I don’t see this as hurting much, but as usual the Kim regime is the short-to-mid term winner, which mean most North Koreans are the losers:
Reunification IT Forum (South), Chosun People’s Science Technology Association (North) and Chinese Information Society co-hosted ICMIP 2007 in Yenji, China on November 27 to 28.
At the conference, IT experts from [...]

Kenneth Quinones, a former DoS official intimately involved in the 1994 Agreed Framework, compares the Clinton and Bush deals with North Korea (PDF), concluding that the former accomplished more in 18 months than the latter did in 7 years. Quinones, of course, fails to mention that Bush inherited the HEU problem Clinton swept under the [...]

Asia Times: Korea’s choice: Dirty deals, snappy slogans (Don Kirk)
Asia Times: Japan, US and the North Korea dilemma (Don Kirk)
Reuters: North Korea nuclear disabling “going smoothly”
Reuters: North Korea targets “scum” in South’s election
Reuters: Hill plans North Korea December trip
Bloomberg: U.S. Nuclear Negotiator Hill to Visit North Korea Next Week
AFP: NKorea to come clean on [...]

Yesterday, 25 November, a Reuters report indicated that the U.S. State Department had deployed a diplomat to North Korea ahead of establishing formal ties:
The United States has stationed a State Department employee in Pyongyang to lay the groundwork for opening a permanent liaison office in North Korea. . . “A U.S. State Department diplomat who [...]

In late August 2007 reports indicated that Kim Jong-nam, Kim Jong-il’s eldest son, had returned to Pyonyang from semi-exile due to his Disneyland related exploits in Japan, which of course causes succession speculation:
The eldest son of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim Jong-nam (36) has returned to Pyongyang and is working at the Organization and [...]

The three top items - Don Kirk’s reporting, and two stories about life in North Korea - deserve special attention.
Asia Times: Japan, US and the North Korea dilemma (Don Kirk)
FT: Selling to survive
LA Times: ‘Planned escapes’ boom as North Korea crumbles
Reuters: US and North Korea end talks on financial no-no’s
Dong-a Ilbo: Gallucci: US Tests [...]

I may have posted some of these links to color photos of South Korea in the 1950s and 1970s individually in the past, but will post them again together; Paul Black’s photos from 1958-1959, Bill Strouse’s from ~1958, and user harmolodic’s photos from 1971-1973. Looks almost like another planet. (h/t Nandu Press)

Via AFP: “A North Korean defector Tuesday announced the launch of a magazine carrying undercover reporting by [DPRK] citizens… Some reporters for the bi-monthly Rimjingang are refugees who returned home after being trained in neighbouring China in journalism skills, said chief editor Choi Jin-I… who settled in South Korea in 1999… The first, Korean-language, edition [...]

Author of A Corpse in the Koryo has continued the saga of Inspector O with Hidden Moon, which deals with the unlikely crime of a bank robbery in Pyongyang.

Since mid-2007 the pace of posts has slowed substantially due to both the birth of my son and my decision to go back into the military (this time as a reserve officer). For awhile I though I could resume the same tempo, but it’s just not possible; I’ve too many irons in the fire. Although [...]