Really, some people are just so suspicious

Amidst the rejoicing over the two American journalists' return to their home country and the reminder that Madam Secretary of State was involved as well as her husband (while the Obamas were celebrating his birthday with the tackiest cake ever) cautious notes are beginning to sound.

Example one is an article in the Wall Street Journal by Gordon Chang, who has written about North Korea and nuclear power before. Mr Chang reminds us of several things. One is that

Kim Kye Gwan, North Korea’s chief nuclear negotiator, was on hand at the airport in Pyongyang to greet Mr. Clinton as he arrived—a clear sign Pyongyang, at least, is linking the two issues.

This is not necessarily a good thing. As Mr Chang points out, previous errors by presidents (one of them being Clinton) have allowed Kim to strengthen his power even more and develop his nuclear arsenal. Will history repeat itself?

There is something else we must not forget:

And now there may be one more reason for the regime to continue its alarming conduct. If Mr. Clinton is conducting any nuclear discussions he would be rewarding Pyongyang for jailing the two reporters and making them bargaining chips.

This matters because Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee were not Pyongyang’s only hostages. In March, North Korea detained Yu Song-jin, a South Korean manager working in the Kaesong industrial zone, for criticizing Kim’s paradise. Last week, a North Korean patrol boat seized a South Korean fishing vessel that accidentally strayed into the North’s waters, and Pyongyang is now keeping the
four-member crew for no good reason. North Korea may be holding 100 or more Japanese abductees and at least 1,000 South Koreans, some of them prisoners from the Korean War and others kidnapped since then. More broadly, Kim uses all his 23 million people as hostages.

Now two American journalists will come home safely. Good. But let’s hope the U.S. didn’t secure their release at the cost of further negotiations that will only give Kim more time to perfect his nuclear arsenal and develop his ballistic missiles.

Some people are just sourpusses. Why can't they emote like everyone else?

Just to make things worse, the editorial in the WSJ harps on the problems as well, after congratulating President Clinton and the two journalists who had apparently gone in there while working for one of Al Gore's enterprises.

Yet Mr. Clinton’s visit is a message unto itself. It will bolster Kim’s bid to dissolve the six-party negotiations in favor of the direct talks with the U.S. he has long sought. It will also dismay some in South Korea and Japan, which have their own hostages in North Korea and will wonder why Mr. Clinton couldn’t obtain their release as well.

If it turns out that if a new nuclear negotiation really was begun during Mr. Clinton’s visit, it will also send the signal to North Korea that the worse its behavior, the more it stands to gain from the U.S. And it will mean that Kim’s price will be even higher to spring the next American hostages.

Still, if it promotes Madam Secretary of State's career it will all be worthwhile. I trust my readers agree.

The Hill and Bill show is back

Well it might be back. Hard to tell what Bill Clinton's visit to Kim Jong-il was all about. According to the official Korean Central News Agency, former President Clinton took a verbal message of some kind from President Obama. According to the White House that is bunkum.

Associated Press, on the other hand, sees Machiavellian manoeuvres on the part of the Hill and Bill partnership. It is worth noting that no matter what the personal relationship between those two might be the political partnership remains unbreakable. I was going to say that the only marriage of that kind I can think of in recent history is that of Duff and Lady Diana Cooper but that is not an accurate parallel as Lady Diana never showed any open political ambition but was content to manipulate events or try to do so behind the scenes like Evelyn Waugh's Mrs Julia Stitch. (Keep up there at the back.)

Then we get the next piece of news. It appears that Bill Clinton travelled to North Korea not just to dine with the Dear Leader (not Obama, the other one) but to secure the release of the two American journalists who have been sentenced for espionage in true Communist style.

According to this the trip was arranged by the Administration with former Vice-President and Chief Global Warmist Al Gore the designated legate. The North Koreans, showing an acumen one hardly expected, refused to host Mr Gore. So, off went Mr Clinton and, seemingly, came back with the goods.

What are we to make of it? Is this another attempt on the part of the Obama Administration to shore up that plummeting popularity without which the man is nothing or, rather, he is seen to be a power-mad socialist who is desperate to take control of many parts of American life as Day by Day has so graphically expressed?

Or are we witnessing the first stirrings of the HillandBillbeast? After all, Madam Secretary of State's performance so far has been far from stellar and this may well push her into the limelight.

Another question that needs to be asked rather urgently is what has Kim Jong-il been given in return for the two journalists?