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A North Korean family of three on its way to South Korea has disappeared in China. The obvious suspicion is that they were arrested and are about to be repatriated to North Korea. Because one member of the family had already made it to South Korea, the family’s punishment is certain to be severe. In related news, North Korea is reporting giving longer prison camp terms to repatriated defectors in camps like Cheongo-Ri, where the odds of surviving a year are already slim.

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Why is this news? You know, it may just be the fact that I hate peace, but I really don’t get why the fact that John Feffer still advocates “constructive engagement” with North Korea is any more newsworthy than the fact that Tommy Chong still smokes dope.

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Agreed Framework III Watch: Please, God, not again.

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So amid all the groundless speculation about why Kim Jong Il took Mini-Me to China last week — aside from his desire to snub Jimmy Carter — let me just add one more theory that I’ve seen too little discussion about. My own groundless speculation is that while there certainly must be some succession grooming in the works, Kim Jong Il is also enlisting the help of his enabler, Hu Jintao, to evade U.N. and Treasury sanctions, and I predict he’ll get it unless Treasury knocks off a Chinese bank or mining company to get across the point that we’re not going to tolerate that.

5 Responses

  1. Office 39 will be a target of new US sanctions, says Mark Landler in the New York Times.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/world/asia/31diplo.html?_r=1&hp

    The NY Times story also links to Evan Ramstad’s story in the Wall Street Journal:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703369704575461162930482200.html

    The last paragraph of the WSJ story is a quote from Xinhua:

    “The biggest negative impact the China-North Korea relationship has on China is that the U.S, Japan and South Korea all request that China be responsible for North Korea’s ‘irrational behaviors,'” the newspaper wrote. “However, China has no ability to shoulder such responsibility.”

  2. Perhaps the Uber Panda had something to do with the timing of KJI’s trip to China while former President Carter was in NK, a way to indirectly express general unhappiness with the U.S.