Gomes back home; family thanks Carter, State… and North Korea

That Aijalon Gomes fellow is back in the United States. Hurray.

Anyway, his family released a statement, in which they thank Peanuts, the State Department, the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang and the North Koreans:

The family of Aijalon Gomes feels blessed today to be able to welcome Aijalon home and into the arms of all those who love him. This has been a long, dark, and difficult period — for Aijalon and for our family. We are grateful to all the people who made today possible.

First, we want to express heartfelt gratitude to former President Jimmy Carter and the staff of the Carter Center for taking on Aijalon’s release as a private humanitarian mission. Thank you, President Carter, for traveling to North Korea to bring Aijalon home.

Thank you to the government of North Korea for caring for Aijalon during his darkest days, then agreeing to release him on humanitarian grounds. And thank you to Swedish ambassador to North Korea Mats Foyer and the first secretary and deputy chief of mission at the Swedish embassy in North Korea, Johan Eidman, for graciously serving as the vitally important communication channel to Aijalon during his incarceration.

Alrighty then. You know, as much as some might find the perfunctory, “Sorry for causing the public concern” statements released by high-profile Koreans when they get caught doing something bad insincere, it would have been nice to have seen one here. Well, perhaps when Aijalon himself says something… but I won’t hold my breath.

Oh, here’s a depressing thought (from the first link):

Both Shawn Gomes and Milton McCarthy said their brother, who is not married, was the more “sophisticated” sibling in the family.

Well, let’s just pray none of them end up teaching in South Korea, either.

I can’t say I was Jack Pritchard’s biggest fan, but I’d buy him a beer for this (seriously, I would):

Pritchard said that Gomes was given too harsh a sentence, so it was the right thing to do to get him out. But he said Americans who illegally cross the border into North Korea put the United States in a position of diplomatic begging and give the North Koreans leverage they shouldn’t have. Gomes should have known he was going to be arrested and dealt with harshly, he said.

“What was going through his mind? He should have been under no illusion as to what the consequences were going to be. . .Step up and take responsibility, Mr. Gomes.”

Pritchard also seems to think Peanuts got snubbed by Kim Jong-il as a way of enacting a penalty on the United States:

“Carter must be seething with embarassment,” said Pritchard. “The intent was to exact a penalty from the United States and simply say, ‘You guys disrespect our laws and you want us to release [Gomes] after he has been found guilty . . . Here is the penalty.”

If true, it shows the depth to which North Korea is ignorant of international practice, which, as you know, is to give visiting foreign heads of state a standing ovation in your national parliament after their citizens — or millions of them — disrespect your laws. But that is neither here nor there: Inje University professor Kim Yeon-cheol told the Hankyoreh that if Carter had brought with him some new US policy towards North Korea or a personal message from President Obama, Kim naturally would have met him, but with no movement from the United States, a meeting would have been burdensome for Kim. Of course, perhaps Kim was just trying to avoid the Jimmy Carter Curse: Peanuts met South Korean President Park Chung-hee in 1979 and North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in 1994 — both men were dead within the year.

One last thing about Carter. From One Free Korea:

I can’t resist making one more observation, and it is this: who else has noticed that the ex-”human rights president,” one who was so concerned about Park Chong Hee’s authoritarianism that he almost pulled U.S. forces out of Korea, never quite summons the principle to call for the closure of North Korea’s peace forests? Or that Carter’s ostentatious and smug brand of religious faith never translates into a call to end North Korea’s persecution of Christians?

PS: It’s interesting to note that in visiting China, not only did Kim snub Carter, but if Kim did get to meet Chinese leader Hu Jintao yesterday — as some are reporting — that, too, might have gone against protocol by forcing Hu to go to Changchun — albeit a lovely city, I’m told — to meet with Kim at his hotel.

Something else, too. It’s being widely reported that Kim’s visit is to seek Chinese approval of his son, Kim Jong-un, as successor to the family business. Now, I don’t really doubt that it this stage in North Korea’s decline, Pyongyang is very dependent on Chinese largess for the regime’s survival. Still, it seems to me odd — given Pyongyang’s nationalist rhetoric — that Kim would seemingly resurrect the old Joseon practice of Korea seeking Chinese approval of Korean kings, a practice — while mostly ceremonial — still symbolized Korea’s relationship as a tributary of China. If I were a South Korean leader, I’d be very worried about what that means.

Tagged as: Aijalon Mahli Gomes, Jimmy Carter