Why You Have to Read this Blog: Yonhap Gets Lefkowitz’s Testimony Wrong

Standing amid a crowd of journalists today, a thought entered my mind at such velocity that it shattered  a tumor of remorse forming around the idea that any of them has a thousand times my audience.  True, I thought.  But unlike them,  every word I write will be published.  Oh, the power!   It fills and swells my cranium!   And no sooner do I see the stories they’ve filed, the frustrated resignation hits me all over again.  Because they’re paid to do this and they still screw it up,  while  it takes  a guy with a day job and literally hundreds of daily readers to report the facts accurately.  Oh, the futility!   (And yet, here I am.  Let’s all embrace the futility together, but please keep it platonic.)

WASHINGTON, March 1 (Yonhap) — The U.S. envoy for North Korean human rights stepped back Thursday in his criticism of an inter-Korean economic project he previously cast as a dubious venture that funnels cash to Pyongyang’s leaders and lacks transparency in labor standards.

Testifying before the House, Jay Lefkowitz said the Kaesong industrial complex does have merits.  [Yonhap]

Wrong, sir.  How do I know?  I was there.  Here’s what Jay Lefkowitz said.  First, he implicitly contrasted the Sunshine Policy as practiced with “true Sunshine,” and he did so in the specific context of Kaesong.  Lefkowitz did not say that Kaesong has merits.  He said that Kaesong could have merits if it permits North Korean workers to experience meaningful contact with a free society and to  receive their wages under decent working conditions.  He also said that he’d be “pleasantly surprised” if his intended  Kaesong visit actually confirms that.  He noted that he has tried to go there twice, only to have his visits cancelled (apparently a decision by our own government, following North Korea’s missile and nuke tests).  Lefkowitz therefore left room for some factual uncertainties, since he hasn’t been allowed to go and see the books or talk to the workers.  Fair enough.  But what he really said and what Yonhap said he said are two different things.  

[Update:  When I published this post, the blockquote above was pretty much the entire story.  I see that Yonhap has now added some quotes that pretty much confirm my characterizations of his testimony and contradict its own headline, which currently reads, “U.S. Envoy Steps Back on Criticism of Kaesong.”

“I certainly think that an economic project like Kaesong certainly has the potential to lead to a real opening with North Korea, and to enhance the freedom for people in North Korea and give them exposure to the outside world,” he said.

“But I think as with anything that takes place in North Korea, you know, we have to verify.”

More:

“I am somewhat baffled by the fact that sometimes the government of South Korea, even though it has achieved an incredible amount of prosperity and genuine democracy over a relatively short period of time, has not been more forthcoming in terms of supporting some of our objectives in the region,” he said.A “genuine” sunshine policy should give real exposure to what’s going on in North Korea, he said.  

Those  sound like  accurate quotes.]

[Update 2:  It looks like Yonhap has hidden this additional material behind the subscribers-only wall, so we are back to the original —  and highly misleading — version of the story.  I had started to depend on Yonhap more as a source of news, since reading the Hanky is usually more than I can bear,  and since  I’d thought that Yonhap was more reliable.  I have to say that watching  the products that some journalists produce can be a pretty disillusioning experience of you know how the story really should read.  I emphasize that there are some very  professional journalists  in the business, but when news services don’t print names, by-lines,  biographies, or CV’s of their reporters, it’s a lot harder to rate the quality of the information they’re giving you.]

Incidentally, virtually all of these reporters had recording devices, so there’s no excuse for them getting this story wrong.  My prime suspects are (1) a smooth blend of carelessness and incompetence; and (2) dishonesty.  In that order.

I don’t give Lefkowitz a free pass; and I am the guy who did call for his resignation only last week.   This isn’t because Lefkowitz isn’t doing his best.  I feel sorry for Jay Lefkowitz.  I feel guilty for being one of the people putting him on the defensive from both directions.  His heart is in the right place.  He says the right things.  He knows his facts extremely well.  He answers questions skillfully.   I don’t doubt that I would like him if I knew him personally.  Unfortunately, shrewder people with more rank, pay, and guile have also completely sidelined him and made it impossible to do his job effectively.  Listening in as reporters questioned him, it was apparent that State has not involved him in any of its discussions on the “working groups” that will attempt to shake hands with genocide and normalize relations with what Lefkowitz fairly referred to as “the world’s worst abuser of human rights.”  How do I know?  I asked him.  Could that change?  Sure it could.  But I’ll wager  David Albright’s depleted uranium fillings  it won’t.

[Update and Correction:   Well, let me fix an important omission of my own here.  Actually, Lefkowitz gave a “no comment” response to my question, but based on other questions others asked before and after,  Lefkowitz left a strong impression that  Hill and his  team have not yet solicited his participation or input for the “normalization” working group.  His written statement professes, however, without offering specifics, that human rights will be a part of the conversation leading up to any normalization.   If you can add anything to that, my comments are enabled.]

On the other hand, I’m still confident that Kaesong products will never be legally and knowingly imported into the United States.  The members are well aware of what the Tariff Act says, and they won’t approve an FTA that includes it.

You will not find  any of this  in the Yonhap story, of course, nor will you find Lefkowitz’s very intentional characterization of North Korea’s “concentration camps,” his blame of Kim Jong Il’s “gross negligence” for “severe mass starvation,” or his call for Ban Ki Moon to “demonstrate real leadership on this issue.”  Part of this is probably Korea’s infamous blindness while standing near mirrors, but I also think the left-of-center Korean press is enjoying an end-zone dance on Uncle Sam’s back.  Sadly, on the broader point, they are very possibly right.  And I doubt that dancing will be the worst of it.

And I was especially saddened to see very few members of the Foreign Affairs Committee in attendance.  Dana Rohrbacher and the perpetual stalwart Ed Royce represented the Republicans well.  Rohrbacher’s statements on food aid were spot on, and a welcome contrast to those he offered last September.  He has a radio-quality voice.  Despite the appearance of genuine bipartisan gemutlichkeit, there was an imbalance of apathy.   The only Democrat in attendance was Eni Faleomavaega, the well-meaning and good-hearted delegate from American Samoa, who can vote but whose vote isn’t counted, and who chaired the hearing.  After a long recess for a vote, Rep. Faleomavaega was the only  member who returned.

I will close with one last thing Yonhap won’t give you:  a copy of the written statement he submitted for the record.  Enjoy.