In yesterday’s LA Times there is an article titled “6 North Korean Defectors Make Their Way to US” that talks about how the US government for the first time has taken an active role in helping and admitting North Korean who wish to defect.
The article states that before the policy of the US had been to refrain in providing assistance because it was thought to hurt in efforts to get North Korea to negotiate in reducing their nuclear programs and eliminating their nuclear weapons.
However, as the article states, now that talks with North Korea have not progressed for some time conservatives in the US government have asked that the US State Department now play a role in assisting defectors.
In reading the article I could not help but get the impression that the US was “showing up” North Korea. In other words, by providing this kind of assistance the US is telling the North Koreans that our way of doing things is better, and we have your people coming here and willing to risk their lives to prove it. During the cold war this kind of practice was seen as having much political value.
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