美国国家公共电台 NPR Opinion: 90,000 Vodka Bottles Were Bound For North Korea, While Its People Starve

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SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

This week, just as President Trump¹ and Kim Jong Un prepare to meet in Hanoi for what turned out to be their abrupt² and unproductive summit, Dutch customs officials discovered and seized about 90,000 bottles of Russian vodka from a Chinese ship destined³ for North Korea, according to the Algemeen Dagblad, the Dutch newspaper. Maybe I didn't need to say that Algemeen Dagblad is a Dutch newspaper. The ship was officially bound on a course for China, but acting⁴ on a tip and based on prior experience, Dutch officials believe part of the cargo⁵ was in route to North Korea. When officers boarded the Nebula⁶, they found the thousands of bottles of contraband⁷ Stolbovaya concealed⁸ into the fuselage of an aircraft.

U.N. sanctions prohibit the importation of luxury goods into North Korea. The idea is to try to deprive North Korea's ruling elite⁹ of toys and bling - deluxe¹⁰ cars, large-screen TVs, Rolexes, furs and top-shelf liquor from around the world - to induce them to close down their nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. But extravagances are smuggled¹¹ in any way to sustain Kim Jong Un and reward his allies. At the same time, a 2017 report by FAO, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, says that 2 out of every 5 North Koreans are malnourished. Children and pregnant and nursing mothers are especially vulnerable.

In 2017, a young North Korean soldier later identified as Oh Chong Song was shot several times as he ran across the demilitarized zone to escape into South Korea. The South Korean surgeons who battled to save his life found dozens of parasitic¹² worms inside the soldier's stomach, some as long as 11 inches - a shocking sign of the desperation and disease in North Korea.

Those of us who've reported from countries under sanctions often learn that the elites¹³ in a tyranny usually have the resources and connections to maneuver¹⁴ around embargoes¹⁵ and boycotts¹⁶. And they still manage to get hold of the likes of filets, champagne¹⁷ and Louis Vuitton bags. Regular citizens are left to scratch and suffer simply to survive. Those 90,000 bottles of Stolbovaya may tell us not just about the taste North Korea's rulers have for vodka but their disdain¹⁸ and indifference¹⁹ to the people they rule.