President Trump tweeted the following about North Korea on Sunday morning:
I spoke with President Moon of South Korea last night. Asked him how Rocket Man is doing. Long gas lines forming in North Korea. Too bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2017
The tweet revealed more than the president’s charming affection for Bernie Taupin’s brilliant lyrics. It also revealed a sadly predictable myopia among the Twitter smart-set.
Max Fisher, a New York Times blogger whose modest remit is the entire “world,” said the following:
Dan Drezner, who teaches at Tufts University and is a fellow at Brookings, thought that Fisher’s point, which was echoed by Buzzfeed staffer Miriam Elder, was a brilliant one:
This. https://t.co/Fz33wq9DKB
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 17, 2017
It’s obviously true that most North Korean’s don’t own cars. (Though more and more do; well-connected individuals simply register them in the name of state-owned enterprises that they head up.)
But it’s also irrelevant: If there are in fact “gas lines” in North Korea, then they’re affecting the people we precisely want sanctions to hit: the elites. (Not to mention the military and productive industries). In fact, the existence of North Korean “gas lines” would be proof that targeted sanctions, which are designed to deprive the elite of resources, are actually working.
Others mocked the notion that there are gas lines at all. Award show junkie Chris Hayes said:
How are those gas lines in North Korea? Any more reports on that?
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) September 18, 2017
Granted, Hayes works for one the world’s largest news organizations so there’s no way he could know this, but there have been reported gas shortages in North Korea for several months. As far back as April, reports emerged of rising gas prices in Pyongyang.
Since then, the price hikes and apparent gas shortages appear to have continued. Radio Free Asia reported last week that “Gas stations closed without explanation for a few days late in August in a North Korean province bordering China, sparking concerns over possible austerity drills and causing prices to double when sales finally resumed.” More:
Daily NK, the indispensable online newspaper largely sourced by North Koreans, has reported similar news in recent months. So we know for sure that there have been gas shortages, rising prices, and “chaos.” Are gas lines really that implausible?
Yes, they are!, said Anna Fifield of the Washington Post. Fifield penned an article headlined “Trump’s claim there were long gas lines in North Korea has residents puzzled.” The wildly oversold headline sits atop an article that cites two foreign residents of Pyongyang to refute the president:
So a foreigner is “not aware” of gas lines in North Korea. Interesting, but hardly dispositive.
But it was enough for Daniel Dale, a Toronto Star correspondent who has made a cottage industry of tallying up President Trump’s lies. Citing Fifield’s piece, Dale classified Trump’s claims of North Korean “gas lines” a “false claim.”
By the way, Donald Trump spoke of “gas lines” just after concluding a conversation with South Korean president Moon Jae-in. Isn’t it possible that the American and South Korean presidents just might have better information about what’s going on inside North Korea than the D.C. correspondent of a Toronto broadsheet?
