Anju, March 27, 2012

NO ONE REALLY KNOWS what the population of North Korea is, so I’m not sure how anyone can really claim to know that life expectancy in North Korea is 11 years less than in South Korea, or that two-thirds of its children are malnourished (and one-third of them stunted as a result). I do think it’s safe to say, however, that North Korea compares unfavorably to all of its neighbors with respect to the welfare and happiness of its people, and that the regime’s decision to spend $2 billion (a third of its annual budget) to glorify a dead dictator instead of feeding the people adequately is only the latest illustration of how little the regime cares whether they live or die.

You’d think that with all of the AP’s recent interest in the legacies of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il — ironically, portraying them surrounded by smiling children — at least one of its correspondents might see something newsworthy in the fact that even dead dictators are still killing live kids.

HEARTBREAKING. Just read it for yourself.

BUT HE SAID CYNICISM WAS THE ENEMY. And yet things like this that feed my cynicism. If I worried about Agreed Framework III before, I worry even more now.

WHAT A DEPRESSING POST this has been. I feel a need for some levity.

Update: Finally, some good news.