My misanthropic views on Laura Ling and Euna Lee (and Mitch Koss for good measure)

UPDATE:

Just as I suspected all along, they really did cross into North Korean on purpose.

ORIGINAL POST:

Kushibo no longer gives a rat's ass about people liking his views or agreeing with them. I stated my views of The Misadventures of Ling and Lee some months ago, but here's a recap: they probably knowingly and deliberately crossed the border — it's a fu¢king river, for criminy's sake! It doesn't just sneak up on you where you say, "Gee, are we in North Korea or in China?" In doing so they risked not only their own safety but the lives — the ability to keep breathing — of people who would rely on that part of the porous border to escape. Their inevitable conviction and detainment (if not imprisonment) would lead the US to make uncomfortable concessions to the Pyongyang regime, and finally, after they're released, they'll write a book or books and go on publicity tours and get sympathy and riches. 

Fu¢k them. Do not buy their book, and I've already stated why:

Idiots. Smug, self-satisfied idiots. It's a good chance that when these two are released they will pen one or two books on their ordeal, perhaps with a multi-million-dollar signing bonus. I want to be the first to say, "Don't buy this book." I personally will launch a boycott of said book, because I think it is wrong, wrong, wrong to let willful idiots capitalize on their stupidity that has put others at risk. Just what will the US have to do to gain their release? Given the nature of the Dear Leader's regime and the important role that the US has in aiding South Korea's (and Japan's) security, can this kind of concession possibly be a good thing? That's not even considering, as I mentioned earlier, how they have effectively plugged up an important escape route for North Korean refugees. Idiots.

But they're still in North Korea, aren't they? Well, good. As it turns out last month, the US has acknowledged that — despite numerous claims from North Korea watchers that they were kidnapped from the Chinese side — the two and their cameraman Mitch Koss had actually crossed into North Korea:

The US government has established that the two women did cross the North Korean border with additional crew, and that they were chased and captured by North Korean border guards. It is unclear whether the border guards entered Chinese territory to effect their capture. The entire episode occurred within “a few dozen meters” of the North Korea – China border.

There's still that backpedaling — maybe they had crossed back into China and the Norks chased them! — but nevertheless they got caught doing something very, very, very stupid. And what makes me so angry — and my apologies for repeating myself yet again — is that they have likely put would-be defectors into very grave danger. 

So let them rot. There are reports that Hillary Clinton's State Department is changing its tune from denial the three (including Koss) had done anything wrong to acknowledging what they'd done and asking for clemency. 

Screw that. These two are reportedly being held in a comfortable setting (a guest house!), waiting for a deal to be brokered that includes at least an official apology (as if the US government controls its citizens) and Lord knows what else. Let them stew long enough for the North Koreans to decide that it's time they were moved to a labor camp.

Let them get a teeny tiny taste of what likely happened to those who have been caught when that part of the porous border was plugged up. Let them get experience a little of what they condemned others to. I mean, geez, it's not like these three accidentally crossed the border: It was a deliberate act that any reasonable thinking person would know was putting others at risk. Others that they were ostensibly there to help by highlighting their plight. Except that's not really what it was all about for these three. Ultimately, I believe in my heart, true motivation was to get that scoop, do the thing all the other journalists had not done. 

Now I'm not entirely misanthropic, so I think eventually it will be necessary to do what has to be done to secure their release (thanks again, Lee, Ling, and Koss), but their suffering should go beyond the inconveniences one would expect from, say, a lengthy stay at an H1N1 quarantine facility in Seoul. 

Oh, and someone go and pull out a few of Koss's fingernails. That guy shouldn't be walking around scot-free. Nah, I don't mean that. Calling on others to commit acts of violence is wrong, too. Really. But I do wish on him daily ice cream headaches until the Dear Leader leaves his earthly coils.