[LETTERS TO THE EDITOR]No happy ending in real life

On the case of Mr. Jeon Yong-il, the prisoner of war who escaped from North Korea:
Imagine if an old American man walked into a U.S. Embassy in Southeast Asia and said, “I am a POW from the Vietnam War who has been held in a prison camp. I need your help,” and was then turned away by that embassy staff. All of America would be in an uproar. Maybe all of South Korea should watch the classic refugee movie “Casablanca.” Like the resistance leader in the movie, Victor Laslow, Mr. Jeon “was traveling with a lady.” Unfortunately, there was apparently no Rick to help out Mr. Jeon and his wife and they, unlike the characters in the movie, missed their flight to freedom. Who will save them now? The world is watching.

by Dennis Halpin