In Detox

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will have a meeting with family members of the abductees--but on her own terms, it seems.

Via Glenn Kessler, in the Washington Post.

Bush had met at the White House with the mother of Megumi Yokota, a 13-year-old who vanished more than three decades ago. But the pleas of Japanese officials that the president not remove North Korea from the list were brushed aside in a bid to secure a final diplomatic victory. Indeed, because of the sensitivity of the issue in the North Korea talks, sources said there was resistance in the State Department to Clinton's interest in holding the meeting.

After her speech, Clinton told reporters she wanted to meet with the families "on a very personal and, you know, human basis. I don't know that I'll be meeting as a secretary of state any more than I will be meeting with them as a wife, a mother, a daughter, a sister." Clinton said she attaches "great importance to the abduction issue," and "it's important that their plight not be forgotten."

Link

Very good, Secretary Clinton. Very good. May your gambit drain the political juice out of the meeting!

Along the same lines, Okumura Jun offers some thoughts on the significance of "not be forgotten."