Open Sources, October 19, 2013

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I HAVE A GREAT DEAL OF SYMPATHY FOR family members who want to bring their abducted loved ones from home North Korea after so many years, especially as we read that some of them are nearing the end of their lives, but it’s hard for me to concede that paying ransom—and just look how Jeyup S. Kwaak struggles, not quite successfully, not to use that word—is the right answer.

First, the South Korean government can do much more to break the clientitis of its own diplomatic corps and get it to provide better support to refugees in general, and abductees in particular. Second, North Korea has never shown much interest in this idea before, and South Korea may well stand a better chance of getting them back by threatening the North with an economic cutoff. Third, if you’re forking money over to Kim Jong Un without some reasonable assurances about how he’s going to spend your money, you’re violating UNSCR 2094—and as I’ve repeatedly pointed out here, South Korea was a non-permanent member of the Security Council at the time and voted for that resolution.

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PANAMA WILL ALLOW THE CHONG CHON GANG TO RETURN to North Korea, with most of its crew, but without its cargo, its captain, and its first mate, who may yet stand trial. Although this Reuters piece suggests that Cuba may be fined by the U.N. Security Council (really?), it doesn’t tell us whether North Korea will be fined, be charged for the cost of the repairs, or be required to pay the previously reported million-dollar fine the Panamanians had been talking about. Which is too bad, because I think the Chong Chon Gang would have made a nice artificial reef.

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AND NEARLY HALF WERE POSING AS DEFECTORS: “According to the data submitted by the Ministry of Justice, 14 North Korean spies were arrested during the 2003-2008 Roh Moo-hyun administration, while 31 were caught under the 2008-2013 Lee Myung-bak government, Rep. Sim Jae-kwon of the main opposition Democratic Party said.”

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FAR BE IT FOR ME TO DISAGREE WITH THIS MESSAGE on substance, but if the South Korean government is going to pay government workers to do domestic propaganda, it ought to give that function its own budget line-item for the National Assembly to vote on. I strongly doubt that a majority of elected representatives would want to use taxpayer funds for this.

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THIS OPINION PIECE at the Daily NK questions the widely-held presumption that North Koreans would mass-migrate to the South in the event of regime collapse, and argues that South Korea shouldn’t let groundless fears deter them from supporting reunification. Personally, I tend to think there would be mass migration because there was internal mass migration during the Great Famine. I also think that regime collapse is inevitable, and that the prudent course is to start recruiting and training a force like our National Guard (but under federal control) to deal with it. The only way to do that is to deploy forces to give people the things they need desperately in the places where they are.

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FIFTH COLUMN WATCH:  “A Gwangju court yesterday convicted four members of the Unified Progressive Party for rigging a party primary for proportional representatives in last year’s general election. The verdict came only nine days after a Seoul court acquitted 45 UPP members accused of the same charge, calling into question the credibility of the judicial branch’s contrasting decisions and philosophies.” That’s what appeals are for.