I continue to suspect that North Korea’s kidnapping of Lisa Ling’s sister was no accident at all.

What do you expect from such a person?

Hillary and D’oh!bama make me glad not to be American.

The Northies kidnapped teenagers. Megumi was 13 when she was kidnapped, what could a 13 year old possibly teach them about language and culture? 13 year olds in Japan are still learning the language themselves. It was an act of terrorism. Pure and simple. An act of evil. Something only fascists do.

Whether they intended to whip up fear or not, their deliberate, illegal, and frightening acts did whip up fear amongst Japanese civilians.

And whether or not Pyongyang admits it or not (are you sure they didn’t? I thought they had a few years ago) is immaterial. North Korea doesn’t admit to the 1987 downing of a Korean Airlines plane flying in from the Middle East, but (assuming the accusations are true) that was certainly designed to instill fear.

Even if Ling and Lee had crossed the border, a North Korean decision to continue the detention for political/propaganda/diplomatic reasons could transform a “legitimate” detention into terrorism. Section 2331 clearly does not provide an exhaustive list of which “violent” offenses can constitute terrorism if the other elements, including intent, are met. While kidnapping under U.S. law generally has an “asportation” element, the wrongful continuation of detention for an unlawful purpose is generally considered to be false imprisonment under U.S. common law.

What else stinks about how State has handled this: the Ling and Lee families could have sued the North Korean regime for false imprisonment in a U.S. District Court in California, notwithstanding the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, but for the fact that Chris Hill had North Korea removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, which strips states of that protection. That’s why the Pueblo survivors were able to sue and win — and why Kim Dong Shik’s widow still might — while Ling and Lee can’t.

As for the kidnapping of Japanese civilians, I thought the purpose was to supply North Korea with language and culture models for training spies, not to intimidate or threaten Japan. In fact, North Korea continues to deny having kidnapped foreign nationals.

Crashing airplanes into towers and bombing public transport qualifies. Holding two journalists does not. Nobody back in the US is afraid that they might be next. If the women were taken from the Chinese side, they were kidnapped. If they did cross, then they have been detained.

Had I been a little faster on the draw, I would have printed the same thing he supplied.

If the two women were kidnapped, then I think it could reasonably be called international terrorism, at least according to that definition. Some might argue that the definition is faulty (kidnapping of merely one or two people might seem a low to some to declare “international terrorism”), but for now it is the law.

I think we could say unequivocally that the systematic kidnapping of dozens of Japanese civilians and hundreds of Korean civilians was an act of international terrorism.

As used in this chapter –
(1) the term “international terrorism” means activities that –
(A) involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that
are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of
any State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed
within the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended –
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by
intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass
destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of
the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of
the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they
appear intended to intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which
their perpetrators operate or seek asylum;

[....]

If, as you concede, the detention of Ling and Lee is now primarily political, then how is it not terrorism?

I think you’re confusing terrorism with kidnapping. Terrorism, as I understand it, is mass murder and/or large-scale destruction of property for the purpose of scaring a population and their government into meeting political or economic demands. Crashing airplanes into towers and bombing public transport qualifies. Holding two journalists does not. Nobody back in the US is afraid that they might be next. If the women were taken from the Chinese side, they were kidnapped. If they did cross, then they have been detained.

If, as you concede, the detention of Ling and Lee is now primarily political, then how is it not terrorism?

Joshua, it seems you are putting words in my mouth or ascribing others’ viewpoints to me.

I don’t ever recall saying that if they were indeed kidnapped that it was nevertheless not an act of international terrorism.

You may be convinced that they were kidnapped and brought over into the DPRK, but I still not so certain that I can just throw out the possibility of the other “if.” So, if they did willfully and deliberately cross into North Korea and were subsequently arrested, even if I see their continued detention as primarily political, I’m not yet inclined to use the terrorist label. Moreover, I fail to see what use it is one way or the other in obtaining the freedom of Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

At any rate, don’t make me out to be some apologist for North Korea and their kidnap activities. I most assuredly am not.