More Than One Way to Exert Influence in North Korea

In March of this year American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling were detained on the Chinese-North Korean border and subsequently imprisoned in North Korea where they remained until the international press and a personal visit by US former president Bill Clinton freed them on August 4th. Euna Lee was born in South Korea and lived there until college age when she attended school in the USA. She became a US citizen. Having lived in South Korea for all of her childhood, one presumes Ling speaks and reads the Korean language. Her colleague, Laura Ling, was born in the US of a Chinese father. Whether she speaks Korean or Mandarin (the official language of China, one of several Chinese languages) is unknown.

The story of the incarceration of these two journalists has been presented as an international outrage, with Lee and Ling as victims of a retrograde government. What kind of questions might an integrally informed person ask about this situation?

• Was this event a deliberate attempt to provoke the North Korean government?
  
• Was the motive for this event more freedom for the people of North Korea? Or was it publicity to aid the careers of two fairly unknown journalists?

But, leaving aside those questions, how might an integrally informed person create greater openness in North Korea? Be more effective about it?

Here is a radical suggestion. If North Korea intends to capture and incarcerate anyone found illegally crossing their borders—or appearing to do so—then how about using that information to impact the North Korean system? How? One could find individuals who speak Korean and have some familiarity with Korean customs who would be willing to be captured and held in North Korea for a time. Their mission while there would be to teach their fellow prisoners and any guards or other officials they encounter about the greater openness of other cultures, including that of South Korea. They could also teach western languages, English being my personal preference since it would open the most doors to international culture.

How would this impact the system? The fellow prisoners would eventually return to their homes and jobs in North Korean society. When they did so, they would take personal knowledge of what an open society might be like. They would perhaps have some language skills that would allow them to access materials on the internet and to join world conversation. Inevitably, they would be forces for greater freedoms in North Korea. The same would be true for the guards and other officials who spent time with these infiltrators.

This is a long-term strategy, but would eventually open the North Korean system of government. It might be that other strategies, especially interventions at the upcoming death of Kim Jong-Il, would be faster strategies. However, having multiple strategies at play would be smart.