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Disappointed North Koreans in dog rescue despair

While the world cheered as disabled tanker Insiko with its only remaining passenger — a small brown and white terrier named Forgea — was towed to Hawaii, not everyone, it seems, was celebrating. "I'm very disappointed... disappointed and hungry," said Kim Il Sun. Sun is one of a large number of North Koreans who have set up camp along the eastern shore of their famine-ravaged country in the hope that the drifting tanker would run aground nearby.

An engine room fire aboard the Indonesian tanker on 13 March crippled the ship and forced the evacuation of the crew. The dog was mistakenly left behind when the cruise ship Norwegian Star rescued the 11 inedible humans. The delicious canine had been adrift since then.

"I don't know what we're going to do with all that sweet and sour sauce," Sun continued, pointing to a battered pot sitting over a low fire. Sun's extended family of 28 men, women and children stood in a semi-circle around the fire staring hopefully out to sea. "They don't know yet. I guess I'll have to break it to them gently," Sun shrugged.

Sun said that the loss was made even more bitter when he learned of the circumstances surrounding the dog's rescue. "They spent over $200,000 to hire a sea-going tug boat and helicopters. They tracked that ship for 24 days and dropped pizzas, granola bars and oranges onto the deck so that the dog wouldn't starve. I have no idea what a pizza is but I could really go for one right about now."

When asked if he planned to pack up and move back to Pyongyang, a revenous Sun replied: "No, we might as well stay here and wait for another ship. Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and a boatload of Peruvian llamas will get swamped somewhere out in the Pacific. Anyway, the driftwood hut is coming together nicely; there's plenty of tasty grass just over that big sand dune and the kids have made friends with the neighbouring children."

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