Former United Nations ambassador Bill Richardson has long been boastful of his close relations with the North Korean regime. During his misbegotten 2008 presidential campaign, Richardson bragged often of his tight relations with the Kim dynasty, among sundry other tyrannies, including Cuba and Sudan. Voters were apparently meant to find it a good thing that he was friendly with various murderous tyrants.

Richardson has traveled to North Korea at least six times; if the Kim regime believed in private property, he’d no doubt have a vacation home there by now. So it’s perhaps not surprising that John Kasich has, according to the New York Times, enlisted Richardson to help negotiate the release of an Ohio college student, one Otto Warmbier, who is currently being held prisoner in Pyongyang.