Did Kim Jong-il just like movies? Was it all an embezzlement scheme like Wikipedia says North Korea says?
They were trying a lot of stuff, and the kidnapping schemes are arguably less brutal than a lot of the tactics used against NK. A lot of these schemes make more sense when you put yourself into the mindspace of a country under assault of decades of shadow war. But I will say that the whole Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee situation seems at least a little bit harebrained. My read on it is that Kim's love of movies maybe lead to some motivated reasoning when hatching this plan.
They were trying a lot of stuff, and the kidnapping schemes are arguably less brutal than a lot of the tactics used against NK. A lot of these schemes make more sense when you put yourself into the mindspace of a country under assault of decades of shadow war. But I will say that the whole Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee situation seems at least a little bit harebrained. My read on it is that Kim's love of movies maybe lead to some motivated reasoning when hatching this plan.