Jimmy Goes on Vacation (Again)
I would have enjoyed writing about how Jimmy Carter is highly unlikely to help anyone by going to North Korea, how he will be used by the Kim Jong-il regime for its own propaganda purposes, about how, since he has little to no chance of extracting a message of remorse from the North for the killing of innocent civilians on Yeonpyeong Island, he is only likely to burnish his own reputation as a man of peace but without any tangible results”¦ but then the man who sits behind me got there first.
But that does at least free up some time to talk about Park Jie Won, who has conveniently dispensed with any semblance of anger at North Korea’s killing of 50 of his own people in the last year to say that anti-Kim Jong Il leafleting should stop because it will “only cause harm to the economy of northern Gyeonggi Province and the Gangwon area.Â
And, finally, here is something else I am having trouble computing;
LP: We have to remember that the Korean War, which began in 1950, was never concluded with a proper peace agreement. Since then, both halves of Korea live in constant fear of resuming hostilities. National military service in the DPRK is mandatory and very long (up to 10 years in the Army and Air Force and even longer in the Navy). More than 1.1 million young men and women serve in the KPA without salary or wages and rely on the daily rations of free food, uniform and regiment accommodation. Many more millions are ready to be conscripted and work at government-assigned projects according to national needs. In North Korea, the Army and the People are inseparable, and by feeding the Army, the North Korean regime simply maintains the traditional food distribution system. The KPA receives, stores, protects and consumes a certain proportion of international humanitarian aid. There is no other government agency in North Korea that could do this better or more efficiently than the Army.
To which the only remaining sentence is surely, “So if the Army takes the aid and feeds soldiers, that’s alright with me.Â
Which is surely going to quite hard to justify the next time those soldiers are used to shell civilians on a South Korean island or some such. Or perhaps that will turn out to be acceptable too, because “the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island was clearly provoked by the South Korean side”¦”Â
Oh yeah, and I say to you that Kim Jong Eun was never supposed to play a part in the Supreme People’s Assembly, for the following reasons.
Welcome, Chris! Having you join us at OFK makes my hiatus a net gain for this blog. I hope everyone will make you feel so welcome that you’ll decide to stay after I return.
Okay, I just read that LP article. Who is this guy??? He believes the Army is the best way to distribute the food?? And yet he acknowledges the following:
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“…but we have known since the late 1990s that Pyongyang is willing to allow its people to suffer enormously in that some 5-10% of ordinary North Koreans died before the first international food relief was received. ”
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THEY ARE WILLING.
Who is willing?
PYONGYANG is willing.
Why would we trust their government with the food rations again?
It boggles the mind.
I see you addressed it in the last line, Kim Jong-un not getting employee-of-the-month twice in a row.
I think this is the most conspicuous evidence yet that he is The Kim Who Wasn’t There.
A look at KCNA’s offerings today say that Ri Myongsu is up and Ri Thaenam is out. It also points to a trend that has been going on for sometime: more and more mundane news about China. The latter, methinks, points to North Korea hoisting up China as an economic development model for China, perhaps at China’s insistence. Kim Jong-un’s ascension is a side show distraction.
Christopher, have you read “The World Is Bigger Now” by Euna Lee and Lisa Dickey and “Somewhere Inside” by Laura Ling and Lisa Ling? I’d like to know your thoughts about these two books.
Christopher, have you read “Somewhere Inside” and “The World Is Bigger Now”? What did you think of these books?
Glans, I am afraid I haven’t. Now if someone would send me copies, that could be a game changer!
Chris, here’s Somewhere and here’s The World.
chris, I tried to send you two links, but they seem to have been filtered. So just go ahead and search for them on Amazon.
No, Glans, I meant the kind of person who sends them in exchange for nothing~ alas, Amazon isn’t going to cut it and I really do have no desire to pay money for the story of the antics of these two individuals, even if the proceeds do go to charity…
chris, to be accepted as a K blogger or commenter, you must show disdain for Laura Ling and Euna Lee. You have passed the test! You are a member in good standing of the K elite.
Glans, much as I appreciate the plaudits, the fact is I am just too poor to buy them. Not a very romantic position, but there it is. If I find one lying unguarded on a subway train sometime, I’ll be all over it.
Chris,
Perhaps I will send you my copy. Although, I don’t think I finished reading it.
Perhaps because it wasn’t very good???
james, no, the timing isn’t right. The North Koreans will investigate this case for several months.
You started out strong with the posts in February but are starting to fall off. Please keep it up!
glans,
according to CNN, this person’s been held since 11/10.
I do bet for sure this person’s sister doesn’t have Clinton’s nor Oprah’s cell phone number.
james, Lisa Ling had Oprah’s number; Laura Ling had Al Gore’s number. But they didn’t have Clinton’s number! Read the effing book, will you?
send me the effing book and i’ll effing read it cause i certainly ain’t effing paying for it so lisa and laura will effing receive royalties.