What Priorities? II
Why does North Korea want to finance Thailand’s subway system? In order to replace its underground railroad (Via. ROK Drop)
SEOUL, March 14 (Yonhap) — North Korea has offered a US$100 million loan to Thailand for its mass transit systems despite the deepening economic woes of the impoverished North that depends heavily on international handouts to feed its hungry people, a U.S. source here said Friday.
The amount offered by the communist North could not be independently confirmed, but Thailand’s Transportation Minister Santi Prompat last week confirmed there was a loan offer from Pyongyang, according to the Bangkok Post, an English newspaper circulated in the Thai capital.
From the very beginning, Thailand’s goal is to remove illegal migrants, including North Koreans, from its country. At first, it did what it was supposed to, grant North Koreans refugee status. But then the coup occurred and North Koreans begin pouring in, it was time for Thailand to get rid of them by any means. So which country in the last year was most interested in North Koreans? Not South Korea, nor was the US much interested. North Korea turned out to be the most interested in taking them back, and Thailand complied. So to me this seems like the reward from North Korea to Thailand for a job well done.
Thailand has the right to deport any illegal migrants. It also has an obligation to international convention in treating North Koreans as refugees. Given the cost/benefit of giving the refugee back to North Korea or granting them asylum, is anyone surprised which path Thailand took?
