Posted on 07/23/2005 2:07:28 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Ted Turner plans to visit North Korea next month to promote plans to protect plant and animal life in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, a swath of heavily fortified no-man's land that also contains rare and endangered species.
The CNN founder and philanthropist will join a list of prominent opinion-makers in academia and journalism to travel recently from the United States to one of the most secretive nations on Earth.
Analysts say North Korea has cracked open the door at least in part in hopes of explaining its view that concern over its nuclear program would be best addressed in talks between North Korea and the United States. President Bush, who labeled North Korea as part of an "axis of evil," has advocated multilateral talks involving six nations instead; the next round is to begin next week.
Turner's visit will coincide with a trip to Pyongyang by Donald Gregg, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and current president of the Korea Society, based in New York, said Frederick Carriere, vice president of the group.
"North Korea is definitely reaching out to more people in the last few months," he said Friday.
Han Park, a Korea expert who directs the Center for the Study of Global Issues at the University of Georgia, said he helped facilitate the recent travel to North Korea of reporters from ABC News and The New York Times.
Phillip Evans, a Turner spokesman, said Turner planned to visit North Korea for a day or two "to promote the idea of north-south cooperation in restoring environmental integrity on the peninsula," with a particular emphasis on preserving the unique ecosystem in the demilitarized zone, or DMZ. He said Turner and others were pushing a plan to restore and conserve habitats and "strengthen local community residents through sustainable farming."
After visiting the north, Turner plans to travel to South Korea to address a conference sponsored by the DMZ Forum, a nonprofit organization that seeks to raise awareness of and preserve the zone's biodiversity.
The last remaining Cold War frontier, the DMZ slices 155 miles across the Korean peninsula, dividing the reclusive and poverty-stricken north from the booming south. Industrial development, particularly in South Korea, and lax environmental controls have threatened the environment in some parts of the Korean Peninsula, experts said, but the DMZ remains untouched.
About 80 species of fish thrive in DMZ rivers, including at least 10 found nowhere else on Earth, said Hall Healy of Facilitated Solutions International, an environmental consulting company. He said it makes sense to plan now to protect the DMZ's ecosystem rather than risking its economic development in the event of Korean unification or other events.
Hundreds of kinds of birds, including the endangered white-naped and red-necked cranes, fly over a ribbon of land roughly two miles wide, above leopards and Asiatic black bears and maybe tigers — scientists do not know for sure because few humans have ventured into the DMZ in the last half century.
"Where else on Earth can you find a place like that?" Healy said.
Bump!
Heart warming, a moron acts.
My brother recently went to the International Rotary Club convention in Chicago. Ted Turner was the honored speaker. His speach was all about how evil the United States is.
Turner is just going over to N. Korea to bond with his buddies.
Ted had to "adjust" his promise to the U.N. when his assets came up a bit short.
They're his soul mates.
Jimmy Carter should tag along.
Almost makes me NOT want to win the lottery...if being rich makes my crazy.
The msm/LIBERALS give him a pass for his rude behavior, saying he's bipolor.
However, they don't think he needs to apologize for his anti-American beliefs.
There was a tiger in my sector of the DMZ in '69. Saw his pug marks. My buddy heard him/her kill a feral hog out near the guard post. We had water deer, pheasant [lot of old rice paddies that went wild], vultures, mosquitoes the size of F-4s and other beasties. Oh, yeah. Watch out for all the old mines, Ted. I'd HATE to see you get blown up.
Ted "Where's My Meds" Turner will bond with his buddies at the DMZ - communists and rats living in the fetid swamps...oops, I mean wetlands.
Let's let Ted plant posies and trees in the DMZ. Of course, he may get blown up in the minefield doing it. HEY.....nice plan, eh?
I've seen the DMZ firsthand and it's an open buffer that is critical to the defense of South Korea. Well, maybe the North Koreans are all about peace, love, and harmony now.......
SGT C.
Al Asad, Iraq
Captain Planet to the rescue. I'm sure Kim will carefully consider.......what an idiot Turner is.
BTTT!!!!!!
On one of the Discovery channels last night, I surfed by a special on North Korea. A woman was describing the torture she endured there...some of the most horrific stuff I've ever heard. Unfortunately, their next segment gave a rendition of the Clinton admin's Korean nuclear "deal" that was so inaccurate, skewed and anti-Bush (axis of evil) that I turned it off.
So yesterday we have Hanoi Jane announcing her new anti-war tour and now ex-hubby Ted trotting off to defend the flora and fauna of the DMZ. Too bad they aren't more concerned about the . Korean people like the woman in the Discovery segment.
Check out the LINK at Post #2 and read some of the posts there.
It's hell on Earth.
I almost have no words for this. He isn't concerned abou the brutality of the regime or the starvation of the people. Has Ted Turner or his traitor for an ex-wife EVER once, just once, been on the right side of an issue? Is there just one brutal dictator they DIDN'T support? These people make me sick.
It IS sickening. And I for one don't think this is the only thing that Turner is up to over there. I think he's meddling in affairs that he has no business being involved in, probably meeting with govt. officials trying to apologize for the US, making deals for money etc.
CW, I honestly can't look at the link on post 2. I'm still shuddering over the interview of the N. Korean woman I heard last night. And I have a fairly strong constitution. THANKS YOU for the link to the Ruckus society, I've sent this thread and that article out to my email list.
I suppose it would be wrong for me to wish great harm to somehow decend upon Traitors Jane and Ted in the very short-term future....
_____________________________
Her first husband (1965-73) was French film director Roger Vadim (b.1928-d.2000) with whom she had a daughter, Vanessa, named for Vanessa Redgrave, the well-known actor and activist member of the Workers' Revolutionary Party.
...she also raised a foster daughter, Mary Luana Williams, who is an activist born to members of the Black Panthers. Source
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