Engagement for the People

The L.A. Times has a piece today about The Eugene Bell Foundation’s plan to push for family reunions between elderly Korean-Americans and their relatives in the North. There are several obvious questions about this, beginning with the fact that North Korea hasn’t said anything about whether it will allow the reunions to take place, or whether it will permit them without a dictator’s ransom. As with previous reunions, expect alert North Korean minders to be present to make sure everyone is full of praise for the Dear Leader’s generous bounty.

The Foundation, which opposes U.S. trade restrictions on the North, also runs a string of tuberculosis clinics in the North. (I’m absolutely in favor of the TB clinics, but I favor locking down trade with the regime until it substantially improves human rights conditions or collapses.) Say what you will about the Bell Foundation, but at least it has an honest concept of engagement–one that includes the North Korean people. That may explain why a number of conservative members of Congress, including long-time human rights champion Rep. Ed Royce, support it. They may sense that the world will hear these people if they knock on Kim Jong Il’s door.

Thanks to Alice Jean Suh for sending. Alice, who is fairly characterized as left of center (at least my center) and who has been sincerely concerned about human rights in the North for years, gives this project additional credibility.