CLINTON SAVES JOURNALISTS BUT DOESN’T END NORTH KOREAN TYRANNY

August 5 2009

Washington, D.C. – When Richard Nixon visited China in 1972 it was under some of the most difficult imaginable. With the Vietnam War still raging, Cuba very much still a thorn in the side of the United States, and the Cold War still in full swing the
staunchly anti-Communist President’s venture into the heart of the largest Red country in world was a huge gamble and one that has gone down in history as a triumph of diplomacy and the ability for avowed enemies to calmly discuss their issues.

Though the results of the meeting were less than spectacular the summit showed both countries, and the world, that diplomacy need not be a dirty word. Only Nixon could have gone to China and only Bill Clinton could have to gone to North Korea. Clinton’s trip to save two imprisoned journalists from North Korean jails has been hailed as a victory for the former President and the beginning of a new day between the two enemy
nations. Many though aren’t so sure, noting that Clinton pre-negotiated the release and ignored much more pressing issues with the isolated nation such as human rights and nuclear proliferation, issues he left the country without resolving.

“This isn’t quite the same thing as Nixon going into China. He went to try and resolve the ongoing issue with Taiwan which is something still deeply felt and accompanied by a great deal of bloodshed. This really was about a couple of journalists who couldn’t read a map properly. Regardless of the motivations the net result of engaging the North in discussion is a coup,” said Scrape TV International analyst Gustav Hander. “One also has to question why Clinton was so compelled by this story. He has had a, well and interesting relationship with the media throughout his life so that may have been part of the reason. Of course the journalists are also kind of cute so that could have sparked interest for Clinton.”

The reporters had been serving a 12-year sentence in North Korea after apparently wandering into the country while reporting in China. It’s still not immediately clear how the two accidently climbed over razor wire and accidently avoided armed guards.

“Whatever the women did and whatever reason North Korean officials decided to give them such harsh punishments this whole situation has turned into positives for everyone. The journalists get to go home to their families, North Korea appears as sympathetic, and Bill Clinton gets a chance with Korean interns. It’s a diplomatic and personal win in a way that normally doesn’t happen when it comes to North Korea,” continued Hander. “Unfortunately though Clinton wasn’t able to wade through the miasma of problems that so obscure
the relationship between the two countries. That could ultimately be the undoing of the whole mission. By not coming out of the country with some kind of armistice or a reunion between North and South Clinton has opened himself and potentially the Obama government up for new levels of criticism and fuel for critics.”

The Obama government has walked careful line so far not wanting to be shown as too closely tied to the Clinton coup but also wanting to gain some of the positive glean currently being garnered for the former President.

“Already some in the GOP are starting to sharpen their knives. Investigators are starting to look into the personal lives of both the journalists and will likely do their best to demonize them. That will force the Obama government to step away even further, something that might be very difficult considering the intimate connection between them and the Clintons,” continued Hander. “Without a massive and unadulterated win there is going to be a lot of wiggle room for critics. The next time North Korea wags the nuclear finger a lot of the blame is going to fall on Clinton and the fact that he spent all this effort freeing journalists and not stopping abuses. Then the Obama government won’t want anything to do with him.”

North Korea has not made an effort to free any of the Koreans that had been doing time alongside the two American prisoners.     

Edward Bastil, Political Correspondent

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