Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have to let you know that I have an SO 31, so I'll have to duck out a little bit before the end of the meeting.
Welcome. I'm pleased to hear your testimony.
About five years ago, maybe four, I was with the foreign affairs minister on the DMZ. We went down to the partition area, right where the line was. Of course, some of the North Korean soldiers came down—from here to the chair—with binoculars, looking at us. It was very ironic to see. The shocking thing was how tiny the soldiers were. Most countries feed their military first, and these people were just racks of bones. I can't imagine what life is like for the ordinary citizen.
I've done some work with the North Korean human rights council out of Toronto. They talked about people who escaped from North Korea into China. You mentioned that in your remarks. Their testimony to us was that the people quite often are bounced back into North Korea by the Chinese. They're not kept there at all.
I'll leave that thought with you. You might want to respond if you have information on that.
Beyond that, the commission of inquiry.... You know, we have this responsibility to protect. Pardon my way of expressing this, but there are some very grand pronouncements in the international community of what we would or wouldn't do under certain circumstances. But with the situation and our last experience in Korea, with the intervention of China 50 years ago....
Is it 60 now? My goodness, I'm aging rapidly here.
The thing is that, realistically, I can't see the international community pushing too far on this for that reason. I think it was Mr. Sweet who was referring to the fact that China had doubts, or appeared to have doubts, towards North Korea.
Is there any evidence that North Korea is becoming more isolated, even from China?