John McCain: “I think it’s time we talked about regime change in North Korea, and I do not mean military action, but I do believe that this is a very unstable regime.”

Adm. Mike Mullen: “I am one who believes we shouldn’t be rewarding bad behavior here.” Until last week, I was hearing distinct signs that the State Department was losing patience with “strategic patience.” Now, all of the pressure — backed by a very conservative new House of Representatives that will soon come to town — is pushing in the direction of more sanctions. I’m even seeing new-found interest in subverting the regime within policy circles. I can’t quite measure how South Koreans are going to react to this, but the Washington reaction isn’t going to be what Kim Jong Il must have hoped for.

It’s only shocking because of the source, but here’s a condemnation of the shelling of Yeonpyeong and a good … from the Hankyoreh. No, really! Careful, guys. You might get purged for being reactionary splittists.

Could Japan impose even more sanctions on North Korea?

In addition to his attempt to justify the shelling of his own constituents, Incheon Mayor Song Young-Gil is now failing miserably at providing for his new refugee population. I’m still wrapping my head around this. For the first time since the end of the Korean War, South Korea has war refugees again.

A map of North Korea’s uranium program.