Did They or Didn’t They? (Pt. 2)

You’d think that if Chris Hill and the North Koreans had made up, the North Koreans wouldn’t be launching missiles again.  The new launches appear to have been short-range missiles launched from the island naval base at Cho-Do, which you can see in full Google Earth color here.  One thing this illustrates is why North Korea always seeks to narrow the focus of talks:  while they sell temporary concessions on plutonium, they pursue a uranium program at full speed; then, they sell temporary concessions on nukes generally while they pursue missile development at full speed.  Negotiating the containment of North Korea turn out to be a lot like the containment of water in your cupped hands.

Some Anju Links:
TIME HAS A DETAILED STORY about the worsening food situation in North Korea.  Money quote:

The regime’s leadership “would rather have a proportion of their population starve to death” than pursue reform, says Nicholas Eberstadt, a North Korea expert at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. Pyongyang believes market reform “would risk ideological and cultural infiltration, which is how they see the Soviet system going down.”

KATHLEEN STEPHENS, the Chris Hill crony about whose nomination I had such misgivings, has presented her credentials to Lee Myung Bak.