Related: North Korea Finds a Friend
One is better than none.
"Kim’s apparent snub of Carter has analysts puzzled; Some observers see a change in N. Korea focus" by Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | August 28, 2010
Wasn't he in China for meetings on the six-party talks?
WASHINGTON — The behavior of reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Il often baffles even the most seasoned American diplomats. Once, he ordered the kidnapping of a Japanese film star and her director husband in an attempt to build a film industry in North Korea. Another time, he imported Italian chefs to build him a state-of-the-art pizza oven at a time when millions of his countrymen were starving.
Also see: Slow Saturday Special: North Korea's Gnawing Hunger
Maybe we could win some hearts and minds with meals not missiles, huh?
But Kim’s treatment this week of former president Jimmy Carter, who traveled to Pyongyang to secure the release of a Boston man who had illegally entered the country, has struck some observers of North Korea as especially mystifying. Kim, who usually goes out of his way to try to coax American officials to Pyongyang for highly publicized meetings, did not meet with Carter and instead reportedly left the country for China.
That decision to forgo a valuable propaganda opportunity set off a flurry of speculation in Washington yesterday about the message he was trying to send....
That he had another engagement and just couldn't meet with him?
I'm sure the AmeriKan MSM is the ONLY ONE who saw it as a "propaganda opportunity."
Carter was met at the airport by Kim Gye Gwan, the vice minister of foreign affairs. Carter also met North Korea’s number two official, Kim Yong Nam. North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency reported that Carter apologized for Gomes’s illegal entry and sent a message to Kim Jong Il requesting a special pardon for Gomes.
South Korean news reports said Kim went to China to meet with President Hu Jintao, in a border province that has benefited from increased trade.
John Park, director of the Korea working group at the Washington-based US Institute of Peace, said Kim’s trip underscored the fact that North Korea is placing a higher priority on strengthening its relations with China — already its most important ally — than courting the United States....
Yeah, wouldn't YOU DEFER to the FRIEND rather than a bullying prick like the U.S.?
A senior congressional aide who closely follows North Korea said it could be a positive sign that Kim did not seek to use Gomes to his political advantage by showcasing himself with the former president.
“They didn’t play politics with his release,’’ said the aide, who was not authorized to be quoted by name....
The aide warned that policy makers know so little about Kim that is almost impossible to understand him.
“We are often wrong,’’ he said....
Yeah, that's AmeriKa!
Anything else?
"Aside from Gomes’s release, it remained unknown yesterday whether Carter’s visit was productive. The president stayed a day longer than originally announced, and it was reported yesterday that North Korea leader Kim Jong Il traveled to China within hours after the president’s arrival.
So the trip to China was pretty much set in advance, huh?
And how much more productive could the trip be?
He got the guy out and was not acting as an official U.S. representative.
Or was that just more MSM and government BS?
Carter was expecting to meet with Kim, but the exact nature of the negotiations, if any, was not clear.....
Looks likes a miscommunication to me.
--more--"
