Open Sources, March 12, 2014

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I’LL HAVE MUCH MORE TO SAY ABOUT THE U.N. PANEL OF EXPERTS REPORT later this week as I read through it during my spare time, but I can’t resist telling you that there is such a thing as “The Gorgeous Bank of North Korea.”

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MICHAEL KIRBY ANSWERS HIS CRITICS on the left, thus illustrating the widening difference between “liberal” and “progressive.” I miss liberals. I didn’t always agree with them, but I almost always found them nice to have around.

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THERE IS STILL A DEBATE ABOUT WHETHER Kim Jong Un is really in charge, apparently. New Focus says Kim Jong Un is just a puppet of the Organization and Guidance Department, which is effectively a military junta. The Daily NK rounds up a variety of other views, including one that holds that Jong Un is “smarter than his father.” Neither view is persuasive to me.

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A CHINESE “LEGISLATOR” IS UNHAPPY that North Korean artillery shells crossed the path of a Chinese airliner. For those who may be wondering, “Chinese legislator” is an oxymoron, sort of like “North Korean election,” or for that matter, “Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea.”

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HOW NORTH KOREANS SURVIVE WITHOUT ELECTRICITY: As is so often the case, corruption plays a big role.

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THE CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY interviews North Korea expert Bruce Bechtol. (They refer to him as a “North Korean expert,” but he doesn’t look very North Korean to me.)

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THE LIBYAN NAVY has surrounded that North Korean tanker, now loaded with oil and sitting in a “waiting area” at the edge of the port.

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THE CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN GROUP Breakpoint has called on its members to call their Senators and Representatives, to support H.R. 1771, which is at or beyond its now-or-never point to pass the Congress in an election year.

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DENNIS RODMAN OFFERS A tearful apology and a promise never to return to North Korea, sort of: “If you don’t want me to go back there ever again, I won’t go back.” Maybe we should have a referendum.