http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/12/16/1719028.aspx

We had to be directly and intimately involved with the massive struggle of WWII to really register the shock of the Holocaust.

The Killing Fields of Cambodia were more of the norm, to me —– something that didn’t register much at the time but then were taken up in a type of self-congratulatory,pretend flagellation after the fact – as if to say, “Never again!!”

Post-Pyongyang, Hollywood might make a quality movie about it, likely damning consecutive (or a single) American administration in the process, and feel like it has done it’s part.

It’s too busy right now making Cannes-appreciated 4 1/2 movies celebrating Che Guevara to tell a story our media doesn’t want to report much about either…..

Do I sound bitter? Well, there seems to be a mountain of reason to be…..

And I don’t consider myself above this generation and moment at all.

I admire people like One Free Korea and others who stay focused on this mess day-after-day, year-after-year….

….because when you look at it all —– when you look at what goes on in North Korea, look at all the information we have and continue to get about it, — when you look at how important people and orgs – like the media – and Hollywood – and so on – couldn’t care less – and look at examples from the past – or at contemporary examples like with Tibet or Darfur —- it is so thoroughly depressing….

This will continue until the North finally collapses – and the United States will continue to do its part – a little or more here and there – to make sure collapse doesn’t come — until it becomes impossible to sustain the regime whatever outside nations try to do.

Then societies around the world probably won’t pause more than a second on the horrors – beyond an Academy Award speech for a movie that will do nothing to prevent it from happening again.

And it will to some extent happen again and again.

The only question is how many North Koreans are going to die or live a life of utter misery until collapse comes…..

I shudder the day when North Korea is finally opened.

I think the lesson that every administration ought to learn about dealing with North Korea isn’t so much the content of the agenda but the importance of pursuing it with structure. There have to be firm and clear goals, deadlines, and benchmarks, to be followed by firm and clear consequences if they’re not met. Really, all of our problems with North Korea boil down to one issue: transparency. Demand and get transparency and the regime’s misdeeds can’t withstand the world’s scrutiny.

Well said, James! For a major American newspaper that prides itself in championing human rights, they have never once reported the conclusion drawn by major human rights organizations who confirm that the DPRK represents the worst human rights crisis of the century – what a waste all these years and who knows how much damage they’ve indirectly caused – I certainly hope Obama hasn’t been influenced by the WaPo to the point of having Hill join his administration!

What would you say to: as a top priority, exposing and shutting down the death camps by intelligence means, promoting mass defections by those who want to leave, providing safe havens for them in third countries and promoting cultural exchanges that may lead to a more open DPRK, albeit inhabited only by military and party elites for awhile but eventually with the hope of facilitating a more democratized state.

Any more ideas we can recommend to the new administration? Keep on that American mainstream media -they could be the hindrance: to getting these ideas across (especially to the new admnistration), and to formulating a new policy toward the DPRK, one that actually works!