1 March 2010: Stay Away from North Korea, and That Means You

So North Korea claims to have detained four South Korean “trespassers.” Even worse, KCNA denies us the amusement of the term “relevant organ.” I was waiting to post on this until I actually knew who they were or where they were detained, but several days later, the North Koreans are still the only ones who do know. Then there is still the matter of the American whom the North Koreans claim defected to them several weeks back. Assuming this isn’t all a fiction, the North Koreans now have five shiny new hostages to ransom out.

Let me rephrase Don Kirk’s question more bluntly: how dumb or self-deluded do you really have to be to believe that North Korea will ever disarm voluntarily? Let me add a question of my own: How prosaic do you have to be to think this is a problem we can just ignore?

North Korea still insists on a payoff for a summit with Lee Myung Bak, while Seoul still insists that aid can only follow disarmament. I worry that if Lee’s popularity declines, he’ll try to win the support of South Korea’s more superficial voters, with whom a summit on just about any terms will be popular. And Kim Jong Il’s fifth column in Seoul still has the capacity to bring people out onto the streets and depress Lee’s popularity.

The L.A. Times talks about North Koreans helping each other adjust to live in the South: “Only North Koreans know what North Koreans experience or feel here.”

The film “Kimjongilia” is coming to New York.

North Korea and China will start work on a new bridge linking Dandong and Sinuiju in October … assuming that all goes as planned.

From the Voice of the Martyrs, a video on North Korea and the suppression of religion.

Now that’s just cruel: a blogger compares North Korean traffic cops to mimes. Fembots, maybe?

Japan, North Korea, and missile defense: Taiwan ought to be next.

A look at North Korean propaganda comics.