Pyongyang Busted

Haneda airport in Tokyo, at 10.45 yesterday morning. I have just landed back in Japan after my jaunt to Mt Kumgang-san in North Korea last week, and a night in the South Korean capital, Seoul. At the customs desk, the uniformed officer asks me how long I've been away.

'Four days."

"Have you been to any countries other than South Korea?"

"Well, yes ... North Korea."

"North Korea,” he said slowly. “North Korea. Did you buy anything when you were there?”

“Just some souvenirs."

“North Korean souvenirs, eh? Could you show me?”

And then it dawned on me – I was a sanctions buster!

The Friday after the nuclear test, the Japanese Cabinet beat the rest of the world by a furlong and banned all imports from North Korea. My mind raced over the objects in my suitcase, purchased as omiyage, or travelling souvenirs, for my office colleagues - a packet of North Korean anti-hangover tea for Leo, North Korean scented soap for Taeko, a North Korean bamboo back-scratcher for Kyoko and, for general consumption, a packet of North Korean peanut sweets. In the souvenir shop I had agonised for, well, minutes at a time over the selection of these presents. (Was the North Korean pumpkin taffy a better choice than the peanut brittle? And who among my colleagues has the itchiest back?)

As casually as possible, I proffered my contraband. Superior officers were summoned to inspect it.

"They're just ordinary souvenirs," I said.

“I can see that,” the senior most inspector said, with douanieresque gravity. “But they are from North Korea and imported goods from North Korea are banned.”

"This is soap," I continued in my rubbish Japanese. "It is not an atomic bomb. And I'm not going to sell it."

“It’s an unusual case,” said the boss.

“The first time it’s happened,” agreed his junior.

“Please wait, and I will consult the regulations.”

This is it, I thought. I am witnessing history in the making - the beginning of the end for the North Korean government. No more exports of nut-based confectioneries. No more big backscratcher orders or overseas jigsaw sales. Kim Jong Il must be on his knees . . .

Despite all the posturing in New York, and Condoleezza Rice's zippy tour of China, Japan, South Korea and Russia last week, the sanctions agreed in the United Nations aren't going to make any difference to North Korea. This is not only because countries without functioning economies, for whom the loss of millions to famine does nothing to dislodge them from power, are not vulnerable to economic measures. It's mainly because of a fundamental difference among the sanctioneers.

Put at its most simple: the US and Japan (perhaps Britain and France too, although they don't give the impression of caring very deeply) regard Kim Jong Il as a poisonous, evil dwarf and want him to fall from power as soon as possible. China, Russia and South Korea regard him as an appalling necessity, preferable - for the time being - to the chaotic alternative. They have shaken their heads and tut-tutted and exhaled. But only China has the power to bring down Kim Jong Il (by literally turning off the oil tap). And it will never do this.

We may not like Kim Jong Il. We may, like George Bush, "loathe" him. But that's the easy bit (no prizes these days for harbouring ill feeling towards murderous dictators). The difficult bit is learning to accept (as the infant accepts as it emerges from infancy to childhood) that merely wanting something very much does not make it come to pass. Kim Jong Il is here. He won't go away because we detest him. There's nothing practical we can do to dislodge him. We must therefore live with him, for the time being, and either accept his expanding nuclear arsenal, or do what the the Chinese, the Russians and the South Koreans advise us to do - talk to him.

Such were the thoughts that ran through my head as I waited at the customs desk. For the first ten minutes, I was indignant at the imminent confiscation of my booty. After half an hour, I was smiling to myself and looking forward to telling the story of how I became the first North Korean sanctions buster. So it was a positive disappointment when the customs man came back with a smile on his face.

"I consulted, and it is fine," he said. "These are portable goods for personal use, so you may take them through."

"Thank you for waiting," said the younger man.

In Pyongyang, Kim Jong Il took a sip of Hennessy Cognac XO, and let out a profound sigh . . .

Comments

[Raj]

Richard, if everything is still dandy for Kim, why is he starting to back down by saying he would restart talks without sanctions being lifted first? Given he wants them lifted while they take place, but that's a massive climbdown from "sanctions = no talks".

Given time I wouldn't be surprised if he accepts talks with sanctions not being completely lifted until US & co are satisfied with what's been agreed upon.

[mahathir_fan]

The problem with sanctions is of course it makes people want to do it more.

For instance, I never thought of going to Mt. Kumgang. I had plans to go to Mt. Baekdu from China. But now with all these crisis going on, I think I should go to Mt. Kumgang in order to make a statement.

I heard that a South Korean politician for example visited Kaesong I'm sure for the same reasons for why I now want to go to Mt. Kumgang.

[Vernon Ram]

Of all the sanction-busting souvenirs you picked up in North Korea, the back-scratcher seemed the most practical: Condi Rice should have been travelling with a suitcase full of them on her recent jaunt through Asia plugging UN sanctions against Pyongyang!

[DATA]

Hi Richard,

Your inside report is truly entertaining and, on a seroius note, stimulating. It is great to see the history in the making as you have rightly put. I am sure that you were intentionally smuggling those goods, trying to test the effectiveness as well as the determination of the Japanese Government in sanctioning Kim's regime.

It would have been more interesting had you tried to "export" to your North Korean friends some "luxury goods" like Hennessy and see how South Koreans customs react. It would have been a true test for Seoul to see how serious they are in reviewing their sunshine policy. They may end up violating Security Council resolution 1718, just like the Japanese customs letting you go with all those strategic materials.

[bugiewugie]

Presumably it suits certain interests - 'countries' represented by hand-picked spokespeople to describe Kim Jung Il in such a negative light: wonder why.
Establishing a dialogue with the man would be a bright course of action: apart from it conveying a sense of at least wanting to understand his position before rushing off to condemn the whole country he 'represents', it would be a move towards furthering a sense of honest solidarity with Russia, China, and South Korea.
It really depends to a great extent on the intentions of KJ Il's opponents: if the intent is to provoke a negative reaction then an unwillingness to talk's a truly superb way to go about it.
nb the west harbours nukes too for goodness sake

[Beiwa]

It is very obviously that's Kim's long standing stratagem to get nuclear bomb with which he believes would cement his own kingdom and that is also the only way for him to survive.
Kim is not an idiot but an devil.As a Chinese, I hope that our government should have a vision, that is, a regim (even much worse than ours) like that would collapse sooner or later no matter how hard Kim and China government struggle.

[Russ Taylor]

What has happened to Jane MacCartney's Beijing blog? It seems typically Chinese that I have not seen any announcement of its demise and yet it has been a few months now since a posting and her picture has finally been removed from the Blog photos list. Anyone know anything?