The Marmot’s Hole

Former North Korean Workers Party secretary Hwang Jang-yeop is in the United States at last, after years of being prevented from leaving South Korea by politicians worried that he might, horror of horrors, say bad things about the Workers’ Paradise from which he fled. Anyway, according to the Chosun:

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in a regular briefing that Hwang’s visit was initiated by the Defense Forum Foundation, a non-governmental organization, and was a private visit.
When asked whether he thought Hwang’s visit would influence future six-way talks on the North’s nuclear program, Boucher said he could not understand why and how Hwang’s visit to the United States would affect the talks [Marmot's note: I hope Boucher was joking when he said that]. He added that during his stay in Washington, Hwang would meet with Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs James Kelly, Undersecretary of State John Bolton and arms control specialist Fred Feitz, as well as members of Congress.

Boy, I’d love to be around for that meeting with Bolton. However, the Chosun goes on to suggest something that I find, personally, quite disturbing:

The conservative daily paper the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that activists in the United States and South Korea are urging Hwang to announce the establishment of a refugee government during his visit. The paper also said that some supporters expect Hwang to become the new leader of North Korea if Kim Jong Il is deposed.

Professor Nam Jae-jung of the AEGIS Foundation, a human rights movement for North Koreans in the United States, stressed that Hwang is the perfect person to lead North Korea, since he knows which North Korean officials to remove and which to keep. Another former North Korean diplomat working in a defectors’ group in Seoul praised Hwang as the perfect leader, because of his numerous followers and disciples in North Korea’s elite class, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Look, I’ve been a little rough on Hwang from time to time, and I’ve got to give him credit for apparently being right about Prof. Song Du-yul. That being said, Hwang is THE LAST man I’d want to see in charge of a post Kim Jong-il North Korea. A defector he might be, but he’s a defector who was, after all, North Korea’s chief ideologue and father of its Juch’e ideology. And those “disciples” in North Korea’s elite class are just the very people who have been screwing the country for the last 50 years, and are more than likely the very same people who will be hanging from trees and/or lamp posts when “change” finally comes. North Korea needs a fresh start, and I can’t see how turning the place over to ex-Communist Party apparatchiks will give it that.

Oh, and something I found cute - this time from the Joongang Ilbo:

He originally planned to leave the country today, but left early to avoid demonstrators. Believing that he was a wasting asset in studying the isolated communist regime, the Defense Forum Foundation, a U.S. human rights advocacy group, has been trying to invite Mr. Hwang to speak in the United States for some time.
Mr. Hwang departed for New York at 11 a.m. from Incheon International Airport. In preparation for possible disruptions, police deployed troops in Seoul and Incheon yesterday morning. A group of student activists was waiting for Mr. Hwang at the airport to stop his travel, but did not spot him.

Gee, I guess it is OK to protest against the North Koreans in this country - as long as the North Korean in question is a defector.