Open Sources: Don Kirk owns Wolf Blitzer; More reports of unrest in N. Korea

In a must-read piece in the Asia Times, Don Kirk ridicules Wolf Blitzer‘s melodramatic reporting from Pyongyang:

This flight of fantasy became even more ludicrous as Blitzer sought to give an impression of a “rare” look at the same stuff everyone gets to see on tourist trips to Pyongyang – the Great Study Hall of the People, once described to me by a North Korean minder as “the world’s biggest library”, classrooms of privileged kids studying English, a look at a fruit farm, a small “factory” of some sort, the usual empty streets and avenues.

The whole program, aired for nearly an hour by CNN last weekend, reached an apotheosis of silliness on the final day on December 20 when Blitzer wanted to believe he was hearing the distant explosions of South Korean military exercises in the Yellow Sea around the island that North Koreans shelled in November. Blitzer assured viewers that the island was not all that far away – apparently not willing to reveal that it was 150 miles (231 kilometers) due south, more than a little out of earshot of the loudest blasts.

Like too many journalists today, Blitzer would like us to think he’s another Edward R. Murrow, but Murrow didn’t become a legend by covering the Blitz from Berlin while flanked by a Gestapo escort. Murrow became a legend by showing us dramatic events from a perspective of physical courage and moral clarity. Does anyone think Wolf Blitzer exhibited either quality here? (Another hat tip to James.)

The Chosun Ilbo picks up on the latest reports of dissent in North Korea and speculates a little more on what could come of it. And also writing in the Asia Times, our friend Sunny Lee rounds up a lot of very interesting news that I’d somehow missed:

Hundreds of protesters have collided with the authorities,” said South Korea’s largest-selling Chosun Ilbo newspaper on Thursday, as top news on its website. Now finally, the global cascade of “Jasmine revolutions” in the Middle East and North Africa appears to have entered North Korea.

Chosun posted a North Korea map with large red circles around multiple cities to mark “riot zones”, adding more drama to the report. One of the circles is the town of Sinuiju on the border with China. “Hundreds of people clashed with security forces … The military was deployed to quell the demonstration, leaving some protesters wounded,” said Chosun. While the protest was sparked by a crackdown in a market, it was “an eruption of long pent-up discontent”, it said.

South Korea’s online newspaper Daily NK reported on Wednesday that North Korea had created a special mobilization force to prevent any demonstrations similar to the recent uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. Another daily, JoongAng Ilbo, said on Thursday that the authorities had begun purging elites who had studied abroad in Russia for fear of a possible coup by people “who were exposed to a Western lifestyle”.

Can this possibly be true? I really just don’t know. I’m not persuaded by the doubts of the Chinese commentariat that Lee quotes. Instead, I think this is worth watching very carefully for more corroboration. I’m also bracing myself for a horrible disappointment, because all of the objective evidence suggests that any uprisings would be isolated and crushed. (Hat tip: Theresa)

Libya may be the first nation in a long time to defy the tendency of totalitarian dictators to defy the popular will. One significant fact I didn’t know is that Khaddafy intentionally kept his army small. I wouldn’t have guessed that based on his adventures in Chad and other places, but his army performed terribly in Chad anyway. Or perhaps you’ve never heard of the Toyota War.