N. Korea sentences US reporters to 12 years labor.
I’d like to know whether their religious preferences will be respected while they’re imprisoned, and if not, how soon we can shut North Korea down.
Couple things caught my eye:
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea convicted two American journalists and sentenced them Monday to 12 years of hard labor for crossing into its territory, intensifying the reclusive nation’s confrontation with the United States.
The Obama administration said it would pursue “all possible channels” to win the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore’s San Francisco-based Current TV media venture.
They work for Al Gore? Has he said anything about this? Have he and Jimmy Carter made travel reservations yet, to negotiate the women’s release?
Don’t the North Koreans know that people like Gore are the best friends they’ve got?
…North Korean guards arrested Ling and Lee near the China-North Korean border on March 17. The two were reporting about the trafficking of North Korean women at the time of their arrest, and it’s unclear if they strayed into the North or were grabbed by aggressive border guards who crossed into China. A cameraman and their local guide escaped.
Okay, here’s an idea: China has more authority with the Norks than we do. Let’s threaten to deflate our currency until all the bonds China owns are just about worthless unless they get those women back for us.
Or have we crossed that bridge already?
One more thing: thanks to Matthew Yglesias for putting everything in its proper perspective with a George W. Bush reference. No criticism of any barbarism or wrongdoing anywhere, ever, is ever complete without a George W. Bush reference.