NK solution - The Goreacle

The New York Times News Blog - The Lede noted on Saturday that the Obama Administration might send either Bill Richardson or Al Gore to North Korea for negotiations resolving the current crisis over two American journalists sentenced to prison by North Korean government. The original story appeared on CNN.com.

Several senior administration officials said the idea of sending either Gore or New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to Pyongyang on a mission to get the journalists released has been floated to the North Koreans.

(We are not sure why the senior administration officials could not be named, unless they were violating their authority by talking to CNN, or would have been embarrassed to be leaking such drivel if their had been attribution.) Although both North Korea and the United States border the Pacific Ocean, sending messages in floating bottles is a problematic means of diplomatic communication. The United States and North Korea do not maintain diplomatic relations. North Korea has also announced it has abrogated the 1953 cease fire between it and the United Nations forces so technically a state of war between the North Korea and the nations participating in the Korean War under the United Nations flag has been re-initiated.

Mr. Richardson who was previously floated as a cabinet member in the Obama administration was unable to serve as he is under investigation for corruption. While an assignment outside the United States might suit both Mr. Richardson and the Obama administration, he might need leave from the court and prosecutor to leave the country.

Mr. Gore on the other hand seems to be a particularly apt choice. First the two jailed journalists work for his own news network. As their employer, he is responsible for their predicament. North Korea, eschewing cars, trucks, lighting at night and food to keep its population alive, is a model of the kind of minimal carbon footprint that Mr. Gore favors for the United States. It has also achieved this climate change hero status with a cap and trade policy of its own. The government caps both energy and food consumption and Koreans trade with their lives. Mr. Gore is likely to be sympatico with North Korean Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il (shown in the accompanying photo conjuring up the Goreacle), as they both seem to be similarly out of touch with reality and highly motivated to make political decisions calculated to maximize their own personal enrichment. Given Mr. Gore's own herculean consumption of both food and energy, the North Koreans might find it in their interest to release the two journalists if that would mean Mr. Gore would leave. If Mr. Gore on the other hand chose to stay in North Korea, we could tally that as a significant gain for America.

Please take a moment today to call your congressional representatives and the White House to promote the Goreacle as our man in Pyongyang.