Merry Christmas North Korea -by Legal Pub

As you probably know, Sony has cancelled the opening of its new Christmas time movie whose story line included an assassination attempt on the North Korean prime minister.  While we may know nothing about the movie, it sounds like a topic that needs not be promoted.  Nevertheless, hacking into the Sony computers and threatening terrorist acts is simply bush league.  Who knows if the prime minister will ever see The Interview, but the controversial movie clips appear to be a bad attempt at humor. Grow up, North Korea.  Kim Il-Sung is the "Eternal President" of North Korea.  If your eternal preident you don't need to worry about elections and you sure as heck need to have a sense of humor. Kim IL-Sung could have handled the situation by holding a press conference exclaiming what poor taste was exhibited by those associated with the movie. He could have nicely asked patrons to boycott the movie and he would have gained world wide popularity. That is how it really works over here, and he knows that. Someone over there really needs to suggest a P.R. expert besides Dennis Rodman.

Meanwhile, China can't help but hurt its public image either.  China arrested a Korean American Christian aid worker today.  Peter Hahn, 74, is a Christian activist who was close to the North Korean border. Hahn is allegedly charged with embezzlement and counterfeiting receipts.  He is represented by attorney Zhang Peihong. More appropriate charges would likely have been promoting Christian faith but that won't sell as many papers during the holiday season.  Hahn ran a vocational school in Tumen.  It appeared that the school was a mission base camp for promoting missionaries for Christianity, not violence; nevertheless, both can be seen as evil in China.  

Christian missionaries have routinely been forced to leave China, most settling in South Korea. 
China's Foreign Ministry confirmed the charges against Hahn but labelled him as "criminally detained."  Hahn's attorney calls it "formally arrested." Perhaps a mere matter of semantics because in any event, Hahn is not free to spread the Christmas cheer as he sees fit. Another bad P.R. move in the east.

To both North Korea and China:  hire better P.R. people and help make the world a better place.

12-23-14 Update:  Sony seems no longer intimidated.  Sony originally canceled the film’s planned release after their systems were hacked and threats were made against national movie theater chains. However, two independent theater owners indicate that they  will be able to screen The Interview on Christmas Day. Sony later confirmed “a limited theatrical release” for the film in select U.S. theaters on Christmas.

If one were guessing, Sony is letting North Korea know that its engineers can do a lot more damage than North Korea can possibly imagine.  When it comes to technology, it would be a huge mistake to underestimate the Japanese!