Courtesy Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok:
“At least since 2000 when we began providing assistance to the North, no one there has been starving to death.”
Joshua does an excellent job of explaining why this is an asinine thing to say, although strangely enough, I couldn’t find reference to it in reports of Lee’s most recent address before the National Unification Advisory Council. He did say this before foreign diplomats in February, however.
Funny thing about Lee is that even when he sounds like a complete ass, he can still demonstrate why he’s a lot better—or at least more competent—than his predecessor Chung Dong-young:
“There are some countries which just keep talking about human rights in North Korea even if they are neither accepting any defectors from the North nor giving aid of even a grain of rice.”
Nice to see Seoul is still smarting after U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights Jay Lefkowitz said some not-so-positive things in the WSJ about Seoul’s aid to Pyongyang. The rice thing aside, however, it’s hard to argue with his contention that certain other states have talked a big game but done very little. It will be interesting to see if Washington calls Lee on this and announces it will begin accepting North Korean refugees en masse. The Seoul Sinmun reported this morning that Lee, then-National Security Council deputy director, had asked then-Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly for the United States to take in North Korean refugees when the two met in 2004. The two sides are currently negotiating over the number of refugees the United States will take in; such negotiations are necessary because constitutionally, North Korean refugees are South Korean citizens. Washington will likely take in “a few dozen” refugees currently residing in Southeast Asia. Also interesting is that according to the U.S. source quoted by the Seoul Sinmun, the major barrier to the United States taking in North Korean refugees is not Seoul, but the Department of Homeland Security, which was apparently not so hot on the idea until Bush told Secretary Chertoff to “make things happen.”
Anyway, Lee also said yesterday:
“During the Carter administration, the United States employed ‘human rights diplomacy,’ but Henry Kissinger called this ‘amateur diplomacy’… When dealing with human rights issues at the national level, you have to do so strategically.”
OK, now call bullshit here if you like (we all know the current Seoul administration loves Carter, and many 386ers resent the United States for its Kissinger-esque support for South Korea’s past military dictators), but at least Lee knows who Kissinger was. Could you imagine Chung Dong-young making such a statement?
Lee also took the time to show that he could talk tough to states other than the United States. Like Japan:
The hall where the minister held the speech erupted in applause when he criticized Japan for attempting to claim Dokdo as its territory.
Mentioning the security issues concerning the Korean Peninsula, Lee said that Japan’s bid is not a simple matter, but it shows Japan’s intention to deny Korea’s history of liberation from Japanese colonial rule, and sovereignty.
“In February 1905, Japan annexed Dokdo islets as part of its Shimane Prefecture as part of its imperialist efforts to invade the Korean Peninsula. In summer 1905, they installed observation posts on the islets to block the Russian fleets from coming southward,” he said.
“So the reason they are raising the issue 60 years after the end of the colonization is clear. They are denying our history of liberation and historic rights, so we cannot but take strong steps against this,” Lee said.
Apparently, the unification minister did NOT follow this up by covering himself with bees and leaping from the podium onto a Japanese flag, but it’s something he should definitely consider. I think I’ll drop the ministry a note suggesting it.
Oh, and Lee noted the complex nature of burgeoning Sino-North Korean ties:
“While the Sino-North Korean economic cooperation is said to be positive for triggering more door-opening policies in the North, it also provides a challenge for us regarding the long-term perspective of a unified Korean community,” Lee said.
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Hi, folks, anyone care to explain what Sa Hak Bup is? “사학법”
It’s a Chinese based word, and I’m wondering what the law does, that will require resistance from Han Nara.
“When dealing with human rights issues at the national level, you have to do so strategically.”
This is quite rich coming from the personification of the strategically inept Roh administration.
“nor giving aid of even a grain of rice.”
Wasn’t the US the biggest aid donor to the North? Maybe I’m mistaken on this, but I thought they were shipping thousands of tons of aid there, at least up until not too long ago, right?
Granted that this guy is smarter than Chung Dumb-young. That just makes him more dangerous, more in need of watching and more in need of being called to account.
He implicitly criticizes the US for not acting on its principles regarding human rights in NORKland by not providing food aid; but until relatively recently the US in fact was a major food donor to North Korea and specifically did not seek to use food aid as a political weapon. US aid, like most other int’l aid, ended when even the woefully inadequate prior monitoring systems were rendered completely meaningless by NORK restrictions on the inspectors access and freedom of movement.
One could claim that the US thus now is using food aid as a political weapon; similarly, that it is so using the currency counterfeting and other soprano state activities of the Nork regime. to highlight the point, I would say that’s correct and entrirely justifiable in the same way that it is correct to say prosecuting counterfeiting by organized crime as criminal acitivity is political. Both are justifiable insofar as the proscribed acitivty is altogether outside the bounds of acceptable conduct within the domestic political order or the international political order, as the case may be. Similarly, if the NORKS want the benefits of participating in the int’l political order, such as it is, they need to play by the rules of that order, which include independent monitoring of aid to ensure that it reaches the intended recipients. In other words, the food and criminal enforcement have not become weaponized by the intent or manner of implementation of those alleged to be wielding them as such, but by the truculence of the NORK regime.
The position of the NORKS and their apologists is like that of a drug addict who whines that a would be benefactor is imposing unacceptable moral conditions on a handout if the benefactor insists on paying for a meal instead of giving the skell cash.
Lee also implicitly criticizes the US for not moving quickly to accept NORK refugees, but as noted the major roadblock here seems to be ROK sensitivity about US offers of asylum to people whom the ROK (at least formally) considers its own citizens. So using a alliance partner’s deference to your own policies as a basis for criticism is the height of folly and puts this knucklehad squarely in the same dunce’s corner as Chung. (I don’t doubt that Homeland Security also has raised issues - quite justifiably, but I very much doubt that has been even a significanrt let alone the principal problem).
More generally, he skirts the underlying issue - which is precisely how one responds strategically to the plight of the North Korean people considering that the sorts of aid provided by the ROK clearly constitute a lifeline to the regime (which is precisely what they are intended by the ROK to be), without demonstrably aiding the North Korean people, either in terms of nutirion or human rights generally, even in the short run - let alone the long sun, where in fact they may (and very likley are ) counterproductive in that they simply delay the day of liberation.
It doesn’t matter much if the rice distribution is monitored or not. Rice is fungible–any that goes to the starving unfortunates is that much more the military can keep for itself. I’m in favor of going cold turkey on the aid, opening the refugee floodgates and letting the place collapse. The sooner it happens the better for everyone, even for the BMW driving set in Kangnam.
“The position of the NORKS and their apologists is like that of a drug addict who whines that a would be benefactor is imposing unacceptable moral conditions on a handout if the benefactor insists on paying for a meal instead of giving the skell cash.”
Exactly. It’s also like, to use AA terminology, the alkie and his enabler, with the U.S. as the enforcer. But worse, the S.K. gov’t is also abusing the relationship by exploiting N. Korean workers at Kaesong as it props up KJI’s regime. I’m hoping that once Roh is out of office someone who works with the int’l community for the N. Korean people’s benefit will replace him.
Wedge: Of course I agree, but that point is too simple for the knuckleheads to understnd, so I thought it better to impugn their reasoning ability on its own terms.
Sperwer: Copy.
The part I liked the most was the dare to Lefkowitz to follow the anti-US pop singer’s advice and just go to Pyongyang - I mean Kaesong - to see what life is really like —
—but then how he quickly nixed the idea of a group of international monitors going for their own fact finding mission…..
Speaking of Chung Dong Yong, I took a trip to Ulleung-Do (MUST SEE youall!) which has a population of less than 10,000 and while walking through one of the only decent sized villages (Chodong) me and a friend noticed a large entourage waiting for someone. Anyhow, after a few hours of hiking we came back to Chodong, and everyone was still waiting, including several tired looking ladies in hanbok holding flowers.
We hail a cab back to Todong just as this really long line of cars, limos, police vehicles shows up. My friend asks the taxi driver who it is, and he says it’s none other than “old folks shouldn’t vote” Chung Dong Young.
The driver then goes on to say how most on the island really dislike him and were forced to put on the welcoming ceremony. Then he went on to explain that because it was May 1st, Chung wanted to kick off the election campaign with a bit of Dokdo rhetoric.
He also said the entire island knows that the Uri Party is using the issue and don’t really care much about the issues facing the island.
Anyhow, Ulleung-Do is truly spectacular- for me it kicks Jeju’s bum-seok any old day.
I don’t know about Lee’s political aims, but I wouldn’t dismiss his comments as completely false. Death from starvation in NK has significantly abated in the recent years. I had the opportunity to translate some testimonies from North Korean refugees crossing the Yalu into China. The general consensus, from what I’ve read so far, is that conditions are not as bad as they were in the mid-90’s, as death from starvation is not visibly widespread. They are still severely malnourished, eating a handful of rice and corn that is years old once or twice a day at most. Winter heating is the most serious issue because fuel is so expensive for the common North Korean. However, these were testimonies from North Koreans who lived near the Chinese border where Chinese goods and foodstuffs are more accessible than in other areas. Those further inland might have a tougher time. The recent reimposition of the rationing system and its bureacratic delays might make things worse, too.
Whether or not Lee’s comments are true or not, it still may not be entirely improper to take issue with his impliedly taking credit for abating the starving of the poor NoKos. After all, you can just as easily explain the decrease in starvation deaths through simple economic principles.
Death from starvation generally abates the need for a person to eat. If a country allows enough of its people to starve to death, being careful to preserve the infrastructure (such as the few productive farms) that keeps the majority of the population alive, then eventually you end up with a sort of equilibrium where you can generally meet the basic vital needs of the larer portion of your population, and maybe even produce enough to allow a few of the population to become as disgustingly fat as Kim Jong-il. Since you’ve diminished the demand of those million unproductive mouths, you have more food to go around. Of course, stretched so thin, your population is still abnormally vulnerable to further starvation, but when times get tough, some efficient spot management can allow you to isolate the starvation in one place, and then when fortunes are returned to their previous levels, take credit with the party faithful for acting to abate the famine (since the extra deaths have freed up extra resources).
Of course, it helps if you have some lackey down south to help divert attention away from you. Even better if you make him complicit through offering an incentive to come over to your country and exploit some people, himself. Fun times are had by all.
It sounds like Lee is just trying to take credit for averting starvation and somehow blame others (like the US)for not doing more, despite the fact the the Yankees have been the largest donor. Typical scumbag politician.