The historical context and importance of the Rodman visit to North Korea

[Historyprof77132]

I wrote a post on my new blog about the Rodman issue because its my subject if research. The new blog needs promotion since I want to use it for student blogging in my history classes. I was told this was good and needed its own OP so here is the link. We might want to try and understand his visit rather than just calling it stupid or condemning it.

http://jlwtodayhistory.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-worm-as-ambassador.html?m=1

[whistler162]

1. Lets not and save you from the embarrasment!

What North Korea needs is a farming expert like Garst not a has-been basketball player who thinks everything is hunky dory in North Korea from one visit!

[Historyprof77132]

2. Not my point, but you can always go read it again and try to get it

[davidpdx]

3. One of the main differences is we have better technology today to know what is going on inside

North Korea including the gulags that exist in the country. I have lived in South Korea for 9 years and have worked with organizations on human rights issues, read books and white reports, and met North Korean refugees. My FIL is from a village outside Kaesong and fought in the Korean War (on the side of the South).

Rodman seems to completely blow off the human rights issues in his interview on ABC. If he goes back, as he says he intends to, the human rights issues should be brought up. I think the idea that he is the foremost expert on North Korea is ridiculously silly. While he spend a few days with Kim, we don't know what conversations he had or how much he was told (and whether what he was told was even true, which Rodman himself would be unable to even verify).

The truth of the matter is the human right abuses are abhorrent. Kim himself is a brutal dictator just like his father and grandfather. The international community is better off standing against Kim then playing basketball or agricultural diplomacy. If things were to improve, I'd support the idea of people going there on a volunteer basis to help them better feed themselves.

Until then, fuck'em...