Sanctions Update
Either Hillary Clinton reads The New Ledger or I’m not the only one who is worried that the Obama Administration will relax sanctions too early because of vaporous North Korean promises that it will return to talks. Either way, she seems to have wanted to put such fears to rest:
“We have absolutely no intention of relaxing or offering to relax North Korean sanctions at this point whatsoever,” Clinton said. [AFP]
Meanwhile, Chris Hill’s replacement as Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell, implicitly supports the skeptical consensus about North Korea’s “heavily hedged” promise to return to six-party talks, by praising regional cooperation with sanctions. I’m not sure I agree with all of this:
“I have rarely seen better coordination between China and the United States in particular,” said Campbell, formerly a scholar specialized in Asian security.
“There is a virtually unprecedented acceptance of basic goals and ambitions associated with the six-party talks and negotiations with North Korea.” [Reuters]
Meanwhile, North Korea is continuing with the episodic charm offensive it began with last week’s missile launches:
On Wednesday, North Korea’s main newspaper Rodong Sinmun scorned U.S. policy as “shameless, preposterous and brigandish sophism,” the official KCNA news agency reported.
“It was none other than the U.S. that compelled the DPRK to have access to nuclear deterrent,” KCNA quoted the paper as saying. The DPRK is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the North’s formal name.
Take a drink, everyone! One the other hand, I get scared when I read things like this:
[Campbell] also said the North’s neighbors may be considering fresh initiatives, but gave no details. “We are now reviewing steps in the near future,” he said, adding that the United States was also closely consulting with Japan and South Korea. “I think we will have more to say about this shortly.”
If he means freezing the assets of Koryo Tours, the Korean Friendship Association, the Chosun Fund, and the Danchon Credit Bank, I’m looking forward to it. And yet I have an uneasy feeling that it will be something less well advised.
I am interested in why you mentioned Koryo Tours? Other than running tours and helping with the production of a few films what is so terrible about them?
They also have financial links with, and provide financial support to, the North Korean regime by selling Arirang tour packages.
At a KEI/USIP panel on Chinese business investments in North Korea Oct 14, USIP’s John Park noted that whenever there is significant revenue generated by an economic activity with North Korea, it goes into WMD.
Maybe I’m beating a dead horse here but why would anyone profit on the misery of others?
The KFA are fairly direct in admitting that they’re open supporters of the North Korean regime. They’re no different than neo-Nazis or other attention-craving extremists, who are mostly young to middle-aged male social misfits who crave power, attention, and respect. The idea of empathy for others really doesn’t factor into their decisions. The North Koreans treat them like they matter, and for some people, that’s all they’ve ever wanted.
Other people, who are burdened with a conscience, have to find a way to disable it. But people are very skilled at justifying what they do for their own reasons — to themselves above all. Those doing business with North Korea under ethically cloudy circumstances tend to claim that instead of exploiting the North Korean people, they’re really helping them by helping to bring gradual change to the system (though it never changes except for the worse, and they’re really just perpetuating it).
Instead of promoting understanding, Arirang promotes the regime’s cultivated facade of scary, controlled unanimity. The true picture of North Korea is obviously much more complex than this. Despite all that we don’t know about North Korea, it’s clear enough that the people in the provinces are not happy or content, though a few in Pyongyang no doubt live quite well. It’s difficult to understand what we really learn about North Korea from watching 100,000 eleven year olds make pictures of Tokarevs or slogans with painted squares of cardboard.
“Despite all that we don’t know about North Korea, it’s clear enough that the people in the provinces are not happy or content, though a few in Pyongyang no doubt live quite well. It’s difficult to understand what we really learn about North Korea from watching 100,000 eleven year olds make pictures of Tokarevs or slogans with painted squares of cardboard.” I agree. In addition to flooding the provinces with cell phones, we should find a way to get food to the dissidents, too.