Breaking: Baby Born in Pyongyang. Not Breaking: 600 Others Die in Wonsan

If I could ask Dennis Rodman one question, notwithstanding the fact that the answer would only be a string of obscenities and non-sequiturs anyway, it would be this:  Would you have played Sun City?

I’ve already argued the comparison between North Korea and South Africa once, so I see no need to rewrite it. I went to work in South Africa for three months in 1990–after Mandela was released, and after the government had begun to repeal the apartheid laws.

I’m old enough to remember a time when the correct way to respond to severe and pervasive human rights violations was to enforce a cultural and economic boycott against the perpetrators, to show our moral outrage to them, and to deny them the cultural and economic benefits of the outside world.

Like all analogies, it’s imperfect, particularly because the abuses in North Korea are far worse than they were in South Africa.

You may also have heard about the AP’s exclusive(!) scoop that Kim Jong Un has a daughter (and there was much rejoicing ….). Oh, wait, sorry–Dennis Rodman actually told us that, too. Anyway, every child is born innocent, and here’s wishing she lives a longer, healthier life than most other kids born in North Korea today, and that no one ever puts her in charge of anything.

This would all be awfully funny if it weren’t really so awful.

As for the AP, maybe they should amend their undisclosed MOUs with the North Korean government to replace their news bureau with a web cam mounted on a windowsill. They don’t seem to be getting much for their money lately. That’s probably the best possible outcome for the rest of us, because at least they’re cranking out less disinformation, propaganda, and fauxtography than they did during the first year of their experiment.