Unasked Question # 543858435789
The news coverage of the two Algore agents "rescued" by Bill treats them as innocent bystanders. This is nonsense. They walked into a dictatorship, knowing full well that they were invading on behalf of a hostile country. They fully deserve to be treated as spies. Back when America was sane, we captured hostile spies. I suppose we treated them more humanely than Dear Leader Kim treats his captives, but that's not the point. They are in fact spies, not random innocent victims.

The unasked question: What did Old Cunthound Bill give Old Cunthound Kim in exchange for these two correctly imprisoned ladies? My first thought was something personal like a lifetime collection of Penthouse, but that would be wildly inadequate. Dear Leader Kim, after all, has a regular army of whores raised from birth to service him. Bill can't offer anything remotely approaching what Kim already has.

So the quid pro quo must be something more political, a deal between nations. Well, what is it? We may never find out, but NOBODY IS EVEN ASKING.

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Of course there's another way to look at this, starting from a different set of assumptions.

Fact: North Korea and America are not really enemies. Both are colonies of China. Both depend on China for their continued existence. North Korea is a troublesome colony. DL Kim often creates unnecessary problems for the Middle Kingdom. USA is not so troublesome. We rarely do anything to displease the Middle Kingdom. We never arrest any of the Middle Kingdom's ten thousand spies inside our industries and military research facilities. (We tried once, with Wen Ho Lee, and the Middle Kingdom cracked the whip. We instantly backed away and kowtowed.)

So Bill probably didn't need to give Kim anything at all; he was simply acting as a plausible troubleshooting tool, a human can of WD40.

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Update Thurs: VD Hanson got around to asking the proper question. Good.
  ¶ 7:55 PM