Open Sources

The Obama Administration’s China policy has come full circle from its deferential beginnings.

President Lee wants to bring North Korea to the Security Council over its uranium enrichment program.

Well, this story is rich in revelations. Apparently, Iran has sent payments to North Korea from the previously sanctioned Hong Kong Electronics to the Seoul branch of Iran’s Bank Mellat. Less shocking are more reports of China’s assistance to North Korea’s ballistic missile program. If you’re keeping count, that would violate at least three U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Yonhap profiles Joseph Bermudez, who may be America’s foremost expert on the North Korean military. He lives in Colorado, the lucky man.

North Korean soldiers, including its special forces, are said to be freezing from a shortage of uniforms.

Skepticism about North Korea’s latest predictions of prosperity.

The North said it spent $570 million on its military in 2009, but the real amount, calculated on an exchange rate based on purchasing power parity terms, was $8.77 billion, the state-run Korea Institute of Defense Analyses (KIDA) said in a report. The North’s gross national income stood at 28.6 trillion won ($25 billion) in 2009, compared with South Korea’s 1,068 trillion won ($958 billion), it said.