In North Korea, diplomacy walks a tightrope

The White House was quick to describe the humanitarian mission – led by former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to North Korea Jan. 7 – as ‘unhelpful.’ State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland called it ‘ill advised.’ The administration’s reaction shows its main focus is on seeking U.N. Security Council support for sanctions against North Korea because of that country’s long-range missile launches, presumed to be part of a nuclear program. The Richardson mission reportedly was delayed from December because of the last missile launch. North Korean officials disclosed to Chinese officials they plan a third launch by Jan. 20, according to The Telegraph of Sydney, Australia. Physicist David Wright, who follows the North Korean nuclear program for the nonpartisan Union of Concerned Scientists, told the Los Angeles Times that what ‘would look like a credible missile … (is) not really much of a threat.’ Interestingly, the nine-member delegation headed by Richardson included Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt – the most prominent U.S. business executive to visit North Korea since Kim Jong-un took power a year ago – and Google Ideas think tank director Jared Cohen. In Pyongyang, Richardson urged the regime to call a moratorium on missile launches and nuclear tests. He also called for ‘fair and humane treatment’ of Kenneth Bae, 44, a naturalized U.S. citizen, detained since Nov. 3 on unspecified ‘hostile acts against the republic’ charges. The South Korean newspaper Kookmin Ilbo cited unidentified sources claiming that North Korean security officials found a computer hard disk they believed contained pictures of North Korean orphans, which authorities saw as an act of propaganda against the North. Unofficial diplomacy has been called on in similar, previous cases. North Korea had detained U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee for over four months for ‘hostile acts,’ releasing them after them after former President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang in August 2009. In 2010, Robert Park, a Korean-American Christian activist, and Aijalon Mahli Gomes, another U.S. citizen, were arrested in separate incidents and sentenced to eight years of hard labor for illegal entry and ‘hostile acts.’ They were released after former President Jimmy Carter intervened. The chessboard-like multilayered foreign policy cum diplomacy cum politics cum humanitarian interventions bears watching. It suggests perhaps that a new kind of rapid-responsive activity is displacing the exhausted 20th century-style shuttle diplomacy. Richardson was U.N. ambassador and energy secretary during the Clinton administration before governing New Mexico from 2003 to 2011. In Pyongyang, he called for more open Internet and cellphone access, instead of North Korea’s near-total ban on uncensored outside public information. The secretive communist country, having suffered famine, has hermetically separated its people from its neighbors. The Richardson initiative comes during a possible thawing in relations between the two Koreas, technically still at war since the 1950-53 conflict that involved the United Nations and the United States. In a surprise New Year speech carried on state media, Kim Jong-un called for an end to confrontation between the two Koreas. This comes a month after South Korea elected Park Geun-hye as president. She is the conservative daughter of assassinated South Korean military strongman Park Chung-hee, South Korea’s president from 1963 to 1979. Another profound crack in North Korea’s situation may stem from sociological rather than political reasons. Individuals moving across the North Korea-China borderlands bring back DVDs and flash drives. The products have a viral effect, indicating how isolated the suffering people of North Korea really are. At the end of the mission, Richardson emphasized to CNN, it’s a dangerous time in the region but good for many people to engage in foreign policy, not just ‘officials in the State Department.’ The former diplomat and Cabinet secretary should know. Jose de la Isla writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service. Email joseisla3@yahoo.com.