2 Americans Are Advised Not to Visit North Korea

I wonder what they think they can really achieve?  Perhaps they will be able to help get Mr. Bae released.  The "ransom" for his release could be the visit in order to provide international and domestic legitimacy as the perception of the visit will be spun but the north Korean propagandists as that of Americans kowtowing and paying tribute to the great Kim Jong-un.  They will be played and used by the regime.  

And they also cause friction for ROK-US policymakers because despite the fact that there are north Koreans who study the west and think they understand US politics and the like, it is very likely that the regime cannot fathom that these two could come without some official behind the scenes sanction by the government because in the mirror image analysis the regime could not imagine such prominent people doing something on their own that would go against the desires of the government.  And statements from State and other officials would only be viewed as disinformation because that is how the regime would operate so they would expect such statements to made as a matter of routine.  So whatever they say (especially Richardson) will be assessed as a message from the Administration.
V/R
Dave

January 3, 2013

2 Americans Are Advised Not to Visit North Korea

By MICHAEL R. GORDON

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/world/asia/bill-richardson-and-googles-eric-schmidt-are-advised-not-to-visit-north-korea.html?smid=tw-nytimesworld&seid=auto&_r=0&pagewanted=print

WASHINGTON — The State Department said Thursday that it had advised against a visit to North Korea by the former governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, and Google’s executive chairman, Eric E. Schmidt.

Neither Mr. Richardson nor Mr. Schmidt have publicly discussed reports of the possibility of such a trip or its purpose. The two men could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

Victor D. Cha, an expert on North Korea at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the visit might aid discussion of a humanitarian issue of concern to the United States: North Korea’s detention last month of a naturalized American citizen born in South Korea.

North Korea identified the man as Bae Jun-ho, and human rights activists as Kenneth Bae, 44. A report by the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said, without elaborating, that Mr. Bae had admitted to committing “hostile acts against the republic,” a crime punishable by a year in prison. The human rights activists said Mr. Bae had run a travel company that specialized in taking tourists and prospective investors to North Korea.

His arrest came shortly after North Korea launched a long-range rocket that it insisted was part of a peaceful space program. But the United States asserts that the real purpose is to develop a ballistic missile as part of a military program. “Frankly, we don’t think the timing of this is particularly helpful,” the State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said Thursday about talk of a trip by Mr. Richardson and Mr. Schmidt. “They are well aware of our views.”
(Continued at the link below)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/world/asia/bill-richardson-and-googles-eric-schmidt-are-advised-not-to-visit-north-korea.html?smid=tw-nytimesworld&seid=auto&_r=0&pagewanted=print