Good thing no one from the New York Philharmonic wandered off for a stroll when the orchestra performed for the Pyongyang elite in February. This week, while vacationing at North Korea’s Mount Kumgang resort, a 53-year-old housewife from South Korea, Park Wang-ja, went for an early morning walk on the beach — and according to North Korean officialdom, strayed too far. So a North Korean soldier shot her to death.
North Korea then refused to cooperate with South Korea’s requests to investigate. South Korea suspended visits to the Kumgang resort (which is bankrolled by South Korean money, and operates inside North Korea as a cordoned-off source of hard cash for Kim’s regime). North Korea has denounced this is an “intolerable insult” (have you ever noticed that the most despotic systems are also the most chronically offended?), and is demanding an apology from South Korea.
Meanwhile, at the Six-Party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, there’s just been another round of “diplomacy,” involving discussion about arranging further discussion to talk about discussing details of a still-to-be-fully-discussed and narrowly-defined “verification” setup for North Korea’s nuclear program, or at least the parts of it already highly visible. The “progress” for the U.S. and allies is strictly on paper. Forget such absolutely germane questions as whether any inspectors who ultimately go to work in North Korea will be allowed to look where they choose. The question is whether they’ll even be able to take a walk on the beach without getting shot.
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1. Layer Seven:Kim Jong Il is licensed to kill, by the (previously Obamanized) US State Department.
Since he is a hardship case, the US State Department even buys the ammunition.
Now that Kim has been insulted, perhaps an extra tanker-load or two of oil for his killing machine will be in order.
The US State Department can always find some oil for such emergencies.
The Korean people are the victims of the Obamanized Condi Rice and her US State Department.
Congratulating itself, the process is referred to as “statecraft” by the US State Department.
Jul 12, 2008 - 2:30 pm 2. Sin-U Nam:I cannot understand the South Korean people who go to this Kumkang Mountain sightseeing trip. How can they not know North Koreans only 10 miles away from the resort area are starving everyday waiting to die? How can they enjoy the mountains and beaches no matter how beautiful they may be with guns aimed at them? How can they not know the money($250-$300 per person) goes directly to Kim Jong-il’s infamous Suite 39, where the NK National Security Bureau manages all of Kim’s illegal funds?
Now that an innocent SK tourist is shot to death at Kumkang Mountain, the SK government should make it a national crisis, which it is. However, I know for a fact that this new SK president, Lee Myung-bak, is not up to it. He is a lethal coward and appeaser. He was told that a SK citizen was murdered in early dawn in NK, but he went ahead and delivered his speech at the National Assembly, offering peace and talk to Kim Jong-il.
W. Bush turned his back on North Korean people, while Lee Myung-bak kowtows to Kim Jong-il. What should we do, Claudia?
Jul 12, 2008 - 6:53 pm 3. Ron Kean:The UN could send peace keepers to monitor the boundary between the resort and North Korean territory.
That is, if they don’t mind 12 year old North Korean girls nearby getting pregnant.
Jul 13, 2008 - 1:45 pm