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While Steph has been spinning out thoughtful analyses of corruption, I’ve been collecting tales of cross-border exchange gone awry. Its Friday, so let’s start with the depressing ones and move toward humor.
A sadly recurring trope in relations with North Korea has been the misguided traveler morphing into hostage. Their families are understandably concerned and, in the case of Americans. it puts pressure on the US government to do whatever it takes to get their loved ones returned. In the most recent case, Won Moon Joo, a South Korean student attending NYU, seems to have managed to turn himself into a political pawn. To be clear, I am not blaming the victim: the North Korean government, whatever its motivations, typically behaves less than helpfully in these situations. The point is simply that there are reasons why the US and other governments post advisories with regard to travel to North Korea.
Sometimes you don’t even have to be a misguided traveler to be detained in North Korea: the Reverend Kim Dong-shik and others were abducted. In an update to that case, last month Reverend Kim’s son and brother were awarded a $330 million judgement against North Korea in the case. Mike Bassett and Doug Bandow may not think North Korea practices terrorism, but US law and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia say differently. Christian activists appear to be disproportionately targeted, though it is not apparent to me the degree to which this reflects their activism and how much is due to the special animus with which they are regarded by the North Korean regime. Steph has written about the cases of Kim Guk-gi and Choe Chun-gil but I don’t think he mentioned that Kim is a Presbyterian pastor who has dedicated much of the last 13 years to missionary work benefiting North Korean refugees in China.
And sometimes you don’t even have to leave home to be detained for your cross-border activities—at least if you are in South Korea. Yonhap is reporting that yet another misguided soul has been arrested in South Korea under the National Security Law for allegedly posting pro-North Korean writings online. As an American I recognize that it is a lot easier being a free speech fundamentalist when Canada is one’s northern neighbor, not the DPRK, which supports seditious groups. Nevertheless, for the nth chorus: isn’t it time to scrap the National Security Law? If some useful idiot in Daegu wants to spew apologia for the Kim Jong-un regime, really, who cares? Aren’t we beyond that?
But not all trans-border encounters end badly. If one is feeling depressed and is in need of some entertainment, I have the cure: Jonathan Cheng’s piece last month in the Wall Street Journal describing the misadventure of Daniel Olomae Ole Sapit, a Masai cow herder who tried to attend a UN conference in Pyeongchang, site of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, but instead ended up in Pyongyang. “The first inkling that something was wrong: His glances out the plane window didn’t seem to show any of the big cities he was expecting to see in the highly urbanized and industrialized South. 'It seemed to me a very underdeveloped country,' [Mr. Sapit] says.” But this adventure has a happy ending: “After being held in an inspection room for several hours, he was eventually forced to sign a document attesting to the blame, and accompanied on a flight back to Beijing, where he had to pay for his ticket out as well as a fine of $500 for entering the country without a visa.”
Travel agents of the world, repeat after me: “Pyeongchang ain’t Pyongyang.” You have three years—one year per word—to memorize. Shouldn’t be too hard.
Speaking of Canada, before there was Liam Gallagher of Oasis fame, there was Liam O'Gallagher of “Border Dissolve in Audio Space.” This one is worth clicking through the commercial, believe me. Have a pleasant weekend wherever you are.
