Yet just three weeks ago, Hwang Pyong So, the No. 2 official in the North Korean regime, met with South Korean officials during a visit to the South for the Asian Games. And there have been press reports — neither confirmed nor denied by the State Department — than an American envoy traveled to Pyongyang in August to discuss Fowle.
“Whether this is part of a larger effort, it’s really difficult to say,” said Victor Cha, a North Korean analyst for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “It’s very hard to say based on this one action whether this is a new policy.”
Charm offensive?
Joel Witt, who served as an adviser for North Korean affairs during the Clinton administration, said he did not “want to label this as part of some empty charm offensive. Let’s not dismiss it, but let’s not say this is turning a new page.”
Cha suggests that Fowle’s release is nothing more than North Korean leader Kim Jong-un displaying a gesture to former Democratic congressman Tony Hall of Dayton, who is highly regarded among North Korean officials for his efforts to deliver food aid in the past.
Hall, who has traveled to North Korea no fewer than eight times and served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, sent e-mails and made phone calls to officials with ties to North Korea in an effort to persuade Pyongyang to release Fowle.
Fowle, 56, had been awaiting trial after he was accused of hiding a bilingual English-Korean bible inside a restroom of a sailor’s club in the northeastern North Korean city of Chongjin, where he was traveling with a foreign tour group, according to Reuters. A source told the news agency the bible was bound in fake leather that Fowle wrapped inside a Chinese newspaper and hid under a bin designed to discard the used toilet paper North Korea’s aging plumbing cannot handle.
“As I’ve said many times before, they are an enigma this country and the way they make their decisions,” Hall said. “Just when you think you understand them, you don’t understand them. And just when you think they’re going to do this, they don’t do this. They do just the opposite.
“They have their own way of doing things,” Hall said. “So they do thing that the western world is always surprised. And we can’t quite understand how they came about making that decision.”
Concern still deep
On Thursday, the North Korea government said it would consider pardoning Americans, Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller, if Washington formally apologized. At a news conference Friday in Washington, Secretary of State John F. Kerry balked at the suggestion.
“We’ve made it clear that no apology or other statement is in the offing,” he said. “They need to release these people because they’re being held inappropriately. And our hope is that they will recognize the goodwill that could be built and the gesture that it would offer to the world of their willingness to try to open up a different diplomatic track.”
The secretary added “…our hope is for the humanitarian reason alone that they will behave differently and see fit to release these people. We’re grateful that Jeff Fowle was released, back in Ohio now. We’re delighted with that.”
The United States has been befuddled with North Korea’s behavior since the 1953 armistice that ended the fighting on the Korean peninsula in which 31,000 Americans were killed. The two nations do not maintain diplomatic ties, and the United States relies on the help of Sweden, which has an embassy in Pyongyang and can act as a “protecting power” for Washington. The Swedish Embassy played a role in securing Fowle’s release.
In 1968, North Korean gun boats seized an American intelligence ship, Pueblo, and held its crew for nearly a year before returning them. In 1969, North Korea shot down an unarmed U.S. reconnaissance plane in international waters, killing all 31 crew members. The United States and North Korea have verbally clashed over North Korea’s testing nuclear devices and long-range ballistic missiles.
On Friday, Kerry also met with Republic of Korea Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and South Korean Defense Minister Han Min-koo to reiterate that the two nation’s “alliance is stronger than ever.” Kerry said the United States and South Korea “remain open to dialogue with North Korea, but there is no value in talks just for the sake of talks.
“North Korea must demonstrate that it is serious about denuclearization, and we need to be certain that it is prepared to live up to its international obligations and abide by international norms of behavior. In the meantime, we will remain vigilant against the clear threat that North Korea poses.”
Kim still in charge
To some, the decision to release Fowle suggests that dictator Kim Jong Un, the 31-year-old son of Kim Jong-Il and grandson of North Korea’s first leader, Kim Il Sung, is firmly in control even though he recently disappeared for more than 40 days.
Witt dismissed as “junk” reports that the younger Kim had died and that his sister was running the regime. “He’s in charge,” he said. “Not his sister. There isn’t someone pulling the strings behind him.”
Cha, however, warns that North Korea’s actions over the past month reflects a more schizophrenic and divisive regime that could prove far more dangerous time for the United States and its allies.
“You get this herky-jerky behavior and it makes you wonder if this is a manifestation of infighting within North Korea,” Cha said. “I would to say it’s a new turn in behavior, but if I had a dime for every time a journalist or expert said that was the case, I wouldn’t need to be a professor from Georgetown, I would be on an island somewhere that I owned.”
Release ‘very unusual’
Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, said Fowle’s release is not “any indication of a softening by North Korea. To look at whether North Korea is softening, you only have to look at their nuclear weapons program.” At Turner’s urging, Hall worked through diplomatic challenges to assist in the efforts.
Hall called the decision to release Fowle “a good one and they did a good thing here. They really did. They did something they don’t do. They let somebody go. And didn’t give an excuse…they just did it. It’s very unusual. Very unusual.”
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