Screw you, jackass

The original title was set to be "Fu¢k you, aßßhole," but the use of profanity within a headline itself seems so unseemly.

Back when The Stupogants™ (i.e., Laura Ling, Euna Lee, and Mitch Koss) ran afoul of the North Korean authorities in 2009 — leading to the detainment, conviction, and incarceration for Ms Ling and Ms Lee — I got a bit of flack for my criticism of those three for what they did and how they did it. At places like One Free Korea, it was merely ideological and based on interpretations of the facts, but in other places it got more personal, including accusations of plagiarism.

With apparent Christian missionary Kenneth Bae being the latest guest at the Pyongyang Palazzo, it's natural that some are drawing parallels between Mr Bae and the case of Ms Ling and Lee (and Mr Koss), or even that of Messianic crusader Robert Park and his buddy Aijalon Gomes. I myself did so in a recently post.

But what gets in my craw today is this comment by Marmot's Hole dweller DLBarch in response to the news (carried also by me yesterday) that Kim Jong-un's new BFF Dennis Rodman has asked KJU to do him a solid and pardon Mr Bae:

I am never in favor of standing by while any American — even the Kenneth Bae’s of the country — are incarcerated on trumped up charges by an odious, repugnant regime like North Korea, so I do think the U.S. needs to do what it can, within reason, to seek Bae’s release.

But, but…it is fascinating to compare how the MH commentariat has treated the Kenneth Bae incident with how it treated Laura Ling and Euna Lee not too long ago. The full-throated vituperation and, yes, barely disguised misogyny that surrounded the Ling and Lee drama is nowhere to be found in the latest Bae hostage taking.

Given Bae’s voluntarily — and repeatedly — entered North Korea whereas Ling and Lee got misled into inadvertently crossing the North Korea-China border, this difference of popular reaction to the two incidents is striking. Bae seems to be getting a huge pass, while Ling and Lee were thoroughly excoriated in the most personal of attacks.

Pretty damning.

DLB

Okay, so maybe I shouldn't take regard as direct criticism of my views since I do not comment at The Marmot's Hole anymore (no, not in any way, shape, or form for many years now), but since I was early on the preeminent critic of The Stupogants™ (enough that Laura Ling's famous sister, Lisa Ling, contacted me directly about my criticisms) and there was an entire post at The Marmot's Hole about my views on the matter, I'm taking DLB's bogus comments personal, at least as they relate to me.

While I agree with DLB's first paragraph, to describe my "full-throated vituperation" as "barely disguised misogyny" is preposterous, and demonstrably false for a number of reasons. Let's go over them, shall we?

• Do a word string search for "Mitch Koss" at my site and you'll see me referring to him repeatedly in my criticisms of The Stupogants. My full-throated vituperation of Ling and Lee extends to him as well, and that was early on. It has nothing to do with them being women; the closest I got to a gendered comment was mocking Koss — who managed to escape while Ling and Lee ended up captured — for his lack of chivalry in saving his own ass.

• I also spent considerable time skewering Robert Park, a mentally troubled man who can't decide if he's Moses or the Messiah. Robert Park, you may have noticed, is a man. Ditto with Aijalon Mahli Gomes. 

• The criticism of The Stupogants is valid and has nothing to do with their gender. They were there for personal gain (fame from getting the scoop of all scoops) and their journalistic negligence — they were carrying tapes of the escaped refugees they'd interviewed! — may well have cost lives and caused the North Korean authorities to plug up an important escape route. (Likewise, Robert Park's crazy walkabout into North Korea was about increasing his own fame.)

• Unlike The Stupogants or Mr Park, Mr Bae has been risking his freedom for something that offers no financial aggrandizement or opportunity for fame. In fact, if his life-endangering "mission" is offering hope and escape to individuals in the North (or providing a slow-dose poison pill to the regime), his motives are the diametric opposite of those of The Stupogants. Consequently, any "striking" difference in levels of criticism would be about something other than gender. 

• My "attacks" on Lee and Ling (or Koss) were no more "personal" than to admonish others not to buy their books, because they shouldn't profit from their foolishness and arrogance that endangered some extremely vulnerable people in China and North Korea. They sought publicity afterwards, and that opens them up for scrutiny and, if warranted, criticism.   

• Whether or not Bae "gets a huge pass" will depend a lot on what information comes out when he's released. If it turns out that he knowingly did careless things that could bring considerable harm on those he encountered — as was the case with Koss, Lee, and Ling — I will be first in line to pillory him for that. The Stupogants were depicted as innocents who just got lost, when the reality turned out to be quite different; if I was so full-throated in my vituperation, it's because I recognized that early on and I was at first the lone voice in saying so.

• Oh, and Ms Ling and Ms Lee did not "inadvertently cross the North Korea-China border" (which is a river, by the way). They knowingly and deliberately crossed in order to have a great hook for their program. 

So in conclusion, one can make the case that I am inconsistent in whom I criticize or that my thought processes can be a tad inscrutable at times (though I would submit there is a clear, but complex, pattern), but if someone throws some bogus charge at me like plagiarism or "damning" misogynistic criticism, and you've got hell to pay, aßßhole.

KSB

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Dennis Rodman asks KJU to free Kenneth Bae

Dennis Rodman hugs Kim Jong-un, while trying to avoid his solid.

Dennis Rodman, Kim Jong-un's new BFF, is appealing to the North Korean leader to free Korean-American Kenneth Bae from prison.

I'm guessing Mr. Rodman doesn't realize how this works: High-profile types are supposed to visit North Korea while they're trying to free the latest American resident of the Pyongyang Palazzo, not before.

UPDATE:
The Korean of Ask A Korean is in a Washington Post blog post offering up the best colloquial translation for "do me a solid" to discern how Kim Jong-un might read this tweet: 내 얼굴을 봐서 케네스 배를 석방해달라.

Given that The Young General attended the English-language Gümligen "International School" in Switzerland for a number of years and has a love of basketball culture and a passing interesting in hip-hop, I'm guessing he doesn't need a translation of "do me a solid."

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Detained American in North Korea was there as a clandestine missionary

That is what the North Korea News is reporting:

An NK News investigation shows that Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American currently being detained by the North Korean government, is a trained missionary who was using his China-based tour company as a platform to bring missionaries into North Korea. The news comes following a statement released Sunday by the Korea Central News Agency which said that Bae had "disguised his identity" upon entering North Korea.

The NK News investigation shows that Bae was initially sent to China by the evangelical missionary organization “Youth With a Mission” (YWAM) in 2006. The organization is designed to help equip missionaries with the skills needed to convert people into Christians.

Those who recall my skewering of The Stupogants™Laura Ling and Euna Lee (and Mitch Koss), or Messiah Complex-afflicted Robert Park and his buddy Aijalon Gomes may be surprised that I'm far less critical and much more sympathetic to the plight of Kenneth Bae, who was recently sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor.

I've met a number of North Korean refugees and those who quietly are trying to fish them out, and they are nothing like the publicity whores (I'm trying to think of a nicer way to say that) that have ventured into North Korea to further their own careers (e.g. The Stupogants) or their own suicidal delusions of salvadorism (e.g., Robert Park and possibly his buddy Aijalon Gomes).

Rather, it is the missionaries who quietly enter the DPRK who are bringing the message of hope and possible regime change. They are the ones who — if their message takes hold and their underground railroad stays in place — may pose a real threat to the regime by changing the calculus of support and fear. Those who have a means to escape or are attuned to a higher being with a grander purpose may become impervious to the terror tactics employed by the power machine.

And that is messy work. It takes people with a willingness to risk their lives and safety on a daily basis to go in and out, again and again, until the regime has fallen or has changed beyond recognition. Kenneth Bae is a casualty of this, and it is my fervent hope that what he loses is little more than his freedom temporarily.

I pray also that he doesn't reveal — directly or inadvertently — the identities and whereabouts of people who might be harmed by the regime for having worked with him or even merely come in contact with him. That was one of my biggest criticisms of The Stupogants: Not only had they caused the North to plug up an important escape route, but they had the videotapes of their refugee interviewees on their person when they were caught!

At this point I hope and pray Kenneth Bae is released soon and without harm to him or anyone touched by him, and that we don't expend significant political or actual capital in order to secure his freedom.

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Bae sentenced to 15 years of hard labor

In a follow-up to an earlier post, a Korean-American tour operator who was arrested in North Korea for trying to depose the state has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. From BBC:

North Korea says it has sentenced a US citizen to 15 years of hard labour.

The announcement, from state news agency KCNA, said Pae Jun-ho, known in the US as Kenneth Bae, was tried on 30 April.

He was held last year after entering North Korea as a tourist. Pyongyang said he was accused of anti-government crimes.

The move comes amid high tensions between North Korea and the US, after Pyongyang's third nuclear test.

North Korean media said last week that Mr Pae had admitted charges of crimes against North Korea, including attempting to overthrow the government.

"The Supreme Court sentenced him to 15 years of compulsory labour for this crime," KCNA said.

Mr Pae, 44, was arrested in November as he entered the northeastern port city of Rason, a special economic zone near North Korea's border with China.

He is believed to be a tour operator of Korean descent. The Associated Press news agency also reports that he is described by friends as a devout Christian.

On the face of it, North Korea's decision to sentence a US citizen to 15 years' hard labour seems to be a direct challenge to Washington: another twist in the cycle of actions and rhetoric that have helped keep relations so tense over the past two months.

But Mr Pae is not the first American citizen to be arrested or tried in North Korea. Over the past few years, Pyongyang has detained two American journalists, a businessman, an English teacher and an activist.

Some were tried and sentenced to hard labour like Mr Pae. But all were released following negotiations - some of which involved unofficial visits by high-profile Americans like former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

So, while it may seem like another irritant to relations with Washington, the announcement of Mr Pae's conviction might actually be an attempt to draw US negotiators - even unofficial ones - to Pyongyang.

That would give North Korea a domestic propaganda victory, and it might also pave the way for more broader, more official, talks on the wider issues.

At the moment, North Korea is being offered talks on American terms - which include a commitment to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme. This is one way the regime can get a high-profile visitor to Pyongyang without any conditions at all.

South Korean activists say Mr Pae may have been arrested for taking photos of starving children in North Korea.

"We call on the DPRK [North Korea] to release Kenneth Bae immediately on humanitarian grounds," US State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said on Monday.

Diplomats from Sweden, which represents the US in North Korea in the absence of diplomatic ties, had been providing counsel to Mr Pae, reports said. The US State Department was working with the Swedish embassy to confirm the report of the sentencing, AP reported.

It's a sure bet that he probably will not serve anywhere near that kind of sentence, and it's only a matter of figuring out what kind of concessions are made so that he might be released.

A concession can be an actual offer of food aid or even money, or just a visit by high-profile American politico, such as former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson or former Pres. Bill Clinton or former Pres. Jimmy Carter. They have all gone in the past to fish out other American citizens of ended up in North Korean custody, but I suppose somebody like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton might also do.

Heck, somebody from the NBA might also suffice.

The timing — coinciding with all this tension that's occurred — is no coincidence. He was held for quite a while and then put on trial at just the right time. Perhaps this upping of the ante was intended to get a high-profile visit so that Pyongyang could save face and defuse the tension at the same time. We'll have to see.

So for now I'm not too terribly worried about Mr Bae. He's going to spend a little time at the Pyongyang Palazzo, but he will probably be home in time for the Fourth of July.

Please note that I have not yet referred to him as a Stupogant, because I'm not yet certain that his entry into North Korea and subsequent arrest really were based on something foolish.

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