4 ago 2009

Foto surreale dell'anno.





Credo che la politica estera di Obama sia perfettamente riassunta in questo incredibile ritratto di famiglia.
P.S. Adesso che Euna e Laura sono libere, il minimo che potrebbe fare la moglie di Bill è dimettersi, vista la ormai patente inutilità del suo ruolo.
Da OFK:

So who thinks Clinton is arriving empty-handed?  Obviously, there’s much about this mission that’s hidden from us, but there are a few things that we either know or can infer with near certainty.
Diciamo che la domanda sorge spontanea: che cosa ha ricevuto Kim Jong-il come contropartita?

Update. Da notare il pronto intervento del NYT a supporto di Hillary.
Dall'Economist:

Mr Clinton travelled with John Podesta, his former chief of staff who now runs a think-tank, the Centre for American Progress, that is close to the current American president. They were greeted by festivities in what looked more like an official state visit than one by a private citizen. The lead North Korean nuclear negotiator was seen in pictures greeting the former president. The state-run news agency claimed there had been an “exhaustive conversation”.

It is clear that America’s leaders should be wary of the bilateral talks that Mr Kim seeks: North Korea has a history of negotiating in bad faith. It signed a 1994 deal with the Clinton administration, only to cheat on it.
L'uomo giusto al posto giusto.

Dal WSJ:

Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator, was on hand at the airport in Pyongyang to greet Mr. Clinton as he arrived—a clear sign Pyongyang, at least, is linking the two issues.
This marks a significant break with previous U.S. policy. During the last years of the Bush administration, the State Department constantly warned Tokyo’s diplomats that concerns over Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea shouldn’t interfere with initiatives to resolve the nuclear problem.

If Mr. Clinton is conducting any nuclear discussions he would be rewarding Pyongyang for jailing the two reporters and making them bargaining chips.
This matters because Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee were not Pyongyang’s only hostages. In March, North Korea detained Yu Song-jin, a South Korean manager working in the Kaesong industrial zone, for criticizing Kim’s paradise. Last week, a North Korean patrol boat seized a South Korean fishing vessel that accidentally strayed into the North’s waters, and Pyongyang is now keeping the four-member crew for no good reason. North Korea may be holding 100 or more Japanese abductees and at least 1,000 South Koreans, some of them prisoners from the Korean War and others kidnapped since then. More broadly, Kim uses all his 23 million people as hostages.
Che vuoi che sia.