Then, Robert's fate is entirely in Kim's hands. Whatever happens to him, will have to have been signed off personally and at the direction of Kim Jong il. It will say a lot about him. Of course, this is the man who sent our "Mayumi Hachiya" (Kim Hyeong Hee) to blow up a loaded aircraft with innocent South Korean workers returning from the Middle East, and also who directed bombings in Rangoon, and in Seoul, and kidnappings, rapes, and assassinations. I cannot expect for his lenience upon this man, a Christian, now on North Korean soil.
As easy as it is for us to reject the ridiculous notion that this quixotic act might cause Kim Jong Il to repent and experience a religious conversion, Park’s madness is only a few degrees removed from our foreign policy establishment’s faith that the right Special Envoy can inspire Kim Jong Il to repent and experience a diplomatic conversion. Scratch almost anyone in the State Department’s East Asia Bureau today and there’s a Robert Park who thinks that he’s The One who can do it. No doubt, as we speak, junior and has-been diplomats all along the Eastern Seaboard are imagining themselves escorting Robert Park up the steps of a charter flight at Sunan Airport, having left behind enough ransom aid to run a small concentration camp for years.