I flipped around the channels during the Colts and Seahawks game and landed on a documentary by Lisa Ling about North Korea. Lisa had done a documentary in North Korea and had been allowed some pretty extraordinary contact with common people. Lisa was traveling with an eye surgeon who was there to perform cataract surgeries in the impoverished country. Everything was to the credit of Kim Jong Il to the people interviewed. The question of what if anything he had ever done wrong was so foreign to them they couldn't answer it. A few days after this scene they had a mass meeting with the doctor where they removed bandages to see if sight had been restored to the patients. Hundreds of people sat in a plain room beneath pictures of the Kim Dynasty.
When the first woman had her bandages removed she could see for the first time in years. Immediately her father told her this was the blessing of Kim Jong Il, and they walked to the portraits and with great fervor praised the family.
Just after Lisa left the country her sister Laura Ling was working on a documentary along the border of N. Korea and China. As she and her producer stood on the frozen river separating the two countries N. Korean troops ran across the river, pursued the fleeing women into China, captured them, and drug them into North Korea. It isn't clear they knew they were US journalists, or if this was just an opportunity to seize someone. After months it became clear that what N. Korea wanted was a visit from Bill Clinton. When this was arranged the women were released to him and allowed to leave North Korea.
What are the takeaways of this?
1. People who ascribe the return of vision to a political dynasty and not the skill of the surgeon don't care about sanctions. You cannot make them suffer enough in N. Korea to make them rise up against Kim Jong Un.
2. China knows how irrational the people in N. Korea are when it comes to their leaders. China will do nothing that risks the collapse of the dynasty. The vacuum will create a chaos that will quickly spread into China. China must be engaged, but they cannot be dictated to when it comes to N. Korea. The consequences of a failed state are on their border. China will push back vigorously against regime change be it from military strikes, or sanctions.
3. The reason Kim Jong Il gave up the prisoners was because of the personal diplomacy of Bill Clinton. He had been the first world leader, ahead of even China, to call him when his father had passed away. A meaningful gesture. Diplomacy works. It takes time, and patience, but if done on a personal level it can work.
4. Name calling via tweets, and erratic changes in policy will not foster positive change.
5. N. Korea, and it's leaders seek recognition. They do not seek their own destruction. They have pursued WMD's because they are now on the world stage, and they have legitimacy. It's long past time for the US to open a diplomatic mission in Pyongyang and talk to them directly, not as an appendage of China.
When the first woman had her bandages removed she could see for the first time in years. Immediately her father told her this was the blessing of Kim Jong Il, and they walked to the portraits and with great fervor praised the family.
Just after Lisa left the country her sister Laura Ling was working on a documentary along the border of N. Korea and China. As she and her producer stood on the frozen river separating the two countries N. Korean troops ran across the river, pursued the fleeing women into China, captured them, and drug them into North Korea. It isn't clear they knew they were US journalists, or if this was just an opportunity to seize someone. After months it became clear that what N. Korea wanted was a visit from Bill Clinton. When this was arranged the women were released to him and allowed to leave North Korea.
What are the takeaways of this?
1. People who ascribe the return of vision to a political dynasty and not the skill of the surgeon don't care about sanctions. You cannot make them suffer enough in N. Korea to make them rise up against Kim Jong Un.
2. China knows how irrational the people in N. Korea are when it comes to their leaders. China will do nothing that risks the collapse of the dynasty. The vacuum will create a chaos that will quickly spread into China. China must be engaged, but they cannot be dictated to when it comes to N. Korea. The consequences of a failed state are on their border. China will push back vigorously against regime change be it from military strikes, or sanctions.
3. The reason Kim Jong Il gave up the prisoners was because of the personal diplomacy of Bill Clinton. He had been the first world leader, ahead of even China, to call him when his father had passed away. A meaningful gesture. Diplomacy works. It takes time, and patience, but if done on a personal level it can work.
4. Name calling via tweets, and erratic changes in policy will not foster positive change.
5. N. Korea, and it's leaders seek recognition. They do not seek their own destruction. They have pursued WMD's because they are now on the world stage, and they have legitimacy. It's long past time for the US to open a diplomatic mission in Pyongyang and talk to them directly, not as an appendage of China.
