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North Korea confirmed today that the Dear Leader Kim Jong Il received a personal letter from Barack Obama. The precise contents of the letter are unknown, but the goal is to bring the hermit kingdom back to the six-nation talks aimed at nuclear disarmament. I pity the diplomats who have to waste their time in farcical negotiations with the North Koreans.
 
 
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The Sydney Morning Herald reports on two defectors who independently corroborated claims that the Burmese junta is working with North Korea on a bomb.  It wouldn't be surprising- but as far as we are concerned, Burma is not a threat to anybody except for its own people.
 
 
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If Bill Clinton can travel to North Korea as a "private citizen," can you?

According to Slate, North Korea will host you for 5 days if you're American, and 10 days if you're a non-American foreigner during their mass games (Arirang).  The entire trip will be scripted, and you are forbidden to talk to any locals.  If you want the unscripted tour, tell your handler that you are a journalist.
 
 

Apparently North Korea has been teaching Burma how to be shady. Check out this report from Yale Global:

"Missiles and missile and nuclear technology, counterfeiting money and cigarette smuggling, front companies and restaurants in foreign countries, labor export to the Middle East – North Korea has been very innovative when it comes to raising badly needed foreign exchange for the regime in Pyongyang. But there is a less known trade in service that the North Koreans have offered to its foreign clients: expertise in tunneling."

"[The Burmese] military junta has been busy digging in for the long haul – literally. North Korean technicians have helped them construct underground facilities where they can survive any threats from their own people as well as the outside world."

 
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