Mick Hartley

Not a band name: rather, a foolish ex-president and his unfortunately-named fellow ex-leaders. They are now in North Korea. Last time Carter was there he was snubbed by Kim Jong-il, but he's nothing if not indefatigable.

Some links: the Daily NK – Is Carter’s Visit to Pyongyang Necessary? Short answer: no. Longer answer: as North Korea is temporarily in the non-confrontational part of its regular mood swing cycle, Kim will probably make some effort to use Carter et al for his own purposes.

Via The Marmot's Hole, this from JoongAng Ilbo editorial writer Kim Jin:

Just like the old days, Carter still appears to be on Pyongyang’s side. In his memoir, he claimed that in 1994, the U.S. was trying to take serious political and economic sanctions through the U.N. on a small, isolated, poor and mysterious communist country. The prime objective of the Carter Center is human rights but you can hardly find information about human rights infringement in North Korea at its Web site.

Since the sinking of the Cheonan, the Western community, the United States and South Korea are pressuring North Korea together. Standing on the edge, Kim Jong-il will try to use Carter just like his father had done. The Kim family and Carter have been dancing a delusional tango for generations.

Jimmy Carter had been a naval officer. When he arrives in the South after the Pyongyang visit, he may want to visit the National Cemetery, where the sailors of the Cheonan are buried. Carter must realize that the truth of the Korean Peninsula can be found from the graves of the 46 victims, not the smile on Kim Jong-il’s face. The realization would be an awakening for 87-year-old former president.

More at One Free Korea, where Claudia Rosett – Please, Not Another Jimmy Carter Jaunt to North Korea – is quoted on the true contempt that North Koreans have for Carter, prompting this comment:

Jimmy Carter may not be well-regarded by North Korean officials, but his wife Rosalyn has a special place in the hearts of North Koreans thanks to the 1998 short story “Mae-hok” by Kim Jun Hak, a fictional account of the Carters’ 1994 trip to North Korea in which Rosalyn falls half in love with Kim Il Sung after watching him in action and comparing him to her lackluster husband.

Also, a brief mention of the visit at Marcus Noland's site, where Stephen Haggard wonders if there'll be anything tangible this time – like the release perhaps of the latest American Christian to wander across the border, Jun Young Su. It would certainly make one old man very happy.

Back to Claudia Rosett:

This time around, with North Korea reportedly holding yet another American in custody, there’s speculation that this latest prisoner will be released to Carter — as part of what’s becoming a hostage-politics routine in which North Korea’s regime turns over American detainees, like door prizes, to visiting American ex-presidents.

For North Korea to use American prisoners as chits to obtain visits by former U.S. presidents — and for ex-presidents to play this game — is quite horrendous enough. But visits from Carter are cheap; to all appearances, it’s hardly worth Kim’s while to summon Carter for another potential prisoner-release. All concerned have been-there, done-that. Most likely, Kim has something else in mind. So, apparently, does Carter, whose initial 1994 pilgrimage to Pyongyang engendered the “Agreed Framework” nuclear freeze deal  in which the West poured aid and fuel into North Korea, and began building Kim two modern nuclear reactors — while North Korea cheated on the deal. At a time when communist states were crumbling, and the old Soviet subsidies had vanished, the Carter-inspired Agreed Framework helped dignify and sustain Kim, as he consolidated power inherited from his late father. Instead of collapsing, North Korea’s totalitarian regime carried on. The regime starved to death an estimated one million or more of its own people while Kim poured resources into missile and nuclear-weapons development, and purveyed these delights to the Middle East.

But Carter thought he’d done the world a great favor. And last November, in an op-ed in the Washington Post, he made it clear that he’s raring to repeat his 1994 feat of useful-idiot nuclear brokering with Pyongyang. Enough already.