Now it’s Obama’s turn to deal with this totalitarian thug state. And to the faceless hundreds of thousands of North Koreans consigned to the horrendous prison camps of North Korea, Pyongyang is now proposing to add two Americans — described by North Korea’s KCNA state news agency as convicted of “committing hostilities against the Korean nation and illegal entry.” Translation: Kim Jong Il, while gloating over his missiles and nuclear projects, and counting the U.S. largesse that has recently poured in, both directly and via the UN, now awaits the diplomatic tip-toeing to the table, plus a ransom offer for the two Americans.
A word about the border area along the Tumen River, where the two American reporters were grabbed by North Korea. The exact circumstances of their capture are not clear. But it seems safe to say that North Korea was being, at the very least, selective in its choice of whom to grab.
I visited that general area last September, where the Tumen River marks the border between China and North Korea. Here’s a column I wrote upon return for Forbes.com, “Bordering on Tyranny.” I stayed in the city of Tumen — which sits right on the river — and drove along the river for miles, both north and south. On the North Korean side, there are sentry huts, with armed guards, every few hundred yards — some of them half-hidden in foliage along the river bank. The main function of these sentries is not to keep people out, but to keep North Koreans in — a function abetted on the Chinese side by a huge detention facility for North Koreans who manage to cross over, but get caught, and are returned to North Korea, in some cases to harsh punishment. Which tells you a lot about the degree of unsavory cooperation along this border between China and North Korea.
In the Chinese city of Tumen, there’s plenty of activity not only on the riverbank — which has a long promenade — but on the river itself. The road bridge across the river, connecting Tumen with North Korea, is a tourist spot. No kidding. Next to the Chinese border post at the Tumen end of the bridge, there’s a parking lot, with a row of souvenir stands. I watched Chinese tour buses pull in there daily, and unload groups of sight-seers, mostly Chinese or South Korean. For a fee, the Chinese border guards let the tourists stroll onto the bridge, right up to a line that marks the crossing. They pose for photos, with the North Korean border post in the not-so distant background.
I watched some of these tourists go down to the river’s edge, where you can hire a boat, don a bright orange life jacket, and be punted along the Tumen river. Some of these punt boats, carrying rows of tourists, not only went up and down the river — they went across. They went way beyond that border marking on the bridge above. They got so close to the North Korean riverbank that the passengers could have stepped off into the North Korean weeds without getting their feet wet. There was no way the North Korean guards wouldn’t have noticed — these folks were dressed up in neon orange. No one grabbed them. They punted back, got in their bus and drove off.
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37 Comments
1. Pajamas Media » North Korea Takes Two More Pawns:[...] Read the rest of the story here. [...]
Jun 8, 2009 - 7:31 am 2. Sebastian Shaw:President Obama will make the sound & fury of speeches, but the results will lead to nothing substantial to paraphrase Shakespeare. I think deep down President Obama finds much in common with Kim Jong Il, Hugo Chavez, & Fidel Castro. President Obama wants to be Dictator Obama.
Jun 8, 2009 - 7:59 am 3. jerryofva:I have to disagree with premise of this article. We have moved to a new phase of North Korean belligerency. Kim has his missiles and his nuclear weapons and is now not interested in the old game of threats and bribes. He is looking to make the reunification of the Koreas under his designated heir’s rule the capstone of his life. His objective is to drive a wedge between a very weak and disinterested US President and South Korea. Once he breaks the alliance he will use his nuclear arsenal, as unreliable as it may be, to force a South Korean surrender.
I don’t know why he grabbed the two journalists but they are to insignificant to ring any concessions from the US for returning them. At the very least he grabbed them because he could. If he doesn’t release them soon then it is likely that they will never return from the North Korean GULAG.
Jun 8, 2009 - 8:25 am 4. seven:It is my understanding they are green bible missionaries working for The Reverend Algore.
If they are environmental missioanaries, what were they doing there?
Jun 8, 2009 - 9:12 am 5. Fragmentarian:Short of war with a country that is basically a gulag with a military and which is also protected by the world’s largest communist country, what’s to be done?
Jun 8, 2009 - 9:19 am 6. Michael:Unfortunately, the S. Koreans have had 60 years to move Seoul out of artillery range but have instead left it to the mercy of the Nork’s weapons. If Seoul was not in range, Kim would be able to threaten precisely squat. Now we wait until his weapons acquire more range or his son and successor shows some sanity?
‘Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee were on a reporting assignment from Current TV, a San Francisco-based media company co-founded by Al Gore, the former vice president, when they were detained by the soldiers. The reporters were working on a report about North Korean refugees — women and children — who had fled their homeland in hopes of finding food in China.’
Source: New York Times
Jun 8, 2009 - 9:42 am 7. Chuck Pelto:TO: All
RE: Hmmmmmm….
….two ‘reporters’ of the feminine ‘persuasion’. At ‘hard labor’?
How to our friends in North Korea define ‘hard labor’ for ‘women’?
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Jun 8, 2009 - 9:52 am 8. Chuck Pelto:[The Truth will out.....]
P.S. My suspicion is that ‘hard labor’ for ‘women’ involves tours of North Korean army barracks……
Jun 8, 2009 - 9:52 am 9. Meryl:2.Sebastian Shaw
“I think deep down President Obama finds much in common with Kim Jong Il, Hugo Chavez, & Fidel Castro. President Obama wants to be Dictator Obama.”
I agree. Someone on another thread said this the other day, “He never intended to govern. He intends to rule.”
Jun 8, 2009 - 10:43 am 10. AThinkingPerson:I’m hoping the Teleprompters are up to the task of trying to initiate their release. Obama’s too busy on date nights with Michelle, golfing on Sundays and patting himself on the back for his economic disaster to be of any help.
Jun 8, 2009 - 10:50 am 11. Well Educated Cad:If they are reporters for the MSM, who cares? Kim is Obama’s buddy!
Jun 8, 2009 - 11:12 am 12. jerryofva:Chuck:
Although it won’t surprise me if the girls get the barracks tour. If nK runs its GULAG the same way the Soviets did they will be sort of auctioned off for use until they get worn down and then the next batch will replace them. Once they are used up they will indeed be used like any other prisoner male or female. If they resist they will probably meet their end in some chemical or biological warfare experiment.
Jun 8, 2009 - 11:25 am 13. Tcobb:Its time for the US to just say that:
Jun 8, 2009 - 11:30 am 14. Sibyl:(1) We have no further interest in talking to NK about anything at all.
(2) No more aid of any kind, food, oil, or whatever will be forthcoming from the US.
(3)NK, don’t call us, we’ll call you
As always, the President is deeply concerned. As the King said, “Something must be done!”
Jun 8, 2009 - 11:58 am 15. Themistocles:These women were grabbed simply because they are valuable pawns, and the Norks will trade their release for something valuable.
And what ever happened to AL Gore? He said he was gonna go to NK and rescue his employees. I guess Fat Albert is no Ross Perot.
Jun 8, 2009 - 12:40 pm 16. MochaLite:What Tcobb said! I would add one more:
4. A ship will be waiting off NK waters. Send the girls out or we send the bombs in.
Jun 8, 2009 - 12:52 pm 17. Ed Wallis:The next time any Leftist jammers on about illegal immigration in the USA, don’t hesitate to refer to these two women, who entered NoKo illegally through China.
oops.
Jun 8, 2009 - 2:16 pm 18. pedro:Yeah, I would have assumed that Al Gore was gonna do something diplomatic! All this is the same old koreano style of doing bee-jee-nes-sue!Hopefully these 2 ladies can stay OPTIMISTIC:)
Jun 8, 2009 - 3:03 pm 19. Michael:Themistocles…shhhhhh
Big Al is planning……….
Jun 8, 2009 - 3:14 pm 20. Brian:Cut them off from anything from the West and let them deal with their own population.Its a black hole pouring aid into Norkland.
Jun 8, 2009 - 3:21 pm 21. no name:they are reporters swinegate them.
Jun 8, 2009 - 3:52 pm 22. hM:I’m just going to throw this out there, but I think it’s absolutely cruel to continue giving money and food to a dictator who, far from giving it to the people it was meant for, instead uses it to continue to keep an iron grip on absolute power. I really think it would be less cruel to let them all starve to death. Instead we insist on doing the “humane” thing and just let them starve on the brink of death, where they hover for years as opposed to days. Yep, we’re so “humane”.
I don’t care what the politics of those two reporters is, they are American citizens and it is a fact that should be made abundantly clear to that fuzzy-headed bastard in Pyongyang. I long for the days nobody screwed with us without risking dire consequences.
Honestly, if I vote for a guy to be my leader and protect my country, I want him to be an asshole. If he’s trying to make the rest of the world like us, he’s too nice; I want a guy looking out for my benefit. I want a guy who’s going to do one of two things if I ever get kidnapped like these two reporters and used as bait: 1) Warn the bastards to let me and whoever else is with me go or they’ll get Shock and Awe times ten, then actually follow through, or 2) Tell them they’re not receiving jack at any point in the future ever again, then walk away from the table and refuse to answer the phone. I think if I had a leader like that I could deal with whatever I was put through because I’d know that whatever I was going through would actually be contributing to the United States proving to the world that we don’t deal with terrorists, be they individuals or states. Ultimately more Americans would be safer because kidnapping them would never result in government concessions.
But what is going to happen? Obama will talk big, then will quietly sneak America into Kim Jong Il’s palace, where he’ll let the old bastard and every employee in his palace rape what they can out of us. Seriously, who the hell thinks Obama is going to do anything useful to make this situation better? I already know America is filled with economic idiots but I think I’m not going to like finding out just how full of pansies we’ve become.
Not that they’ll ever see this, but to Laura and Euna: if it were up to me you’d already be out of there and back home with your families. You may not have agreed with how I went about it, but you’d be alive, well, and home.
Jun 8, 2009 - 5:17 pm 23. Meryl:George Will made this observation about President Carter’s ineffective efforts to “negotiate with Iran” re the hostages in 1979-1980, “[The]administration has hinted that aid might be part of Iran’s reward for releasing the hostages. Arguably the United States is so weak, militarily, and so isolated, diplomatically, that it never had any choice but to devise an agenda of appeasement.
“BUT SUCH AGENDAS NEVER STOP LENGTHENING.”
(caps mine…)
(This is quoted in the book by David Farber, Taken Hostage)
Finished the book yesterday, but I can’t shake those lines….agendas of appeasement…never stop lengthening.
We see it in Saudi Arabia now instructing obama to “put pressure on Israel.”
The NORKs obviously are glad to get in line to be appeased, and asked to play nice.
Putin is laughing his head off, just looking forward to his next opportunity to be the appeasee (he’s already had his first round).
obama’s posture of choice (apology and appeasement)for international affairs has boxed us in for the forseeable future. We are well on the way to becoming a nation held hostage by world events, as all of our normal points of leverage are being burned to make O’Biden & Co. look good for one more day.
Remember that line from George Will: “Such agendas (based on appeasement) never stop lengthening.”
It’s no longer “our agenda”. Events will now be governed by all of those he intends to impress and appease.
Jun 8, 2009 - 6:00 pm 24. TexEd:Only Al Gore, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, former Vice President and son of a racist can save these wonderful journalists!! I’d like to see him fly to NKor immediately!! There, I’d hope he’d be taken prisoner as the spy master of the two they already captured and sentenced to many, many years of incarceration.
Jun 8, 2009 - 7:32 pm 25. noreen:Is this incident going to usher in a rash of kidnappings of Americans on foreign soil? The US government must not toletate the kidnapping and torture of our citizens. This is nothing more than an overt act of terrorism-oops man made disaster. They must be made to release these women.
Jun 8, 2009 - 7:53 pm 26. Roark:I guess the lesson to be learned here: don’t be Al Gore’s b**ch.
Jun 8, 2009 - 7:59 pm 27. KZ:Prepare yourselves people, this is just the first of many geopolitical punches Team Obama will be leaning into, and this is just a jab.
Jun 8, 2009 - 8:26 pm 28. seansarto:Movie Pitch#1,389
Rain is all like super secret seal commando, aka Agent “Syng”man, an’ this Journalist hottie is his Seoul “sista”..
Super cool Admiral Sean P. Kobe Diddy Bama, (Wesley Snipes?)tells Rain he can rescue sista…but “no comlpications…dig me?..This ain’t never happened” ..An Rain is all like “Aye Aye Admiral Kobe DiddyBama”..respectful-’cuz like we all like know an’ accept how Africans have taught Koreans (like Anglo Saxons)everything there is to know about bein’ cool an’ pumped hard nacho..I mean macho…an’ how they invented e’rythin an’ won all the wars….So Rain gets all geared up in his super cool Michael Jackson stealth ninja threads an’ parachute torpedos into the DMZ…`An he’s all like ..bird of prey ‘..then snap, snap outta the harness buckles……tuck…. rolls…then….WHAT? There’s like a tiger eye to eye with him…Cr*p!..Rain gets all hard an’ tense an’ freezin’up inta his “death stare”…starin the tiger down… an’ then like the tiger snarls an’ gets the hell outta there.. ‘cuz it’s all like “nuh-uh..not messin’ with this bad dude”….An’ Rain gives like the super cool sexy smirk that the chicks get all hot for..(an’ the dudes too!)…Then like BAM!..15 minute montage of Rain gettin’ locked an’ loaded..cockin’ knives outta his socks, flickin’ knives outta knives..bustin clips inta super cool ninja sniper blade guns…Tearin stuff open with his teeth…a bandana somewheres… Then Agent Syngman is off inta the misty forest..Maybe a wolf howls…CUT TO: Seoul sista in the labor camp bustin’ stones, with like a pick axe…fer some reason..lookin’ fine, an’ all slutty…toned an’ buffed in flimsy tattered rags…She’s showin’ serious clevage while the NK guards are all sneerin’ an’ droolin’ all ready ta rape her…but she’s all like fiesty in yer face American Margaret Cho girl ya know….all like “Don’t you touch me, scum man!”…An’ they’re all like evil an’ toothless an’ like hehehehehe…
I could go on…but I don’t want to get people all excited.I’m gonna copyright this think.
Jun 9, 2009 - 4:57 am 29. seansarto:I’ll probably be getting a call from Universal Studios lawyers soon…Or maybe the White House PR Department…”Cease and desist..This is our Movie!”…
Jun 9, 2009 - 5:22 am 30. Meryl:25 Noreen….this is the second such episode. It started in January with the arrest/trial/sentencing of journalist Roxana Sabiri in Iran —
She was released last month ( a couple of weeks before obama signed on to Iran as a nuclear power)
In Sabiri’s case, she held dual citizenship (US/Iran) and foolishly violated some mundane Iranian work rule having to do with her visa. They let her get by with it for a few months until they needed a pawn, then they arrested her in January 2009.
This will be an endless parade provided at the courtesy of our weakened political standing in the world. That’s what happens when we have a fool in the Oval Office.
Jun 9, 2009 - 10:53 am 31. Grover:16. MochaLite has it right! Remember Reagan’s successful Grenada outcome? The Big O could rejuvenate our standing in the world by such action; it would be saying to the world: “Don’t mess with us”, but to do that you need a pair of gonads, some intestinal fortitude, of which he has precious little. In my day we used to call such as him: Peaceniks, Pinkos, “better Red (Communist) than dead”, et al, but alas, he probably will do nothing.
Jun 9, 2009 - 11:09 am 32. Themistocles:seansarto, I’m in awe. You da MAN! How does it end? No, let me guess! …lotsa dead Norks… their atomic plans a smoking ruin… Kim Jong Il screaming at his befuddled henchmen… a rescued (very grateful) maiden… and our HE-RO still gets no respect back home…
Jun 9, 2009 - 9:13 pm 33. seansarto:Yeah, man…THE ULTIMATE happy ending..EVERYBODY gets to SAVE FACE!
Roll credits…
..Rain super power love ballad….
…(maybe some more explosions or goofy outtakes….either or)…
Start work on “Syngman II”…
Jun 10, 2009 - 2:33 am 34. acj:I think that if China steps in to the fight, North Korea will be shaking in their combo boots. All china has to do is flush their toilets at the same time and Korea is off the map.
Jun 11, 2009 - 7:28 am 35. Paul -Indiana:It’s not Obama’s turn to do anything…..When will america be left off the police state? Give me a break-give me a tax break?
This reminded me of a scene from ‘Sleeper’. Woody Allen was talking with some historians and they showed him a film of Howard Cosell. Their supposition was that if a person had been very bad that the prisoner had to watch Cosell for an extended time as punishment. Algore fits this. Can we get the NKs to exchange the two reporters for Gore? It’s a given that they would release Gore very soon as he would be driving them crazy.
Jun 11, 2009 - 8:38 am 36. acj:If the lion yawns at the mouse, is the mouse going to try harder?
Jun 11, 2009 - 2:06 pm 37. Steynian 365 « Free Canuckistan!:[...] THE LIGHTER SIDE of North Korean Nuclear Tests; North Korea Ramps Up the Shakedown …. [...]
Jun 19, 2009 - 4:45 pm