Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Sending Kim Jong Il to bed with no supper...

In what has to be deemed as a gesture of displeasure, this from CNN:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration wants North Korea's attention, so like a scolding parent, it's trying to make it tougher for that country's eccentric leader to buy iPods, plasma televisions and Segway electric scooters.

The U.S. government's first-ever effort to use trade sanctions to personally aggravate a foreign president expressly targets items believed to be favored by Kim Jong Il or presented by him as gifts to the roughly 600 loyalist families who run his communist nation.

Kim, who engineered a secret nuclear weapons program, has other options for obtaining the high-end consumer electronics and other items he wants.

But the list of proposed luxury sanctions, obtained by The Associated Press, aims to make Kim's swanky life harder: No more cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes, artwork, expensive cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles or even personal watercraft, such as Jet Skis.


Why I say futile:

"The problem is there has always been and will always be this group of people who work at getting these goods illegally," Reinsch (William Reinsch, a former senior Commerce Department official) said. Small electronics, such as iPods or laptops, are "untraceable and available all over the place," he said. U.S. exports to North Korea are paltry, amounting to only $5.8 million last year.

Seriously all this is going to do is make him spend more money to get these things on the Blackmarket. So even more dollars that should go to the people of North Korea will be spent on getting Kim Jong II what he wants. That doesn't seem to me a very creative way of doing anything positive...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

So seriously... instead of bitching about it, why don't you offer something substantive that may have the desired effect?

Unknown said...

Exactly what would you suggest? For some reason my letters to the Whitehouse don't seem to have much affect when it comes to getting them to do something that would actually work.

The way to change a country is from within, not to make it even harder for those who live there. I think the obvious answers are out there as to how to encourage change versus sanctions that only punish. It can be done without threats, violence or bribery, however until we have people in office who will actually try rather than to create silly sanctions like this to make it seem as if something is being done? Nothing is going to change.

Part of the aspect of blogging is discussion, which isn't bitching, it's pointing out where you disagree or even at times where you agree and going from there.

:-)

Scott G said...

Anonymous people don't seem to like you Lisa.

I am sure for a nation of people that can't get food, not getting iPods will be what pushes Kim Jong Il to fold.

I think this was lost when President Bush threw North Korea and Iran in the Axis of Evil. It made it hard for anyone to deal with them without being accused of helping terrorists or being weak. Now, even we can't deal with them because we will look like we are softening our stance and hurt our ability to negotiate. This is why you don't let your balls instead of your brain make foreign policy decisions

Unknown said...

Me4 - maybe they are anonymous because they work for the Whitehouse.

:-)

Scott G said...

If they were at the White House, they wouldn't ask for suggestions. They would just call you names and say you hate Murika

;-)

Unknown said...

True...okay maybe all of the anonymous's are ex-husbands...

:-)

Hooda Thunkit (Dave Zawodny) said...

"So even more dollars that should go to the people of North Korea will be spent on getting Kim Jong II what he wants."

Lisa,

You don't really believe that that little twerp was ever going to spend more money on "his people" if he couldn't send it buying toys, do you???

I didn't think so ...;-)

And, as for ex husbands, you can't have THAT many, can you?

;-)