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

...

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.

...

Euna Lee speaks on reciprocal treatment

Euna Lee, one of the two Current TV reporting team who was captured and detained by the North Koreans after illicitly crossing the frozen Tumen River into DPRK territory, has written an op-ed piece in the Washington Post that touches on her ordeal. But while it starts off a bit self-serving — she doesn't quite mention her team's own foolish culpability that directly led to them being nabbed — her captivity is not the central theme of the piece:

It is difficult to describe the fear that comes with being arrested and detained in a foreign country. The sense of darkness in that first week of North Korean captivity was unbearable. My biggest fear was nobody knowing where I was or what had happened to me. The strained relations between the United States and North Korea only increased my despair.

In the middle of the second week, though, I was handed a lifeline: a meeting with the Swedish ambassador, who represented U.S. interests and pointed out to North Korea its responsibilities under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. His hard work yielded a meeting no longer than 10 minutes, but the significance is hard to express. I can only mention the sense of security I now had — that someone outside of North Korea was monitoring my case. The prompt consular access, I believe, protected me from any physical mistreatment by my captors. I was allowed to meet with the ambassador three more times. The meetings were my only communication with the U.S. government — the only way for me to ask for help and to deliver messages to my family. I know the importance of what the Vienna Convention provides.

Legislation has been introduced in Congress to ensure judicial review of death penalty cases involving foreign nationals who were not given consular access under the Vienna Convention. This legislation is not only a matter of honoring our obligations to such inmates. There are still many American journalists, aid workers, missionaries, members of the military and tourists detained in foreign countries. For all of them, and for their fearful families at home, there is nothing more important than upholding the reciprocal right to consular protection. With this legislation, Congress can protect that right.

Reciprocity is an important issue when it comes to how we treat other countries' citizens, for it has some bearing, as Ms Lee states, on how other countries treat our own. International norms of conduct can protect Americans and others, by making certain forms of legal treatment standard. I made a similar point about capital punishment in this post from 2006 (see point #6).

Though I have derided the acts of Euna Lee, Laura Ling, and their colleague Mitch Koss — I coined the term stupogant — it is quite interesting to see Ms Lee take her experience and go in a totally unexpected direction with it. In her op-ed she makes an appeal for a Mexican national convicted of murder in the United States, saying his lack of consular access makes his impending execution unjust and wrong.

This also touches on the aforementioned capital punishment post: often we are using the cases of the clearly guilty in order to save people in the future who may not deserve to be executed, especially in a country requiring a lower threshold of evidence (e.g., Iran) or criminal transgression (e.g., China, where white-collar criminals and drug dealers are executed).

Luring Lee and Ling

From the Chosun Ilbo we get news that a recently executed spy chief was the one responsible for luring Current TV reporting team Laura Ling, Euna Lee, and Mitch Koss into North Korea where they were captured, sentenced to a dozen years of hard labor, but later released when former President Bill Clinton flew into Pyongyang for an angry photo op.

From the Chosun Ilbo:

Recently executed North Korean spy chief Ryu Kyong planned and orchestrated the abduction of two female U.S. journalists on March 17, 2009, it emerged on Sunday.

Ryu, who served as the deputy director of North Korea's State Security Department, obtained intelligence that Laura Ling and Euna Lee, journalists working for Current TV, were planning to visit the North Korean border as part of their report on defectors.

He then used his overseas operatives to bribe an ethnic Korean guide in China to lead the two women into the hands of their abductors. The guide took Ling and Lee to a point on the banks of the Duman (or Tumen) River, where they were dragged across the border into North Korea.

If you have read what my contrarian opinions on the then-ongoing Ling and Lee saga (here, here, here, here, and here), you will not be surprised that my response to this is, "Horsesh¡t."

We'll start with the obvious and then go to the glaring: Other than "it emerged Sunday" in the first paragraph, we are left with zero information about who said this. From where or whom did it "emerge"? When it comes to journalism, subject-less passive voice is weasel words.

And then there is the glaring problem that this take simply does not jibe with the facts we know now. Way back, when Laura Ling and Euna Lee were captured and Mitch Koss just barely escaped, everybody (well, except me) was under the impression that they had been plucked from the Chinese side while merely taking video of the North Korean side of the border. But as it turned out, Laura and Euna did in fact venture onto North Korean soil "very, very briefly." It was then that the North Korean soldiers tried to capture them, but Laura Ling said in her book they managed to get across the river and back to the Chinese side before being dragged back into North Korea.

So which is it? The third paragraph above completely omits Ms Ling and Ms Lee voluntary entering North Korean territory. It's almost as if the source from which this report "emerged" is unaware that Ms Ling and Ms Lee confessed to going into North Korean territory of their own accord.

And this is problematic. In fact, if it jibes with anything, it's the pattern of behavior coming from the Chosun Ilbo whereby speculation is being reported as fact.

At most, what might be at work here is that spy chief Mr Ryu might have maneuvered for the trio to be captured, but ultimately they sealed their own fate by venturing into the DPRK (though we know North Korea had kidnapped people from China and brought them into North Korea). Frankly, though, I don't buy it. If you read the early chapters of Laura Ling's book, the people who captured her and Euna Lee seem pretty clueless about who it was they captured. The early hours and days of their ordeal don't sound as if they would have gone down that way if it had been known before their capture who they were and where they would be.

I loathe the Pyongyang regime, but as I made clear before, these three demonstrated gross carelessness and negligence and their foolishness may have cost lives. I don't think it is right to point the finger at phantom others when we already know who was responsible for them being right where they were.

Moreover, I don't like the mainstream South Korean media (and the Japanese and Western media who pick up their reports) giving us a distorted picture of what's going on up in the North by their supposition-filled reporting. From the ascension of Kim Jong-il to the conditions on the ground for the peasantry up there, we are doing everyone a gross disservice by engaging in a journalistic circle jerk of speculation parading as objective news.

UPDATE:
This might not be his intended takeaway message, but Joshua at One Free Korea notes that "the Chosun Ilbo doesn’t offer one scintilla of detail on its source for the story or why we should consider it credible."

At ROK Drop, GI Korea also describes his reservations about the whole thing.

Eddie Jun stuck in North Korea but "well cared for"

Remember Eddie Jun, aka Youngsu Jun? His family sure does.

If you don't, here's a refresher: he's the Orange County kyopo who ended up getting arrested while in North Korea, for some crime he has confessed to but which has still not been specified to the rest of the world. Some had hoped that "The Elder" Jimmy Carter would be able to secure Mr Jun's release from the Pyongyang Palazzo, but President Peanut was snubbed.

Mr Jun remains in North Korea, but we get word that he is being treated okay and has even been allowed contact with his family:

The U.S. government says that an American detained by North Korea since November is being well cared for and has been permitted to speak to his family by phone.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Wednesday Swedish diplomats have visited Eddie Jun six times since March and were continuing at U.S. request to ask for regular consular access.

Sweden looks after U.S. interests in the communist state.

Toner called for Jun's immediate release on humanitarian grounds so he can be reunited with his family.

The literal message is that traipsing
into North Korea isn't very bright.

I'd really like to know what he was arrested for. Given his religious background, it could be anything from helping ferry North Koreans out of the DPRK and the PRC, to proselytizing and/or passing out religious materials, to helping spread discontent about the Pyongyang regime. And any of those could mean big trouble if he's convicted (which is likely).

Sure, the US eventually released Evan Hunziker, Robert Park, Aijalon Mahli Gomes, Laura Ling, and Euna Lee, but not until after a lot of hemming and hawing and perhaps some backroom quid pro quo (e.g., a favorite topic of Joshua at One Free Korea: not putting North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terror).

If this doesn't scream, "Stay the #+¢& away!" then I can't help you.

Well, despite my public proclamations about the foolishness of Americans publicly and purposefully going into North Korea without permission and the danger it puts on everyday North Koreans trying to escape or the way it ties the hands of Washington and its allies, I do hope and pray that Mr Jun is okay and continues to be okay. (And I add: we don't know yet why he was nabbed.)

If he's already staying at whatever villa is being used as the Pyongyang Palazzo and he's being seen by the Swedes and even allowed to call California, I'm not too terribly worried for Mr Jun's safety right now. Euna Lee and particularly Laura Ling were physically harmed during their ordeal, but this was almost entirely during their capture when they escaped back into Chinese territory. After they were in custody they were placed in a darkened room with no access to hot water, a form of torture DPRK citizens call "being in North Korea."

On the other hand, if he is actually convicted, things could be different. Though he would likely be released, the difference between Mr Jun and most of the others is that he is a full-blooded ethnic Korean and a male, and therefore with few mitigating excuses to release him.

So far only Robert Park fit that description, and I think the Pyongyang authorities quickly realized he was a nutjob and wanted to get rid of him. It helped things along that Robert Park cracked and told the KCNA everything they wanted to hear. People can be very magnanimous after a propaganda victory.

American held in North Korea is identified as kyopo

In a follow-up to this story, we get a report that North Korea has identified the American citizen they are holding.

From the New York Times:

North Korea said Thursday that it had arrested an American citizen, identified as Jun Young Su, in November for an unspecified crime against North Korea and was preparing to indict him, the official Korean Central News Agency reported. North Korea has informed American officials of the arrest, it said.

Earlier I was guessing the detainee, based on past incidents, was a kyopo religious zealot. So now that he's been confirmed to be a kyopo, the question is whether we can check off the religious zealot box.

I can't seem to find it in North Korea's English- or Korean-language news sources, but that may simply be because it hasn't hit their news cycle yet. I'm assuming, for the time being, that "Jun Youn Su" is 전영수. Dang, I hate the space-between-syllables way of writing out Korean names.

Anyway, the China Daily is reporting, through Xinhua, that Mr Jun has "admitted his crime":

The US citizen Jun Young Su detained in Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) recently admitted his crime against DPRK after entering it, the official news agency KCNA reported on Thursday.

Jun Young Su has admitted his crime in the course of investigation conducted by a relevant organ, according to KCNA.

The US side was informed of this through a relevant channel and necessary humanitarian conveniences including consular contact are being provided to him through the Swedish embassy here which looks after US interests, said the report.

The relevant organ is making arrangements to indict him according to the confirmation of the charges against him, the report added.

Jun Young Su was arrested in November 2010.

Reading comprehension question: Did you catch what his crime was? It seems this Xinhua release was penned by the same person at the National Museum of China who explained in detail all about the Cultural Revolution. I'm guessing the crime might be entering the DPRK itself (North Korea is a bit like Norteamérica that way).

The guy issuing a confession must mean Carter is already on his way.

Another American detained in North Korea

Oh, God. Not another one. I hope this man (detained since November?!) isn't another friend of Robert Park — or Robert Park himself (oh, wouldn't that be a hoot?). I can just see a savvy kyopo religious zealot getting legal permission to enter the country under the auspices of conducting business, and then handing out Bibles or "What would Yesunim do?" bumper stickers.

Luckily for him, Jimmy Carter is already on his way to Pyongyang (AFP story here), so his time in the Pyongyang Palazzo may be short-lived.

UPDATE:
If this is something quite different from what Robert Park, Aijalon Gomes, or even Lisa Ling and Euna Lee, I will issue a retraction regarding my snarky suggestions above. But for now, all cases of Americans getting detained in North Korea have involved stupogance and/or a Moses complex.

UPDATE 2 (Thursday, April 14, 1:02 p.m.):
North Korea has released the name of the man they're holding, Jun Young Su. And he has apparently confessed what he did wrong.

I'm glad I'm in Hawaii where the National Security Law cannot legally block me from reprinting the KCNA's bullsh¡t propaganda surrounding the release of Robert Park

And so here it is. First, the KCNA news release:

DPRK Decides to Release American Trespasser

Pyongyang, February 5 (KCNA) -- As already reported, the relevant organ of the DPRK conducted an investigation into Robert Park, an American national who was caught for trespassing on the northern border of the DPRK.

According to the results of the investigation, he trespassed on the border due to his wrong understanding of the DPRK.

The relevant organ of the DPRK decided to leniently forgive and release him, taking his admission and sincere repentance of his wrong doings into consideration.

And now the "interview" with Robert Park:

American Trespasser Interviewed

Pyongyang, February 5 (KCNA) -- As already reported, American national Robert Park was detained for trespassing on the northern border of the DPRK in December last year.

He was interviewed by KCNA at his proposal while he was under investigation by the relevant organ of the DPRK.

At the interview, he said that he was taken in by the false rumor spread by the West and committed a criminal act in the end.

He went on to say:
I trespassed on the border due to my wrong understanding of the DPRK caused by the false propaganda made by the West to tarnish its image.

The West is massively feeding "Children of Secret State", "Seoul Train" and other documentary videos with stories about non-existent "human rights abuses" and "mass killings" in the DPRK and "unbearable sufferings" of its Christians and the like.

This false propaganda prompted me, a Christian, to entertain a biased view on the DPRK.
So I didn't know what to do at that time. I just prayed and fasted and that was my initial response, but year by year more news reports, international media reports came and there were more videos saying the same thing, in fact, saying that it was getting worse, and so that's why I started to become more and more distraught. If there are people in concentration camps, if Christians are dying like this, if there is starvation I have to die with them. If I help them I would go to Heaven but if I don't help them I would go to Hell.

At last I made up my mind to go to the DPRK.

Upon trespassing on the border, I thought I would be either shot to death by soldiers or thrown behind bars, prompted by Americans' false propaganda about the DPRK.

However, the moment I trespassed on the border, the attitude of soldiers toward the trespasser made me change my mind.

Not only service personnel but all those I met in the DPRK treated me in a kind and gentlemanly manner and protected my rights.

I have never seen such kind and generous people.

People have been incredibly kind and generous here to me, very concerned for my physical health as never before in my life. I mean, my family, of course, is concerned about my physical health but people here have been constantly concerned and I'm very thankful for their love.

Another shocking fact I experienced during my stay in the DPRK is that the religious freedom is fully ensured in the DPRK, a reality different from what is claimed by the West.
Being a devout Christian, I thought such things as praying are unimaginable in the DPRK due to the suppression of religion.

I, however, gradually became aware that I was wrong.

Everybody neither regarded praying as something unusual nor disturbed it. I was provided with conditions for praying everyday as I wished.

What astonished me more was that a bible was returned to me.

This fact alone convinced me that the religious freedom is fully ensured in the DPRK.
I came to have stronger belief as I had an opportunity to attend the service in the Pongsu Church in Pyongyang.

I worshipped and there, there was the Jondosa, there, there was a pastor, there was a choir, they knew the hymns, they knew the word of God. That's why I was completely amazed. But I began to weep and weep in the Christian service because I learned that there are churches and Christians such as Pongsu Kyohoe (Church) in different cities and regions all throughout the DPRK. They worship, pray and preach freely the word of the Bible and Christ word. I've learned that in the DPRK people can read and believe whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want, that there's complete religious freedom for all people everywhere throughout the DPRK.

What I have seen and heard in the DPRK convinced me that I misunderstood it. So I seriously repented of the wrong I committed, taken in by the West's false propaganda.

I would not have committed such crime if I had known that the DPRK respects the rights of all the people and guarantees their freedom and they enjoy a happy and stable life.

I have felt shock, embarrassment, shame. Here I'm in the lands where people respect human rights and, not just respecting human rights, they have actually loved me and showed me more than just human rights. They have shown me grace. I repent and ask for forgiveness to the DPRK for my misunderstanding totally DPRK's reality and my criminal illegal behavior. Had I known the reality of the DPRK, what I've learned here, what I have been shown here, what I've been taught here, what I've been informed here by all the kind people here about the DPRK, I would have never done what I did on the December 25th and I repent and I'm very sorry.

Prompted by my desire to redeem the crime I committed against the government of the DPRK, I would make every effort to let those who misunderstand the DPRK properly know what I experienced here so they may have a correct understanding of it.

He, as a Christian, expressed his will to earnestly pray so reunification may be achieved and peace settle on the Korean Peninsula as early as possible.

The thing to note about North Korean propaganda is that it often is built around a grain of truth. It turns out that the Stupogants™ (Laura Ling and Euna Lee) really did willingly cross into North Korean territory, which had been thought by so many to be an utter fabrication on the part of the DPRK propagandists. Reread the KCNA reports on the Stupogants™ and see how much of it was actually true, although presented self-servingly for optimal propaganda purposes.

And that makes me wonder what part of the interview is actually true. Could the naïve Robert Park who strode so confidently into DPRK territory with a message of peace and human rights also naïvely came to believe that Pyongyang really offers religious freedom to the citizens who want it, just because they let him go to the one church in town and they gave him back his Bible?

I wonder if he is going to disown this interview and speak out against the regime, or will he remain silent now that he's free? Worse yet, maybe he plans to speak on Pyongyang's behalf, now that he's seen their version of the light.

Stupogant 2.0. (And a HT to cmm, why not?)

Honoring two men from the Tumen

The Defense Minister may have missed the ceremony marking the 18th anniversary of Kim Jong-il assuming control of the military, but in his stead we had the two soldiers who nabbed stupogants Laura Ling and Euna Lee at the frozen Tumen last March.

Reports the New York Times:

The two soldiers appeared in a North Korean state television program broadcast Thursday to mark the 18th anniversary of leader Kim Jong Il's assumption of command of the country's army, Yonhap reported. The program's anchor said Kim has given them an award for apprehending Ling and Lee and also gave them special leave, according to Yonhap.

The soldiers said that several people crossed the frozen Tumen River into North Korea on March 17 and took photos, Yonhap reported. They also said they overpowered them at gunpoint, believing they entered the North with hostile intent.

Son Yong Ho, one of the soldiers, said that he received a hero's welcome when he later arrived in his hometown, according to Yonhap.

Being forced to watch North Korean television would be someone's version of hell. If you think American Idol is bad, North Korean Idol is far worse.

Laura Ling & Euna Lee cover their asses tell their story

I will fisk this Los Angeles Times op-ed piece of Laura Ling and Euna Lee line by line later (because that's what Kushibo does), but in the meantime, go and read their account of what happened, or at least what they can tell you that isn't too painful as their psychological wounds heal.

I'll say right off the bat that I think it's a self-serving ass-covering, and possibly untruthful in parts. I will fisk it, just as soon as I finish a work assignment (because I don't yet make enough money off blogging to quit my day job).

Pack your bags, Governor Richardson. You're (probably) going to North Korea!

UPDATE:

Ling and Lee have been taken to Pyongyang and face possible espionage charges. I'm still angry.

ORIGINAL POST:

New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, my choice for president last year, has earned himself a reputation as a diplomatic troubleshooter, especially with North Korea. Acting on behalf of the United States during both Democratic and Republican administrations, he has been Washington's point man with Pyongyang through some difficult matters.

This included the release of Evan Hunziker (above, in a very awkward picture with Richardson), an American of partial Korean descent who literally swam to North Korea, across the Yalu (Amnok) River from China, and got caught. (Twenty-six-year-old Hunziker killed himself the next month in Tacoma, Washington.)

So if President Obama sends his former Secretary of Commerce nominee to Pyongyang to help free the two American journalists being held by North Korea, it would be no surprise at all. The bigger surprise would be if they didn't call.

[Euna Lee (left) and Laura Ling (right)]

Though it had been reported for several days that two American journalists — Chinese-American reporter Laura Ling and Korean-American reporter Euna Lee (이은아), both of Current TV — were being held by the North Koreans, Pyongyang got around to acknowledging only today that the two reporters were "illegally intruding into the territory" of the DPRK. (Voice of America story here). They say "a competent organ is now investigating the case."

How they managed to get caught is itself an interesting story and an exercise in (perhaps foolishly) pushing the envelope. The "border" between North Korea and China is mostly two rivers, the Yalu/Amnok (압록강) west of Mt Paektusan and the Tumen/Tuman (두만강) east of that mountain. For the most part, it's not like parts of the DMZ separating North and South Korea, where a person can easily slip across by accident (I've heard of harrowing encounters from ROK citizens who were assigned to DMZ patrols in the mountains of Kangwon-do Province during their stint in the military).

So basically, where Ling, Lee, their colleague Mitch Koss, and their Chinese guide (an ethnic Korean, or Chosŏnjok) were captured, they were essentially at a river that was clearly the border. Now the actual border within the river's path may not be clear, but it would be clear that the river itself was the border. Unless they were checking the frozen river for schools of fish, they likely had no business going to the point where they had. The New York Times article explains this well:

It remains unclear under what circumstances Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee were detained. The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s leading newspaper, reported Saturday that the American television crew appeared to have crossed the river border — either intentionally or not — while trying to get a closer shot of North Korea.

Citing Chinese sources on the border, the newspaper reported that the three American journalists and their Chinese guide, an ethnic Korean, crossed the border around sunrise on Tuesday near Tumen, a Chinese border city.

The Tumen River, which forms the border, is only 20 or 30 yards wide in the area, according to human rights advocates who have visited there. Much of the river bed is dry, and the shallow water is frozen at this time of the year. It is difficult to tell where the border lies, and North Korean guards often stay hidden in bunkerlike guard posts, they said.

The two men in the group, Mr. Koss and the guide, who was not identified, freed themselves from the armed North Korean soldiers and ran back to China, while the two women were overpowered, The Chosun Ilbo reported.

So chivalry is dead, isn't it? Koss and the guide run back across the to the Chinese side, leaving the two women in the group to get captured by the North Koreans. Nice.

I pray for the safety of these women, and I hope that we can get them out without making any concessions to Pyongyang, but they have likely caused a lot of trouble for the United States (Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is already involved), if not embarrassment. Like the Korean missionaries in 2007 who thumbed their noses at government warnings not to go to Afghanistan to proselytize, they did their own thing and probably made things harder for other people trying to save lives.

Patrols in the DPRK-PRC border area will likely be stepped up, making it harder for North Koreans to escape. Good job, folks. Sounds like someone else will pay because you thought you were bulletproof. (Oh, and the men aren't out of the woods either; they're being detained by the Chinese authorities.)

I'm not saying that you should not be reporting on the plight of North Korean escapees, especially the women who fall prey to evildoers on the Chinese side, but what was gained by walking those ten or twenty meters into the river border area, especially at a time of heightened tensions over North Korea's pending missile launch, when it might need a distraction or a bargaining chip? Was it worth it?