Drain North Korea

It’s hard to forget the anguished face of a 2-year-old North Korean girl. Kim Han-mi stood helplessly inside the gate of the Japanese consulate in the city of Shenyang watching her mother being restrained by two Chinese policemen from getting inside to join her. As a father of two young girls similar to the age of little Kim, nothing is more heartbreaking than this picture to me.I totally share the strong emotion of President Bush towards the North Korean dictator when he told Bob Woodward, “I loathe Kim Jong Il!” The “Dear Leader” turns the Hermit Kingdom into a living hell by starving millions of people to death and forcing hundreds of thousands of families like little Kim’s to escape.I would also loathe Hu Jintao, the Chinese Communist Party secretary general who received a lavish welcome reception at the White House south lawn last April. For those fortunate North Koreans who survive to reach Chinese soil, many of them only find themselves rounded up and sent home by the Chinese. Mr. Hu’s regime, a signatory to the United Nations Refugee Convention, clearly shows us how useful the world body is. “When China sends people back to North Korea, it is with a knowledge that they are probably going to be tortured and killed,” an assistant secretary of State, Ellen Sauerbrey, said.When Secretary of State Rice, having canceled her scheduled trip to Japan, China and South Korea for her Middle East shuttle diplomacy on Lebanon, attends the ASEAN Regional Forum in Malaysia that is scheduled for July 27 and 28, I hope she will remember the face of Kim Han-mi and resist the temptation of negotiating with her North Korean counterpart. The foreign ministers of China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea and Russia — the other members of the Six-Party Talks — are all expected to be gathering in Kuala Lumpur. There’s high hope that the talks, derailed since late last year, can be resumed there to tackle the recent North Korean missile launch. Don’t waste your time, Madam Secretary.Washington’s point man for dealing with Pyongyang, the assistant secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific affairs, Christopher Hill, seems to be quite thrilled that the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution on July 15 which condemned the missile launches and demanded North Korea suspend its ballistic missile program. “The D.P.R.K. must now comply with the terms of the resolution,” Mr. Hill solemnly told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing last Thursday, referring to the official name of North Korea.What’s the chance Mr. Kim will surrender? According to Mr. Hill himself, not much. In a press briefing on the day following day (last Friday), Mr. Hill told us, “Frankly, in light of their behavior with this missile launch, in light of their behavior in response to the Security Council resolution, I’m not sure they’re doing any thinking at all right now.”Mr. Hill, however, still believes that the “right approach with the right partners” is in place to deal with the crisis. In his mind, the missile launch didn’t turn the Six-Party Talk into meaningless exercises. Just the contrary, “the missile launch was a real sign that we need a six-party process because those missiles were not all directed at the U.S.,” Mr. Hill told us. I love the never-say-die spirit of Foggy Bottom diplomats who can always find reasons to keep meetings going. I wish Mr. Hill, who will be in Kuala Lumpur, good luck.Perhaps unknowingly, China last week provided us with the answer why further talks would be pointless. Beijing, the artery to the North Korean regime, tried to pretend to act like a good guy this time. Before the missile launch, Beijing called on its ally to halt. After the missile launch, Beijing supported the U.N. resolution. But when the vice chairman of China’s central military commission, General Guo Boxiong, visited President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld last week, he claimed that Beijing didn’t know about the missile launch until finding it out about it from the American press.Mr. Hill wouldn’t comment on General Guo’s statement except saying “it was unusual that the Chinese military would get information about missile launches from a neighboring state through U.S. mass media.” If General Guo’s statement is true, Beijing has no influence over Pyongyang. If the statement isn’t true, Beijing thinks the Americans are the worst suckers on earth. In either case, China won’t be helpful at all in disarming the North Koreans. And it’s time for Washington to try something new.“We have recently resettled some North Korean refugees in the U.S.,” Mr. Hill told the senators. America can and should do more indeed. Washington should declare that any of the 23 million people in North Korea who can make it out of the border can settle in America. We don’t need China’s cooperation; we only need the Chinese to stay out the way. Instead of invading North Korea, let’s drain them out. All those who have been warning the cowboy president not to use force, you can now contribute to peace. South Korea, France and other countries, how many refugees would you take?Mr. Liu, a former chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association and general manager of Hong Kong’s Apple Daily, is a Washington-based columnist.

Drain North Korea

Drain North Korea

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