Behold … the Awesome Moral Authority of John Kerry! (Updated)

Kerry, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on North Korea to release the women “promptly and unconditionally.”

While he said the release should be a humanitarian gesture not linked to the nuclear showdown, Kerry said that North Korea had an opportunity to reach out.

“We hope that common sense is going to prevail and that North Korea will see this not as an opportunity to further dig a hole but as an opportunity to open up and reach out to the world,” said Kerry, the failed 2004 presidential candidate.  [AFP]

This, after blocking a bill demanding their release and attaching actual consequences to their captivity.  Obviously, Kerry believes his awesome moral authority alone is enough.

This, by the way, from a Foreign Relations Committee hearing at which Kerry solicited the counsel of disingenuous Kim Jong Il apologist Leon Sigal as a witness.  No word on whether he was there to represent Kim Jong Il officially.

Watching these hearings, I’m constantly struck by the absence of any significant Republican presence, and the vapidness of their questions.  Those who are on the Committee appear not to have much intellectual depth, a serious understanding of the issues, or a particular interest in foreign relations generally.  Admittedly, I could only catch bits and pieces, but it was actually my own Sen. Ben Cardin (D, MD) who made the best impression on me.

Update:  I found this choice of words by Special Envoy Stephen “Bud” Bosworth interesting:

Ambassador Stephen Bosworth said yesterday the U.S. isn’t “threatening to change the North Korean regime by force,” and urged the government in Pyongyang to respond to diplomacy. Yet he said the U.S. won’t accept a North Korea with nuclear bombs. [Bloomberg]

While I doubt the sincerity of the threat, it could be read a veiled threat to change the regime by means other than force.  That happens to be the very thing Kim Jong Il truly fears.