Is Bill Clinton going to rescue me, too?
One thing that has stuck in my craw a little about the story of the two reporters who just got out of North Korea is how they are consistently portrayed as having been “hostages” or “kidnapped,” or more generally that their seizure was illegitimate. While we don’t yet know the full story of the circumstances around their arrest, the fact that North Korean authorities were able to arrest them suggests that they were on North Korean soil, and since American journalists aren’t allowed to do that except in very rare cases, it seems the only conclusion is that they had crossed into the country illegally. A 12-year sentence of hard labor for an illegal border crossing is, by most human standards, too harsh. But it’s North Korea, and when you try to sneak into North Korea that’s the sort of thing you have to expect. And remember that in the U.S., we take our borders seriously, too.
As a journalist and before that as a regular traveler I’ve been to lots of dodgy places over a number of years, and many people have asked me how often I have to pay bribes. The answer is, almost never. Twice, to be exact, and in both cases I had broken the law (once by accident, once on purpose.) Yes, occasionally crooked cops will try to harass me to solicit a bribe, but in almost every case, a little bit of standing up for myself is all it takes to get them to stand down, if I’m confident I’ve done nothing wrong. (I know this approach doesn’t always work; read this great story about Ikea’s attempt to take a principled stand against bribery in Russia and how it drove them out of business there.) But there is a widespread belief among westerners that the rest of the world, the poorer parts of it especially, is just a cesspool of corruption and the only way to navigate it is by bribing officials left and right. But that creates a self-fulfilling prophecy and the fact is that these westerners are equally complicit in the bribing, if not more so.
What does this have to do with North Korea? Immediately when news came out that the two journalists were arrested, there was an assumption among Americans that the North Koreans were, essentially, asking the U.S. for a bribe. The price was going to be a new format of bilateral negotiations, maybe going a little soft on the nuclear issue, maybe (as it happened) just getting a high-profile American to go and pose for pictures with Kim Jong-Il. So the State Department engaged in lots of back-channel negotiations with the North Koreans, which culminated in Bill Clinton and a small U.S. delegation flying over to Pyongyang (at whose expense it’s not yet clear) and giving Kim some face time in exchange for the journalists’ release. It’s not a huge price for the U.S. but it obviously meant a lot to Kim, judging from the smile on his face in some of the pictures of the event.
So my first question is, would North Korea have condemned these reporters to such an outrageous sentence if they knew they weren’t going to get anything out of it? Might they, with different expectations of how the U.S. would respond, just have deported the women? In other words, how much complicity do we have in creating this entire situation?
And my second question: If I get arrested in some axis-of-evil type country, is Bill Clinton going to come rescue me?
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Bill Clinton will go anywhere to rescue young women. (Hug probability ~ 1.0) If it were you, he might send a postcard.
[...] of the Day By Patrick, on August 7th, 2009 So my first question is, would North Korea have condemned these reporters to such an outrageous sentence if they knew they weren’t going to [...]
Josh, agreed–if you get busted sneaking around a border, you know you’re in trouble. I would expect a minium of a few days detained, probably more. Arresting the two women wasn’t too far out of line, I don’t think, though it would certainly suck. We would not like it if two North Koreans were found in Arizona along the Mexican border, illegally.
We’ll see how these three Americans detained in Iran get treated, and if they get rescued…
“And my second question: If I get arrested in some axis-of-evil type country, is Bill Clinton going to come rescue me?”
Assuming you’re not working for Al Gore, there’s probably no rescue coming your way.
“(at whose expense it’s not yet clear)”
This is an issue? Other than the loan of a corporate jet what expense?
“In other words, how much complicity do we have in creating this entire situation?”
None at all.
The American military in Iraq has been involved in the deaths of numerous journalists and reporters. Glenn Greenwald has written extensively about the double standard we employ regarding the detention of journalists outside of the States.
[...] Here is the original post: Joshua Kucera – New World Order – Is Bill Clinton going to rescue … [...]
Do we get to hear the bribe stories?