The Case for the Prosecution

Thanks, Owen, for your link over at The Rathbone Press. I�m still stunned by the utter apathy on the streets of Seoul that foreign soldiers are shooting what appear to be unarmed Koreans dead (if you believe that this fleeing refugee really reached for a weapon, there�s a job waiting for you at Internal Affairs at the Chicago P.D.) The fact that the victim was a North Korean shot by a Chinese soldier apparently puts a steep discount on the value of the victim�s life. Norbert, we need some street theater, now! What if, God forbid, an American had shot this person?

This report from Amnesty International report accuses the Nork regime of systematically depriving those classified as politically “hostile” or “wavering” of food rations. Many on the Korean and American left reflexively blame America, because it maintains sanctions on North Korea. The Jewish people have a word for this�chutzpah.

Let�s take a look at some numbers. First, to Global Security for what North Korea earns and spends on its military:
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The Gross Domestic Product [GDP] $15.5 billion (2001E), with a purchasing power parity of $21.8 billion (1997 est.). . . . The Gross Domestic Product [GDP] $15.5 billion (2001E), with a purchasing power parity of $21.8 billion (1997 est.). Military expenditures [dollar figure] aere (sic) $5 billion to $7 billion (1995 est.), or about 25% of GDP (1995 est.).

. . . and next, a summary of what the World Food Program is spending to try to keep �expendable� North Koreans alive:
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Since 1995, WFP has distributed a total of 2 million metric tons of food aid worth $500 million. . . . . Total requirements for 2001 are 810,010 metric tons of food at a cost of US$306 million. A Special Operation requiring US$9.3 million supports the programme by funding port operations, equipment for local food production and items such as shovels and protective clothing to improve the workplace for food for work workers.

So if (1) North Korea has the resources to feed everyone, (2) all North Koreans depend on the government to distribute food to them, (3) a few get a vastly disproportionate share of the resources (Hennessey, Japanese shrooms, new S-Class sedans, cell phones, a bowling alley), and (4) “famine” has killed, oh, let’s say 2 million people in the last ten years, then it follows that those deaths are wantonly negligent homicide at the very least, and pure, pathological political cleansing at the worst.

So why are two lives, lost to a tragic accident, worth so much less than two million lives lost to murder?