Here’s to a groveling plea and a whole lotta cash to secure their release…. And, trust me, nothing would please Lil’ Kim more than to have Gore, the former vice president of the United States, personally make this plea while handing over a Yankee-size bag of cash.
[North Korea adds kidnapping (of US journalists) to its diplomatic arsenal, TIJ, June 8, 2009]
As this quote indicates, I predicted that a groveling apology would be part of the ransom North Korean President Kim Jong-il would extract for the release of US journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling.
Therefore I was not at all surprised a couple weeks ago when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dutifully obliged. In fact, after paying Orwellian homage to North Korea’s justice system, Clinton assured Lil’ Kim that the two reporters had expressed “great remorse for the incident” and then, giving their remorse the US government’s imprimatur, she added that “everyone is very sorry that it happened.”
But I’m sure not even the North Koreans could have imagined that instead of sending Al Gore on this mission of supplication and genuflection, the US would send his former boss Bill Clinton.
Indeed, so prized was this “concession” that the North Koreans wasted no time publishing pictures of the photo op between Clinton and their dear leader Lil’ Kim. And it speaks volumes that, in each shot, Clinton looks like he himself might be a hostage while Lil’ Kim looks like the cat that just caught the canary.
Of course he was determined not to give Kim the collegial, propaganda shot he coveted. But I suspect it’s only a matter of time before those crafty North Koreans publish pictures of Clinton sipping champagne and yukking it up behind closed doors…)
But, that done, the only thing left was for this hermit kingdom’s state TV to announce Kim’s “special pardon” of the two journalists — who were serving 12 years of hard labor on a battery of trumped-up espionage charges. They are expected to be flying home with Clinton within hours.
The past 140 days have been the most difficult, heart-rending days of our lives… Thirty hours ago, we feared that any moment we could be sent to a hard labor camp. [Then, she said, they were taken to another location.]
When we walked through the doors, we saw standing before us President Bill Clinton. We were shocked but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end, and now we stand here, home and free.
(Ling speaking at a reception at Burbank airport in California earlier today – her voice cracking as she held back tears of joy)
Perhaps now Clinton can head off to Iran to negotiate the release of the three American tourists being held as spies….
Indeed, I feel obliged to note that this mission marks the fulfillment of another, far more consequential of my predictions:
Appointing Hillary as Secretary of State would be tantamount to inviting her (and her husband Bill) to set up a de facto parallel presidency predicated on the fiction that she will deal with foreign affairs and Obama will deal with domestic affairs. And, frankly, this would be a perfect recipe for untenable tension within his presidency, which would have Obama constantly looking over his shoulder to see what machinations Bill and Hillary are concocting to upstage him.
[Hillary as Secretary of State?! Don’t do it Barack…! TIJ, November 15, 2008]
Clearly, I warned him.
And by the way, the White House insisting that Clinton embarked on this mission as a private citizen, not as an emissary of the Obama administration, is about as credible as Clinton insisting that he did not have sex with that woman….
NOTE: I trust it’s obvious why there will be no mention, on either side, of the more unseemly part of this deal; i.e., cash or some in-kind ransom … like food aid.
And don’t believe for a minute that this episode will lead to more constructive bilateral talks between the US and North Korea on nuclear weapons. Because no less a person than Clinton himself can attest to the fact that any promise the North Koreans make — either to cease producing or to eliminate their nuclear arsenal — is not worth the paper it’s written on.
Related commentaries:
North Korea adds kidnapping
Hillary as Secretary of State?!
* This commentary was published originally yesterday, Tuesday, at 4:05 pm
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