"N. Korea seeking Facebook friends" by Associated Press | August 21, 2010
SEOUL — North Korea appears to have added Facebook to other social networking sites it recently joined to ramp up its propaganda war against South Korea and the United States....
MSM pot hollering kettle again.
North Korea’s government-run website last week announced it has a Twitter account and a YouTube channel created in July.
You made the big time, North Korea!
The Twitter page, which has more than 8,500 followers, has “content that praises, promotes and glorifies’’ North Korea that was confirmed to be “illegal information’’ under South Korea’s National Security Law, a South Korea’s Communications Standards Commission statement said Thursday. The commission said it has no immediate plan to block the North’s YouTube channel.
That's "free" South Korea, the U.S. ally.
And that is a LOT of FRIENDS!
Commission official Han Myung-ho said the new Facebook account could be blocked as well.
Looks like the North made an enemy.
“If we find that this Facebook account also carries content violating the National Security Law,’’ Han said, “we will do our duty of shutting it down as well.’’
Don't you guys have better things to do?
The Facebook account, which describes itself as male, says it is interested in men and is looking for networking. The account had 50 friends as of yesterday.
It's a gay account?
Lot less friends.
The Facebook account calls itself “a page representing the intentions of North and South Koreas and compatriots abroad, who wish for peace, prosperity, and unification of our homeland.’’
Those things sound good to me.
And look who is coming to visit!
"Carter heads to N. Korea to seek release of Boston man; Trip is similar to that made by Clinton in ’09" by Matthew Lee, Associated Press | August 24, 2010
WASHINGTON — Jimmy Carter was to leave for North Korea today to try to gain the freedom of a Boston man imprisoned for illegally entering the communist nation, US officials said last night.
North Korea agreed to release Aijalon Mahli Gomes if the former president were to come to bring him home, a senior US official told the Associated Press....
Related: North Korea Captures Another CIA Spy
CIA Abandons Christian Crackpot in Korea
Kerry Coming to Rescue in Korea
Carter had more pull.
Carter was expected to spend a single night in North Korea and return with Gomes on Thursday, a second US official said. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation....
Carter spokeswoman Deanna Congileo and other officials with the Carter Center in Atlanta did not immediately return calls for comment. The magazine Foreign Policy first reported the Carter trip yesterday.
The senior US official stressed that Carter is not representing the US government.
Why must they lie?
Gomes, 31, grew up in Mattapan and is a graduate of Bowdoin College in Maine. A devout Christian, he had been teaching English in South Korea for a couple of years....
In August 2009, Bill Clinton secured a pardon and the release of Current TV reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were arrested after crossing into North Korea from China.
Oh, Al Gore's Girls!
Related: Korea, Kenya, and the Clintons
Not so unique after all, huh?
Carter, whose historic visit to North Korea in 1994 led to a landmark disarmament agreement, said in March that sanctions against the nuclear-armed regime were unproductive. The North is unlikely to back down from a standoff over its nuclear weapons program, he added, unless the US and South Korea prove to the North’s satisfaction that they harbor no hostile intentions toward it.
I know he has backed of the Palestinian issue a bit because of the hammering he took from Israel; however, he is truly a good man!!
While the disarmament accord Carter negotiated eased tensions, it fell apart in 2002 after President George W. Bush called North Korea part of an “axis of evil.’’
Yeah, I'm not missing that a**hole!
--more--"
The North Korean government has agreed to release Aijalon Mahli Gomes, 31, who grew up in Mattapan, if Carter visits Pyongyang, US officials said.
Gotta watch evil; it's tricky!
The 85-year-old former president was to leave yesterday and spend the night in North Korea before returning to the States tomorrow....
It has been unclear why Gomes went to North Korea, but he had been to rallies in Seoul in support of fellow Christian Robert Park, who crossed into North Korea from China to call attention to the North’s human rights record.
Park was expelled from the North after about 40 days.
Carter’s trip is reminiscent of last year’s trek by President Clinton, who flew to Pyongyang and met with leader Kim Jong Il, winning the release of two American journalists arrested in March 2009 for illegal entry.
Which was unique.
And note the subtle Globe omission regarding Al Gore's spies, 'er, girls.
Clinton’s trip led to US attempts to engage in direct talks with North Korea to persuade Kim’s regime to return to disarmament negotiations.
Carter’s presence may help defuse tension on the Korean peninsula....
Why? He isn't acting on behalf of the U.S. government, so.... ??
His trip could also move North Korea toward resuming multinational talks on the communist nation’s nuclear weapons program, Kim Yong Hyun at Dongguk University in Seoul told Bloomberg News.
Actually, they were already headed that way!
“This signals US willingness to become more flexible in its policy on North Korea and may be a turning point for stalled disarmament talks,’’ said Kim, a professor of North Korean studies. “Carter’s symbolic importance in North Korea as the person who met the founder also means North Korea will offer much more than releasing Gomes.’’
Carter traveled to Pyongyang in 1994 and met with Kim Il Sung, founder of North Korea and father of Kim Jong Il....
Therefore the Koreans are doing him a personal favor.
The North Korean state news agency said Gomes tried to commit suicide last month because the United States wasn’t doing enough to free him....
--more--"
SEOUL — North Koreans welcomed Jimmy Carter back to Pyongyang with smiles, salutes, and hearty handshakes as the former president arrived on a mission to bring home a Boston man jailed in the communist country since January.
US officials have billed Carter’s trip as a private humanitarian visit to try to negotiate the release of Aijalon Gomes, who was sentenced to eight years of hard labor in a North Korean prison for entering the country illegally from China.
I thought he worked in South Korea?
Visits like Carter’s — and the journey former president Clinton made a year ago to secure the release of two US journalists — serve as more than just rescue missions. They also offer an opportunity for unofficial diplomacy between the United States and North Korea, analysts say.
Then WHY LIE to US and the WORLD?
With relations at a standstill, Carter’s mission to bring Gomes home could provide another face-saving opening for contact.
Yeah, saving OUR FACE not theirs!
Senior US officials in Washington emphasized that Carter was not representing the government, but was on a private mission....
Carter landed in an unmarked plane yesterday. A North Korean girl handed him a bouquet of flowers, and Carter blew her a kiss before getting into a black Mercedes-Benz. He later sat down for talks with the number two official, Kim Yong Nam. Discussions were cordial, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said. Carter was expected to return today with Gomes, the senior US official in Washington said....
--more--""Boston man set free in N. Korea; Carter intervenes to secure his release; former prisoner to return home today" by Travis Andersen and Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | August 27, 2010
A Boston man being held in North Korea since January for crossing into that country illegally was freed yesterday at the behest of former President Jimmy Carter, and is expected to arrive back in Boston today....
The Carter Center, the former president’s Atlanta-based foundation, said in a statement that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il released Gomes at Carter’s request on humanitarian grounds. It was not known if Carter met with Kim on his just-concluded trip to Pyongyang, or whether a meeting was made impossible by the North Korean leader’s own trip to China....
The reclusive and erratic North Korean regime is known for kidnapping foreigners and for handing down harsh sentences to people who try to cross in and out of its border without permission, sometimes using them as pawns to gain international attention.
Yeah, except THESE GUYS and GALS ILLEGALLY CROSSED the BORDER!
C'mon, Globe!
Your reporters can not be that bad, can they?
