Jong-il Communication

Read this article from the Sunday Times about North Korea, especially if all you know about the country has been learned from pop culture. It's a rare glimpse behind the veil of a country so obsessed with control that it tells people how to wear their hair.

Kim Jong-il was banking on John Kerry. Now he's forced to deal with West Texas. The generals are scheming, and the crackpot himself hasn't been seen for months. Some developments track closely with events that also preceded the implosion of the eastern bloc: Foreign intelligence agents are cashing out, and a robust underground has sprung up to spirit refugees safely across the border.

If this mad dictatorship goes under, something worse could replace it. Insofar as the "axis of evil" goes, I would have expected Iran next, pulled by the weight of an Iraqi Shia leadership. One thing is certain, world events do not break in the directions we expect.

But there may be some wisdom in giving better odds to democracy.