility on the island. Certainly, naval patrols in the region have intensified.

Indian Point Energy Centre, Westchester County, New York, c. 2018. Like multiple nuclear power plants across America, Indian Point remains open, albeit following a major refurbishment in 2010.

While the Green New Deal in America was largely a failure, one component of it - something that President Wellstone had resisted, but that had been included at the instigation of others - was a revisiting of nuclear power. Multiple power planets, including Indian Point, were refurbished, giving them considerable extensions on their lifespan, while several other power plants would open across the US. This came in concert with a renewed drive towards nuclear power in Europe, initially spearheaded by France but even - reluctantly - joined by Germany, in the face of Green opposition. This drive would see a major expansion of nuclear plants across the West...and intensely-funded research across the 2000s and 2010s into alternative forms of nuclear power would ultimately see the first liquid sodium-based 'Breeder Reactor' come online in France in 2018. Three other such plants have been built in Europe, and two in the US, with more planned. Breeder Reactors are increasingly seen as the way of the future, given their safer nature and the lower amount of nuclear waste produced. And, increasingly, many more mainstream Green parties have been championing their construction, with many noting that current concerns around emissions would likely be worse if not for nuclear power, and seeing Breeder Reactors as being the way to finally crack it. Nuclear power does continue to have its opponents, however, particularly in Germany and the United States.​

 

[Gillan1220]

Filipino protesters in front of the U.S. Embassy in Manila calling for the withdrawal of American military forces in Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.

(Actual photo is from 2002)
Related article:

CNN.com - Philippine police battle with protesters - July 22, 2002