LiNK’S LATEST NEWSLETTER is here. THE MOST RECENT GOOD FRIENDS UPDATE is also online, reporting a hemorrhagic fever outbreak in Chongjin, more mixed news on the food situation, and the ongoing decay of the command economy’s control over food supplies. Even in Pyongyang, more state workers are turning to the black market in pilfered state commodities to survive. One dispatch describes a man who survived 20 years in a reeducation camp; another reports on the theft of weapons from some...

WHOOP DE DOO: Another one of those private delegations of North Korea “experts” is headed for Pyongyang. I’ll go out on a long limb here: in a few days they’ll return none the wiser to deliver more North Korean extortion demands to credulous American reporters. AND HOW IS THIS NOT A PROVOCATION? According to the Defense Ministry, North Korean artillery batteries deployed in Haeju and on the Ongjin Peninsula fired dozens of shells into the West Sea in the morning...

SOUTH KOREANS BLAME THE NORTH for the current downturn in inter-Korean relations by 63 to 27, according to a new poll. A solid majority supports aid to the North only on the condition that it gives up its nuclear weapons. Assuming this poll is accurate, it suggests that North Korea’s recent behavior has created a backlash in South Korean public opinion, creating support for Lee’s North Korea policy that didn’t exist when he was elected. MORE RESHUFFLING OF GENERALS in...