By Well I guess the next dumb ass American that decides to walk into North Korea will have to settle for George Bush Sr. or Jr. to come pick them up:
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter arrived Wednesday in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, a trip during which he may meet with leader Kim Jong-il, as he tries to win the release of an American man imprisoned there for months.
The trip is Carter’s first in 16 years to the communist state that is locked in a nuclear standoff with the United States. In 1994, Carter met with Kim’s father and North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung, ending a cycle of military tension and helping produce a breakthrough in nuclear talks between the two countries.
“Jimmy Carter, ex-president of the U.S., and his party arrived here Wednesday,” the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch seen in Seoul, adding Pyongyang’s top nuclear envoy, Kim Kye Gwan, received him at the airport.
Carter held talks with North Korea’s nominal head of state, Kim Yong-nam, “in a warm atmosphere” at the parliamentary building in Pyongyang, the North’s Korean Central Television Station said without elaborating. The station said that Carter was presented with a bouquet of flowers by a child upon arriving on a chartered plane.
Chosun Sinbo, a pro-Pyongyang news outlet, said Carter “smiled all the way” from his plane to the car that awaited him, while China’s official Xinhua news agency said Carter “declined to speak to the press at the airport.”
U.S. officials have refused to describe Carter’s visit as anything more than private and humanitarian. A team of U.S. officials traveled to North Korea earlier this month but failed to bring home Aijalon Mahli Gomes, a 30-year-old American from Boston who was sentenced to eight years of hard labor and fined about $700,000 in May for illegal entry early this year.
Pyongyang reportedly promised to set Gomes free if Carter visited the communist country. Last month, Gomes attempted suicide out of frustration that his country was not doing enough to save him, according to the North’s official media. [Yonhap]
Read the rest at the link, but if the above statement is true then he should of thought about that before he walked into North Korea. Nevertheless it will be interesting once Gomes is released to hear his side of the story of what happened because this whole thing has just been odd. No matter what happened chalk up another propaganda victory for the North Koreans.
6:56 am on August 25th, 2010 1
How many more of these self-important, deluded little shites are going to walk across the Yalu and scream "Help mommy, help!" once the inevitable happens? These twits are propaganda fodder for the DPRK at best and a source of extortion money at worst. The next one has to left to rot in a cell as a warning to the rest who may well be tempted to make some sort of statement. This has to stop NOW.
8:25 am on August 25th, 2010 2
When this is over, maybe Gomes and Park should get a room and console each other. Now they will have a shared experience that only they could understand.
8:50 am on August 25th, 2010 3
Agree. Who pays for Jimmy's chartered plane? I bet Gomes doesn't.
9:19 am on August 25th, 2010 4
You guys forget, Carter has a history of bringing certain death to North Korean leaders after he leaves the country. Maybe KJI will go the way of his dad after this visit.
10:44 am on August 25th, 2010 5
Damn, where's Jesse Jackson? He and Al Sharpton should of at least been on the invitation list. Jesse has just got to be fuming.
12:37 pm on August 25th, 2010 6
A listener #4, hope your right. For the life of me how could anyone be so f'ing stupid as to want to sneak INTO communist North Korea? If you want to spread the gospel then float some Korean language Bibles by balloon and has been done often. With a country full of informers there is no way that a person would have enough time to actually talk to somebody, the citizens of NK just walk away from foreigners when they approach to save their pipers. As has been said when VIP's visit NK they just lend legitimacy to the communist regime.
10:00 pm on August 25th, 2010 7
Anyone infiltrating NK for the purpose of spreading the gospel deserves at least 8 years hard labor. How stupid can someone be? And then he supposedly attempted suicide because his country wasn't doing enough to get him out? How much time and money is being spent on this idiot? Let him stay there. Maybe the next fool that wants to do something like that will think twice before doing it. If they get him out, it will only reinforce the idea that someone will come get you after pulling a stunt like that.
9:30 am on August 26th, 2010 8
"No matter what happened chalk up another propaganda victory for the North Koreans."
Not so much. The little shit chickened out and went to China, most probably because Jimmy Carter is older, taller, stronger and healthier than him. Any pictures of the meeting leaked within North Korea would have shown people how pathetic the old man really is.
Remember, their propagandists made fun of the older Kim Dae-jung's limp when he met him. That's how North Korea plays.
9:52 am on August 26th, 2010 9
Considering Carter's track record for getting hostages returned…
…Ronald Regan's corpse might have a better shot at it.
12:12 pm on August 26th, 2010 10
What is it about Democrats and their love affair with tyrants?
Jimmie just can't stop him lovin' the North Koreans.
12:32 pm on August 26th, 2010 11
#1 How many more of these self-important, deluded little shites are going to walk across the Yalu and scream “Help
mommyJEBUS, help!” once the inevitable happens? (FTFY)#5 Jackson and Sharpton were not interested. Neither the norK's nor Gomes and Park have any money. It's all about the cheese.
#9 Perhaps the hostages will be released, after he leaves.
Dear Leader. Please, please keep Jimmy Carter!
2:10 pm on August 26th, 2010 12
#10,
Dude, how old are you?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Contra_…
They sent Carter because he his older, taller, and healthier than Kim Jong-il, thus depriving Kim Jong-il of a photo opportunity. Sending anyone younger would have given too big a boner to North Korean propagandists.
2:12 pm on August 26th, 2010 13
PS. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_Wa…
2:29 pm on August 26th, 2010 14
Few, if any posting here were old enough to vote for Carter. Nor does anyone remember the political climate after the great leader (or as some called him BIG FAT LIAR) Nixon and then Ford.
Who, posting here, would have been able to return an American from KN? That's what I thought.
2:49 pm on August 26th, 2010 15
#14 Who here gave a damn or even wanted him back?
Just as I thought.
Score another one for the norKs.
6:25 pm on August 26th, 2010 16
They released him for peanuts.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/26/presid…
6:12 pm on August 27th, 2010 17
14
Sorry to deflate your balloon, but I did vote against Carter, and I also remember clearly how the people of the US of A threw his sorry administration out of the white house after only fours. (Even Nixon looked good after Carter).