December 22, 2004

North Korea continues to avoid negotiating, or responding neighbors demanding an end to nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs. North Korea also appears to be undergoing some kind of dispute among the senior leadership. The North Korean economy is still a mess, market economy reforms have not turned things around. There is still a food shortage, and signs of declining discipline in the most rigid police state on the planet. But rumors of sharp disputes within the North Korean ruling circle grow louder. It certainly feels like 1989 all over again.