North Koreans Kicking and Screaming

Beyond Bizzare:

HELSINGIN SANOMAT reports that a bizarre altercation on the train leads to a dispute between Finland and North Korea, and accusations of Finnish human rights violations.
Finland and North Korea found themselves in the middle of a diplomatic spat last week, after two North Korean diplomatic couriers caused a scene on a Moscow to Helsinki train.

According to the Finns, the diplomats had refused to show their train-tickets to the Finnish conductor or their luggage to Customs officials who came on board the train. As a result, a scuffle took place in the train compartment, after which the two North Koreans were bodily escorted to Kouvola police station.

"They roughly threw a female Customs inspector out of the compartment and into the corridor outside. She said that she had been bruised both physically and mentally", reported Tommi Kivilaakso, who heads the Eastern Customs District.

"The problems stemmed from the steep language barrier, because the North Koreans were almost completely without foreign language skills."

The North Koreans have seen the events in Kouvola in a markedly different light. On Friday of last week, the North Korean Embassy in Stockholm passed a diplomatic note to the Finnish Embassy in the Swedish capital, complaining at the actions of the Finnish police, immigration officials, and Customs officers in Kouvola. The note was then delivered to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Helsinki.

The North Korean note makes pretty chilling reading. It states that the Finnish Customs inspectors attempted by force to open the couriers' bags of diplomatic post and acted in a violent manner. For their part, the police who were called to the scene used tear gas and handcuffs on the couriers. In addition to all this, a police dog bit at least one of the men. North Korea accuses Finland of human rights violations and of transgressing against accepted international rules and agreements.

It is quite shocking that diplomats would have such a severe lack of language skills. If the Diplomats didn't speak the language, how could they conduct any diplomacy in Finland? What kind of a regime supplies diplomats without the necessary language skills? A brutal, repressive, backwars regime such as North Korea, apparently. Kim Jong Il must be spending such vast sums of cash on presents for the generals and acolytes who help bolster his rule that expenditures for the basic skills a representative of a foreign government should have while abroad are severely lacking.

In related news, a Japanese group to drop leaflets by balloon on North Korea, offer reward for information.

A Japanese advocacy group said Tuesday it will use balloons to scatter flyers over North Korea, offering residents a US$10,000 cash reward for information on Japanese citizens kidnapped by the regime decades ago.

North Korea can scarcely afford to make more enemies. Adding to the list of the U.S. and Japan, they've alienated Russia and China with their detonation of a nuclear bomb, South Korea is doubting its aid, and now Finland can be added to that list. This is the regime with which we are in diplomatic discussions with regarding its nuclear program.