A Quick Post to Mock Clinton
by Richardson ~ May 20th, 2009. Filed under: Crime, Diplomacy, Fiskings, Law, North Korea, Propaganda.Hillary Clinton, speaking at a graduation ceremony at Barnard College in New York City, displayed an amazing degree of naiveté:
“We have two young women journalists right now imprisoned in North Korea and you can get busy on the Internet and let the North Koreans know that we find that absolutely unacceptable,” Clinton told the graduation ceremony.
Probably the U.S. Secretary of State shouldn’t publicly entertain such ridiculous notions; the North Korean people don’t have access to the internet, and a regime that doesn’t give a damn about starving ten percent of the population doesn’t care about Facebook or Twitter.
North Korea announced last week it would try two American journalists who strayed into the country but were on the Chinese side of the border when apprehended – Euna Lee and Laura Ling – on unspecified charges.
Update: I should have noted in the original post that awareness of what’s happening in North Korea is important, particularity in electing officials who have a clue.
May 26th, 2009 at 2:30 am
[...] you surprised that those two reporters were seized on the Chinese side of the border? And, as the DPRK Studies site notes, the American Secretary of State thinks the young women at Barnard College in downtown [...]
May 29th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Sadly, that post made me laugh. You are absolutely right about it being a ridiculous notion. A serious lapse in judgement on her part.
May 29th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Why would they care about anything they don’t have a direct connection too? That notion is extremely silly. Basically all trade with NK is done by people who feel they help the NKans by doing so. People who think they make a humanitarian contribution. They have dealt with all kind of difficulties before. And it’s really only ambassadors abroad that would face any criticism and they are used to that too. Putting pressure works on a open country like Iran, but not defensive military countries. There’s nothing they can take away from NK really, but I guess the US politicians don’t want to “reward” them either way.
June 12th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
I don’t believe Hillary was referring to North Korean citizens. My educated guess is that she meant the government leaders in Pyongyang when she said “the North Koreans”
Certainly the North Korean government has access to the Internet and probably Googled “Euna Lee” as she was being driven in a military vehicle from the Tumen River border area to Pyongyang.
It’s not unreasonable to assume that North Korean intelliigence officers would look at the popular Facebook page to glean information about Euna Lee, such as the fact that her parents live in South Korea.
As for what busy Barnard College graduates could specifically do on the Internet to communicate directly with North Korean officials, I do wish Hillary would have been more specific.
I don’t believe North Korea’s UN Representative maintains a blog and it’s not possible to leave comments on KCNA’s pathetic website. I have seen the short list of websites that are actually based in North Korea and none of them have interactive features.
June 12th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
If she meant the North Korean elite - which I doubt - that’s even more ridiculous.
It’s not unreasonable to assume, as you say, that a certain level of elites have actual internet access. However, having had such access, there is plentiful information about the atrocities committed by that government that complaints about the two journalists would seem relatively very minor; like traffic tickets compared to a serial killer. On top of that, you’re speaking of the exact same cohort that is committing and perpetuating these crimes, and profiting off them by maintaining elite status. All that while at least a couple hundred thousand languish in concentration camps, and probably a million or more starved to death.
What she said was absurd no matter how one tries to apologize for it.