"Tourist fatally shot in N. Korea" by Blaine Harden, Washington Post | July 12, 2008
TOKYO - In his speech at the opening session of the newly elected National Assembly, President Lee Myung-bak went further than he had before in suggesting that his get-tough policy toward the North may have been mistaken and that South Korean humanitarian aid should not be interrupted by a change of leadership in Seoul.
He got tough because of U.S. pressure no doubt.
North Korea has come to depend on South Korean aid to prop up a centralized farming system that almost always fails to produce enough food to feed the country's 23 million people.
Lee's presidency has been hurt by street demonstrations against the purported mad cow disease dangers of imported US beef.
Yeah, those were sure kept quiet by the AmeriKan MSM, huh?
And tell those British parents who have lost their children how "purported" is the disease.
And his tough line toward North Korea - making aid conditional on denuclearization and improved human rights - has chilled ties with his heavily armed northern neighbor and angered its Stalinist leader, Kim Jong Il.
The killing of a 53-year-old tourist, who reportedly was shot twice from behind, seems certain to complicate, at least in the short term, what Lee said yesterday would be a new effort on his part to consult with the North, help relieve food shortages there and "alleviate the pain of the North Korean people."
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