East Asia Watch--Insights into North Korea

While we're on the subject, I had lunch with an old pay who is a European banker living in Pyongyang. He shall remain nameless, but he shared these insights from the world's most mysterious country:

--The Chinese have opened a department store in downtown Pyongyang that is stuffed with the latest consumer goods and luxury items. It is packed.

--The embargo against trade with the North is largely a joke. Even California raisins are getting through. The "S" in "Made in USA" has been carefully scissored out to make it read "Made in UA."

--Kim Yong-un speaks English.

--Even if people are starving, the regime is solidly in control. They have a three-tiered population of about 25 million. The elite and pure live in Pyongyang. A second, more marginalized group of people live in the suburbs. They are kept alive, but they are not fully trusted. Then the people living far from Pyongyang are definitely mistrusted and are simply left to their own devices. The leadership in Pyongyang doesn't really care what happens to them. So the fact that starving North Koreans are fleeing to China is of no concern in Pyongyang and does not affect the stability of the regime.

--If the gap between West Germany and East Germany was 4-to-1 in terms of wealth, prior to reunification, the gap between South Korea and North Korea is closer to 40-to-1. The gap in wealth and living standards is huge.

We Americans had better start learning more about North Korea because it remains one of the world's most heavily militarized theaters.