When you hitch your star to a Bullshit artist like Donald Trump, you’d better be prepared when the whole world laughs at you.
Vice-President Mike Pence’s plan to use his trip to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang to further isolate Pyongyang didn’t go very well. For about a week, Pence and his press people have been promoting how the VP was going to stand up to the North Korean propaganda machine and deny them their opportunity to “hijack the message and imagery” of the Games, but the political story of the Games so far has been the continued signs of a significant thaw between Pyongyang and South Korea, the staunch U.S. ally.
The Pyeongchang Olympics handed North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un a perfect opportunity to improve the image of his horrifying police state by presenting a friendly face to the rest of the world while undermining the constant sabre-rattling emanating from Washington towards the Korean peninsula. Summoning up a combination of phony bravado and his non-existent foreign policy experience, Pence vowed before he left to do us all proud against the nasty North Korean:
During the games, Pence will "make clear that the maximum pressure of the Kim regime will only intensify," a White House official told reporters, adding that the vice president "will not allow the North Korean regime to highjack messaging of Olympics with propaganda."
"You'll see (Pence) highlight reality of what's happening in North Korea, despite propaganda tactics," the official said.
Except it didn’t work out that way. Kim Jong-un has thus far succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, sending his equally monstrous sister, Kim-Yo-jong to make nice with the delegations. So far, the 30-year old director of the State’s Propaganda and Agitation Department has wowed everyone from the local tabloids to NPR and the New York Times:
Kim has captivated media attention and fascinated the public since her arrival on Friday. Days later, TV news shows in South Korea are still repeatedly airing footage of Kim walking with President Moon Jae-in, often with a placid smile on her face. Hoping to discern what she's thinking, analysts pored over video of her eyes, and remarked on the tilt of her chin.
In South Korea and beyond, commentators are taken with Kim's surprisingly stylish and relaxed demeanor.
This “stylish and relaxed" woman probably is responsible for more torture and death than any person attending the Olympics. But compared to Pence, whose “standing up” to the propaganda machine basically amounted to putting Yo-jong on “Ignore,” she’s now up there with Lady Diana. That’s called a coup. And Pence’s “strategy” soon began to look plain idiotic:
He also avoided the North Korean delegation, which included Kim Yo-jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, at a VIP reception for delegation leaders, when even Japanese president Shinzo Abe — no fan of North Korea — said hello. And Pence’s icy treatment continued at the opening ceremonies on Friday night. While President Moon and members of the North Korean delegation stood and applauded the temporarily unified team of South and North Korean athletes, Pence — who was sitting in the same VIP box in front of the North Korean delegation — remained seated and became an awkward photo bomber. Indeed, some experts are worried that Pence’s dour attitude toward the host nation’s team will just be seen as disrespectful.
Yesterday President Moon of South Korea invited Kim Yo-jong for a nice lunch and the Dear Leader’s Sister extended an invitation for Moon to come visit North Korea. A sour Pence (who had already angered our ally South Korea by refusing to stand when the unified team first entered the Olympic stadium) had no comment, watching his anti-propaganda campaign circling the bowl. Meanwhile the rest of the world saw an impotent, ineffective U.S. leadership being totally outflanked by one of the Real Worst People In The World. How does that make ya feel, Trumpies?
Mr. Pence is playing “right into North Korea’s hands by making it look like the U.S. is straying from its ally and actively undermining efforts for inter-Korean relations,” said Mintaro Oba, a former diplomat at the State Department specializing in the Koreas, who now works as a speechwriter in Washington.
Of course, this is all in addition to the two South and North Korean athletes jointly lighting the Olympic torch, the North Korean team getting huge cheers during the opening ceremonies, the feel-good symbolic singing of Imagine, and the bevy of North Korean cheerleaders (the “Army of Beauties”) that has set the media’s tongues wagging.
No wonder Pence left the country yesterday, with his tail between his legs. Kim Jong-un had already run circles around him. And the Olympics had just started.