Asia Times: North Korea dragged back to the past (Andrei Lankov)
Chosun Ilbo: N.Korea ‘Slowing Disablement of Nuclear Facilities’
Reuters: North Korea releases Canadian held for two months
AP: UN agency to conduct its first census in NK since famine
AFP: N Korea Defector Wins Court Battle For S Korean Passport
VoA: North Korea Calls for [...]

A North Korean defector to South Korea had to go to court to get a passport to travel to the U.S. Why?
The [foreign] ministry had said Kim, 69, could be a target of North Korean assassination attempts during planned trips to the U.S., and the trips could cause diplomatic friction. [. . .] Kim [...]

When North Korea criticizes you, it’s a clue you’re doing something right: “ ‘Lefkowitz was recently put into shame for indiscreetly trying to interfere in the nuclear issue,’ North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said Monday.” A bit more shrill, but basically the same message Condi had.

Via AFP: “Nuclear-armed North Korea used UN-linked bank accounts to secretly transfer funds in connection with alleged weapons sales… UNDP was “surprised to learn” that the bank had routed some outgoing UNDP funds through a Chinese firm… with links to alleged weapons sales… including ballistic missiles.” (h/t ROK Drop)

blogginghead.tv: About 15 minutes of Blake Hounshell (Foreign Policy) and Michael Goldfarb (The Weekly Standard) discussing North Korean issues in a podcast (for the record, yes, things could be worse in North Korea and were a decade ago). They also discuss this paper (at ~11:30). (h/t NK Econ Watch)

Last Thursday, while addressing at the American Enterprise Institute, Jay Lefkowitz, President Bush’s Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea, stated that, “North Korea is not serious about disarming in a timely manner,” and “It is increasingly likely that North Korea will have the same nuclear status one year from now that it has [...]

From the NYT: “As extravagant real-estate costs and gentrification do away with most of Manhattan’s ethnic neighborhoods outside Chinatown, the valuable commercial strip of West 32nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Broadway remains firmly, surprisingly, overwhelmingly Korean.” The article covers Korean food, art, supermarkets, etc. all over the city.

Instead of pressuring North Korea where we know the regime can be influenced, the Bush administration is setting the stage for removing the DPRK from the list of terrorist sponsoring nations, and insulting our strongest ally in the region, Japan, in the process:
North Korea appears to have met the legal criteria to be taken off [...]

Asia Times: North Korea falls off the tracks (Don Kirk)
Chosun Ilbo: Human Rights Meet to Float ‘Helsinki Process’ for N.Korea
Yonhap: High tariffs limit export of Kaesong-made products: think tank
Yonhap: N. Korea is No. 1 in disaster deaths: report
Reuters: U.S. disavows envoy’s harsh view of N.Korea talks
AFP: Ex-Commando Slams North Korea, 40 Years After Deadly Raid
AFP: [...]

From the Navy Historical Center:
On 23 January 1968, while off Wonsan, North Korea, Pueblo was attacked by local forces and seized. One crewmember was killed in the assault and the other eighty-two men on board were taken prisoner. The North Koreans contended that the ship had violated their territorial waters, a claim vigorously denied by [...]