Kaesong Delusions

Meanwhile, South Korea shows its complete unseriousness about getting back its abducted citizens, human rights, or nukes by cutting ribbons and issuing letters of credit. One can’t be bothered with trivial matters when there’s money to be made. The South Korean position, of course, is that it cares about these people, wants to bring them home, but will get them back when trade has liberalized the North.

This is a transparent lie. South Koreans are apparently willing to accept that their abducted citizens will die in North Korea. The abductees, for the most part, are seventy-year old men captured in the Korean War, or aging pastors and fishermen who are unlikely to live to see that liberalization. Five years from now, most of them will be dead of age, sickness, overwork, or murder. Who can seriously suggest that North Korea will fundamentally reform in such a short period of time? Indeed, the nations that have had the most progress in getting back their citizens are the U.S. and Japan, which have taken a much tougher approach with the North.

As for Kaesong, nobody’s predicting much economic success there unless the unethical merchants dealing in those wares can sell them to Americans, which means they’ll eventually try, probably using a label that says “Made in Korea.” When they get caught, there will be loud calls to boycott or restrict trade with South Korea.

I’ll do my very best to instigate that.