To most, a joke; to a few, a nightmare: Did you hear the one about North Korea claiming to have achieved nuclear fusion? Something tells me that my banner image will still be good for the time being. _______________________ Like most things about North Korea, its World Cup team looks rather strange to foreign eyes. _______________________ Another North Korean man has defected to the South by sea. _______________________ The Chosun Ilbo talks about North Korea’s special forces, and the damage...

If China really is “a moderating, useful influence” over North Korea, why did it roll out the red carpet for Kim Jong Il and reportedly offer him a $100 million bailout while it is the prime suspect in an action as dangerous and provocative as sinking the Cheonan? Suddenly, another bulb goes on at the Post: Despite all the time spent in six-party talks in recent years, and all the discussion of China’s new role as a “responsible stakeholder” and...

Another reason not to hike the DMZ these days: NORTH Korea has completed deployment of about 50,000 special forces along the border with South Korea, a report said on Wednesday, amid high tensions over the sinking of a Seoul warship. The deployment began two or three years ago and seven 7,000-strong divisions are now in place, an unidentified senior government official told Yonhap news agency. __________________ North Korea’s “unofficial spokesman” Kim Myong Chol has constructed an elaborate theory blaming the...

The Wall Street Journal rips into W.H.O. Director-General and useful idiot Margaret Chan. The fact of Ms. Chan’s origins in Hong Kong raise the obvious suspicion that she’d never have gotten her current job without the backing of the China’s oligarchy in Beijing. And given the vast gulf between China’s views on health and human rights and ours, this is a good illustration of why the United Nations will never be united by a common purpose or outlook. Instead, some...