The Daily Mail ran the best piece I’ve read on the whole Ling & Lee affair — at least it managed to salvage a smile from this depressing mess:
A Mail on Sunday investigation has unearthed some rather surprising facts about the pair – facts that show they were hopelessly ill-prepared for their ‘mission’ to the Chinese-Korean border, that they were working for a minor television organisation run by a former ambulance-chasing lawyer and, while they no doubt did not intend to be captured, the hapless twosome ended up as valuable pawns in an international game of bluff and double bluff.
Indeed, from the whole tawdry affair only one clear winner has emerged – an exuberant Bill Clinton – even if, according to an insider, ‘the joke in the White House was that the girls were safer in North Korea than on the plane going home with Bill’.
[...]
The Mail on Sunday has spoken to a long-time Democratic Party insider, who is a confidant of Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, now President Obama’s Secretary of State.‘Laura is sweet but not very street-smart,’ said the insider. ‘She was sent to China to make a routine programme about refugees crossing the border from North Korea but, according to Kim Jong Il’s people, she was walking across the border and leaping about.
Read the rest on your own.
(HT to Korea Economic Reader)
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
It took a British publication to properly point out the hypocrisy and irony of this entire affair. I think the U.S. media is too hamstrung on the almost comic book elements of this story, good versus evil, hero saves the damsels in distress. Ugh. I can’t wait for this to pass and a sappy movie on Lifetime to cycle through.
I thought of the preparations they made were much like that evangelical group that went and were kidnapped in Afghanistan – ‘God will provide’. You’d think that they w0uld have been more savvy than that, but no. I think that this will make it harder for NK refugees to make it out of the country, owing mainly to these ladies’ stupidity and ignorance.
Frankly I’m mystified by t_song’s statement. Did I miss something or has the U.S. media failed to reported the facts as they came to light, including Ms. Ling’s admission that they breached NK territory? Was it somehow hypocritical to report on Pres. Clinton’s important role?
Also, I’m confused as to why the article pronounces that Pres. Clinton came out the only “clear winner” in a so-called “tawdry affair.” Certainly, it came out well for the Obama administration, as well as the 2 reporters who were retrieved. The NKs saved face. It was generally a good moment for diplomacy and may have created an opening for more diplomacy.
Mizar,
You are absolutely right about the multiple winners in the NK2 affair. Let me add another: Clinton’s trip is already being quietly hailed in intel circles as a boon for information about the current state of Pyongyang policy-making. Nobody ever knows for sure what’s going on in the North, but we know a lot more than we did two weeks ago, and all KJI got was an instantly forgettable photo op.
DLB
DLB – That’s exactly the thought I had after seeing the Clinton & Kim photos. An informal sit-down like this would’ve netted far more intel than anybody has gotten in a long time..
But these two idiots still deserve to have their passports revoked and a stupid tax placed on any money they might make from this story.
Couldn’t agree more. How is it that there are still anarchistic cold war wariers who cannot tolerate diplomacy? When did integrity, intelligence and enhancing the image of America overseas suddenly become unAmerican?
There is a frighteningly ignorant minority in the US that thinks this way. They comprise the neanderthal right wing of the Republican party.
There’s nothing dignified or intelligent about giving in to North Korea, as you’ll probably learn in Iran and when North Korea pulls something like this again. As for the supposed “intel” we learned from Bubba sitting down with KJI, well, what intel would that be? You’ll forgive me if I’m a tad skeptical of what Washington Pyongyangologists think they know, especially after a day trip to Pyongyang.
Hitch is hardly a member of the “neanderthal right wing of the Republican party.” But I suppose it sounds good rhetorically. Kind of like ranting about the socialist wing of the Democratic Party who view every act of appeasement of anti-American thugs as a diplomatic victory.
@7 Robert
One of the most basic reasons why we have a government is for talking to other governments around the world. Not just to our friends, but our enemies as well. Especially our enemies. The Grumpy Old People policy of talking only to friends and equating diplomacy with weakness and using it as a reward does not work. Obama campaigned on the issue, and the voters soundly rejected your view.
Your wife is very beautiful, by the way.
Who said anything about giving in to NK? We’re talking about diplomacy, right?
Regardless of whether it sounds good rhetorically, is “America right or wrong, we don’t apologize for past mistakes, or negotiate with enemies, engage in diplomacy but rather impose ourselves on other nations through force, etc.” not an extreme right wing position?
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