Sure I would hope that Kim Jong-un would accept Google in north Korea and allow his people access to outside information because as I have said he would be singularly responsible for the collapse of the Kim Family Regime and would become a hero to Korea making the largest contribution to unification that any foreigner could possibly make. Professor Cha (though his earlier statements show perhaps a little too much optimism because I do not think this event is anything more than another gimmick to support "Image First Politics") is exactly right with his concluding statement and very much the reason why nothing (beyond perhaps the release of Kenneth Bae) is likely to come of this and also why I believe that Richardson and Schmidt are going to get played.
It’s also hard to imagine that 29-year-old Kim Jong-un, who was educated in the West, can resist the same tech that defines the lives of twentysomethings around the world. “He’s got to be interested in this stuff,” Cha says. But the risks are great: “As soon as he allows open access to it, he can kiss his leadership goodbye.”
But I just heard Richardson say on CNN that he is in good hands because he is taking his expert advisor Tony Namkung (Chinese born and raised in Tokyo) who is an Asian expert. You can read his bio below and note what he wrote in 2000 about the north opening up and of course blaming the US for being involved in dividing the peninsula – thus overlooking the fact had two US Army officers, Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel not come up with the plan for the Soviets to take the Japanese surrender north of the 38th parallel and the US to the South the peninsula would today be unified under the Stalinist dictatorship that was established in the north in 1945.
But I think perhaps Tony Namkung's north Korean expertise is equivalent to my current football skills. I can watch a football game on TV and explain it so I must be able to play in the Super Bowl.
K.A. "Tony" Namkung, Ph.D. - Partner
http://www.zoominfo.com/#!search/profile/person?personId=49022005&targetid=profile
Tony is an internationally known expert on U.S. - Asia relations and is well known and highly respected by business and government leaders throughout Asia and the U.S. He is Owner of Murray Hill Consultants, LLC, an advisory services firm assisting corporations on both sides of the Pacific in the areas of corporate strategy, market access, and governmental relations. Tony's knowledge, experience and extensive professional network makes him uniquely suited to lead Sandia Capital Partners strategic advisory and investment activities for Asian businesses seeking to expand activities in the Southwestern United States and for US businesses seeking investment and strategic alliances with leading Asian corporations.
Tony has over three decades' experience in fostering U.S.-Asia relations, including at U.C., Berkeley where he taught and served as Deputy Director of its Institute of East Asian Studies, as Executive Director of the Asia Society in New York, and in the think tank community as Guest Scholar at theBrookings Institution and Director of the Atlantic Council of the United States. He has also served as Senior Adviser to Shearman & Sterling and as President of the Shearman & Sterling Institute. He has been a member of the Council on Foreign Relations since 1991 and sits on the boards and committees of a number of national organizations dealing with U.S.-Asia relations.
Tony holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and is the recipient of numerous national fellowships, grants from private foundations, and honors and prizes in the Asian field. He was born in Shanghai and raised in Tokyo while attending American schools.
NAPSNet Daily Report, Tuesday, October 10, 2000ftp.nautilus.org, 14 Mar 2001 [cached]The Los Angeles Times published an opinion article by K.A. Namkung, chairman of Murray Hill Company in New Jersey, specializing in doing business with North Korea, ("U.S.-N. KOREA NORMALIZATION IS NOW IN SIGHT," 10/6/00) which said this week's visit by Jo Myong- rok, DPRK's first vice chairman of the National Defense Commission to the US could reshape the security landscape of Northeast Asia.
...
This visit, Namkung wrote, " could lead to a meeting of leaders of the two nations."He continued, "With the dramatic improvement in its relations with South Korea, the restoration of its ties underway with its former allies, China and Russia, and its normalization efforts with the European Union, Japan and other countries, now was the time for North Korea to realize its decade- old strategy of bringing its most formidable adversary, the United States, to the peace table.But the United States must be more involved in easing the military standoff.It can serve as an honest broker between the two Koreas, not on the model of Camp David but as a stabilizer and harmonizer.The U.S. was involved in dividing the Korean peninsula.It must now help bring peace to this troubled land and thereby secure its long-term presence in the region."
V/R
Dave
Eric Schmidt’s North Korea Trip May Not Be as Ridiculous as It Sounds
- BY MARCUS WOHLSEN01.04.137:55 PM
Google chairman Eric Schmidt’s planned trip to North Korea promises few returns for the company’s shareholders. But for the world’s most locked-down country, where only a few thousand citizens have internet access at all, his visit could offer the strongest hint yet of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s tortured longing for openness.
To be sure, the gulf between Google and North Korea couldn’t seem wider.
“The face of probably the most important facilitator of borderless information in the world is going into the hyperstate for the control of information,” says Victor Cha, a director of Asian affairs for the National Security Council during the second Bush administration and now a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The past quarter-century has seen ex-presidents, diplomats, and the world’s most powerful nations try and fail to crack open North Korea’s totalitarian regime. During the visit reportedly planned for later this month, Schmidt will join former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson for what Richardson described as a “private humanitarian visit” to free a detained U.S. citizen over the State Department’s objections.
Richardson told CBS that Schmidt’s presence on the trip had nothing to do with Google.
“I invited Eric. He is going as a private citizen,” Richardson said. “This is not a Google trip.”
Perhaps. “We do not comment on personal travel,” a Google spokeswoman said in response to questions.
But since stepping down as Google’s CEO in 2011, Schmidt has continued to serve as the search giant’s most visible public face. The significance of showing that face in Pyongyang isn’t lost on North Korea, Cha says.
“I don’t know if it’s a good opportunity for Google. But it’s a good opportunity for the North Korean leadership to signal to the world that they’re serious about going forward,” he says.
(Continued at the link below)
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