First of all, DPRK studies has a good analysis of the status of the current North Korean nuclear talks.  Basically what is going on is that the North Koreans agreed to the talks in order to get the US to lift the financial sanctions against North Korean Chinese bank accounts.  These bank accounts hold millions of dollars of money gained through the counterfeiting and subsequent money laundering of US currency.  The North Koreans probably think that it is a long shot, but they are trying to get the US to lift the financial sanctions as a sign of goodwill towards working out a final agreement to freezing their nuclear program, though they have no intention of ever freezing their nuclear program.

One Free Korea has an interesting posting on how the North Korean elites are getting around the UN ban on the sale of luxury goods to North Korea, by going shopping across the border in China:

In Dandong, North Koreans, many wearing lapel pins with a picture of North Korea’s founding dictator, Kim Il Sung, stroll through hotels and department stores. Signs are often written in Korean, with storekeepers advertising computers, karaoke machines and the erectile-dysfunction drugs Viagra and Cialis.

A few North Koreans have bought new cars at a Toyota dealership near the Dandong customs checkpoint, according to a salesman. One man paid about $50,000 in cash for a luxury sedan.

Gold is also gaining a following. Wang Xiaoju, a saleswoman at the jewelry counter at Xin Yi Bai Department Store, says North Korean women come in nearly every day, mostly to buy gold chains and other gold jewelry.

Another UN resolution down the toilet.

Finally the Marmot via OFK has a posting about the going rate of getting North Korean defectors out of China:

This being The Wall Street Journal, we went straight to the bottom line. How much, we asked our visitor at a recent editorial board meeting, does it cost to free one North Korean refugee hiding in China?

The Rev. Phillip Buck pauses a moment before replying, apparently making the yuan-to-dollar conversions on the abacus in his mind. “If I do it myself,” he says, “the cost is $800 per person. If I hire a broker to do it, it’s $1,500.”

Imagine if the billions of dollars of aid from South Korea to Kim Jong-il was instead used on buying people out of starvation and despotism. 

Popularity: 2%