Dennis Rodman. Photo by OPEN Sports.
This is funny, from the State Department briefing today.
But...not so funny because it shows that these people either just don't get it about this regime, or they pretend not to get it.
Of course even if you go on something "innocuous" like "kids and basketball" you will be dealing directly with the regime. The regime will be all over it. Sports are the very essence of the regime -- like the Soviets and all communist regimes, sports are how they manifested themselves and how they trained and indoctrinated youth. Sports are a HUGE deal to these regimes, and foreigners are always made much of, especially naive foreigners who can help them keep up the illusion that they are accepted and normal -- when they should not be, because they have deadly labour camps and are a horrendous totalitarian society oppressing people.
This is of course the money shot: "So the Google chief gets a sharper admonition before a nuclear test than a basketball player gets two weeks after a nuclear test."
Well, and don't forget -- although he was overshadowed -- that Google chief was with Governor Bill Richardson, former governor of New Mexico and former ambassador to the UN.
Maybe Google can release a sat map of all the basketball courts in North Korea two weeks after this trip, and make it all okay.
So here we go:
QUESTION: I wonder what the State Department’s reaction is to the visit by Dennis Rodman there. Is this – is basketball diplomacy the same as ping-pong diplomacy with China?
MR. VENTRELL: Well, not exactly in this case. We have not been contacted about this travel to North Korea by this group. We don’t vet U.S. citizens’ private travel to North Korea, but we do urge U.S. citizens contemplating travel to North Korea to review our Travel Warnings on North Korea as well as country-specific travel information available on our website. So we just don’t have a position on the timing of this travel or otherwise.
QUESTION: Really?
QUESTION: The one that – the visit by the Google executive, Eric Schmidt, earlier this year you characterized as unhelpful. How would you characterize the visit by this basket --
MR. VENTRELL: I mean, we just don’t take a position on this particular private travel.
QUESTION: Even that he’s unhelpful or --
MR. VENTRELL: I mean, look, you know where we are in terms of the track with the D.P.R.K. and their threatening and provocative behavior and how we’re working very hard in New York for a very credible and strong response. In terms of this private travel to do basketball with kids, we just don’t take a position on this private travel.
QUESTION: So the Google chief gets a sharper admonition before a nuclear test than a basketball player gets two weeks after a nuclear test.
MR. VENTRELL: I don’t know if I’d parse it that way. I mean, I think --
QUESTION: That’s not parsing. That’s just exactly what you’ve done.
MR. VENTRELL: Look, we have --
QUESTION: And I want to know why.
MR. VENTRELL: We’re talking about somebody who is a former significant American official and businessman who were going there on different – for different purposes. Here we’re talking about sports. I mean, we just don’t take a position.
QUESTION: Well, we did see the propaganda value of the – of Eric Schmidt’s visit, and the statements and pictures that were put out by the North Korean media. And I imagine the same thing is going to happen with this visit as well. I mean, it’s the second high-profile visit in a matter of weeks to North Korea.
MR. VENTRELL: Yeah.
QUESTION: A country with which you have no ties.
MR. VENTRELL: You know where we’ve been on this more broadly, which is that they probably should focus their money on feeding their children, taking care of their families, and providing a more prosperous future for the North Koreans. On this specific basketball trip, I just don’t take a position.
QUESTION: But is it because it’s more about kids and something cultural than opposed to some kind of business that the regime could possibly benefit for? I mean, we’re just asking why you’re making the differentiation.
MR. VENTRELL: That would be a safe assumption, Elise. It’s that kind of – look, we’re talking about a basketball and a kids’ clinic. It’s different than some sort of dialogue directly with the regime.
QUESTION: And where are we on the resolution at the --
QUESTION: Is it your understanding that there’s no regime contact on this trip, as far as you know?
MR. VENTRELL: I don’t know. I really refer you to the travelers, and just don’t have any information.
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