North Korea Gets Another Free Chip
While we don’t know any of the details, and so my resigned sigh might turn out to have been unfair, I cannot say it surprised me this morning to learn that there are still American citizens capable of getting themselves arrested in and around North Korea despite this, this and this, not to mention this, and it will surprise me even less should I find that the North Koreans use it as a way to try and undercut the ongoing U.S.-South Korean official policy of skepticism as to Pyongyang’s motivations.
On the bright side, while the probability is that this individual will spend a few months in jail, he or she may get lucky; after all, the last one, Aijalon Gomes, was rescued by Jimmy Carter, and he has already booked his ticket…
As an aside, I’d just like to point out that when General Walter Sharp and I last competed on the running track (Yongsan Army Base 5km, quite the event let me tell you) I beat him hands down. I’m not sure he knows, to be honest. Regardless, perhaps because he feels it is the only way to get through to some people, Gen. Sharp has been telling it like it is to the Senate Armed Services Committee;
McCain: Can you envision a scenario in which the North Korean regime is willing to give up its nuclear weapons capability?
Sharp: Sir, not without a whole bunch of pressure from, really, everyone around the globe. North Korea I think has clearly said that they are developing this nuclear capability, I think it is clear that Kim Jong Il believes he has to have it for regime survival; I don’t believe that to be true, but it will take people convincing him that the regime is not at risk. To answer your question directly, no, I don’t see it that he will give up his nuclear capability.
Can’t say he wasn’t clear.
Elsewhere, North Korea’s current domestic policy in the northern provinces seems to be taking shape as one of stopping the inflow of information come what may. Evidence that people found to have contacted the outside are being exiled internally is growing, the details of which can be found here, while the execution of people for economic crimes is, if true, not a good sign. In the breathless words of one North Korean source;
The politics of violence has become a reign of terror.
Meanwhile, it is often the relatively smaller things more than the big ones that make me think North Korea is a country fundamentally opposed to playing by the rules.
On the very much more positive side, I hope this website of anti-Kim cartoons has experienced an upsurge in hits of late, for it would be nothing less than its owner, and his collaborator, deserve.