The Frozen North

A quid pro quo of some sort likely expedited the release of the two detained Chinese-American journalists from the North Korean gulag state. Kim Jong-il will never be confused with Albert Schweitzer as one of the great humanitarians. In fact, the midget madman has earned North Korea a place on the Axis of Evil by gleefully hurling missiles, building nuclear weapons after agreeing not to in exchange for US inducements, including light-water nuclear reactors provided by girl-collector William Jefferson Clinton, and proliferating, selling any weapon including WMD to any nation or group willing to pay. The Dear Leader has crafted a Stalinist nightmare of a prison state with hostages and their murderous warders in place of citizens. Make no mistake, no humanitarian measures are issued forth by a nation that has just executed a young Christian mother for distribution of Bibles and so-called espionage (enough torture and anyone will confess to anything and will regard a bullet in the brain pan as a welcome relief). Kim Jong-il starves everyone but the thugs in his security services and maintains his rule by brainwashing and completely closing off his last Iron Curtain police state. While Americans, who are a humanitarian people, are grateful for the quid, the wayward Lee and Ling are ransomed and safely returned to the loving arms of family, many of us are left to wonder what the quo is.