So begins the story by Edgar Allan Poe.
Can we at least all agree that North Korea is run by the patients at Maison de Santé?
From the Telegraph.co.uk
North Korea's entire squad was forced onto a stage at the People's Palace of Culture and subjected to criticism from Pak Myong-chol, the sports minister, as 400 government officials, students and journalists watched.
The players were subjected to a "grand debate" on July 2 because they failed in their "ideological struggle" to succeed in South Africa, Radio Free Asia and South Korean media reported.
The team's coach, Kim Jong-hun, was reportedly forced to become a builder and has been expelled from the Workers' Party of Korea.
The coach was punished for "betraying" Kim Jong-un - one of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-il's sons and heir apparent.
The country, in its first World Cup since 1966, lost all three group games – including a 7-0 defeat to Portugal.
The broadcast of live games had been banned to avoid national embarrassment, but after the spirited 2-1 defeat to Brazil, state television made the Portugal game its first live sports broadcast ever.
Following ideological criticism, the players were then allegedly forced to blame the coach for their defeats.
Only two players avoided the inquisition - Japanese-born Jong Tae-se and An Yong-hak, who flew straight to Japan after the tournament.
However, media in South Korea said the players got off lightly by North Korean standards.
"In the past, North Korean athletes and coaches who performed badly were sent to prison camps," a South Korean intelligence source told the Chosun Ilbo newspaper.
I feel so badly for the poor (literally and figuratively) citizens of North Korea. Is there not anything the U.S. can do to put the patients back in their padded cells?
6 comments:
Intervention. The question of the new century. Whether to intervene, when, how, at what cost. I supported the war in Iraq based on the need for intervention. Same for Afghanistan before that. Same with the Balkans before that.
But now I have to wonder, have we given it our best shot in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Intervention: the next question, when to stop intervening?
The North Koreans deserve, as any humans, an intervention...but unless the US leads it or does it, the rest of the world doesn't have the nerve.
I absolutely agree. Intervention is the only way. The US government, when run by either party, has been mainly afraid of China's response. Nevertheless, I, like Doug, supported the Balkan intervention, the Iraq war, and the Afghanistan war. In each case, I supported the wars for the cause human rights, not oil or some vague national interest. I strongly feel that we have the moral obligation to make regime changes when human rights violations are terribly egregious, and North Korea qualifies. China is also pretty bad, but there is no way we can successfully intervene there.
That just disgusts me.
Unfortunately our military is spread so thinly right now that there is no way we could possibly intervene and be successful. Many of our troops are on their 6th and 7th deployments. They are just getting worn down.
I understand Kim's point and the insurgent nature of our current conflicts requires repeated and extended deployments (something that the Bush administration failed to consider). However, North Korea would fall fast and the South Koreans could shoulder 90% of the burden of integrating the two countries. I doubt that the US would have an extended commitment. Still, the problem is China.
The problem might well be China, but China has little to gain by mentoring N. Korea along an obviously flawed (even for rigid communists) path. They have everything to lose by reacting militarily to an international intervention. The intervention would need to be very international à la first Iraq war.
Intervention. The world (read the US) failed to intervene in Rwanda...what a humanitarian mistake that was.
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