Diplomatic relations between countries across the globe haven’t felt this scary in a while.
In the region, there’s the whole South China Sea problem, with China rejecting an international ruling in favor of territorial claims made by the Phillippines.
More to the west, there’s Brexit, the decision by a majority of voters in England to leave the EU.
And way over in the United States, a well-coiffed buffoon is on the verge of holding the highest office in the land and ending civilization as we know it, or at least a bunch of people feel that way.
Myanmar has its own diplomatic test to take.
On July 25, on the sidelines of the recent ASEAN summit in Laos, North Korea’s foreign minister officially invited counterpart Aung San Suu Kyi to visit their hellish dystopia at her earliest convenience, the Myanmar Times reported.
So let’s get this straight. North Korea, a country of gulags where the only thing getting in the way of leader Kim Jong-un is his own weight, thinks it can invite one of the most famous dissidents in the world for a serious state visit?
They’re fucking with us, right?
Apparently not, as an official from the ministry of foreign affairs told the Times. The invite is the real deal. But she hasn’t responded to it yet.
“France and Germany also invited her but she hasn’t yet decided where to go first. China and US trips [are planned] too,” the official was quoted as saying in the report published today.
Suu Kyi is expected to visit US President Barack Obama before his term is over in January.
As the Times points out, nefarious ties between the former military-backed regime – which began to fade from view in 2011 before losing in elections to Suu Kyi’s party in November – have long been suspected but never confirmed.
In any case they seem to have frayed in recent years.
But as recently as last year, the government here cracked down on bootleg DVD sellers who were hawking copies of the spoof comedy “The Interview,” about two guys who go to Pyongyang under the pretense of interviewing Kim Jong-un but actually to assassinate him.
Obviously, North Korea didn’t get the joke, and its representatives in Cambodia and Myanmar asked local governments to help stop sales of the film.
Maybe this invite is a reward for the whole movie crackdown thing?
Of course, Suu Kyi would be crazy to go.
As one former lawmaker pointed out, South Korea is a huge investor in Myanmar, and they would not like seeing the Nobel laureate being feted by their longtime foes to the north.
