as a ruthless dictatorship obsessed with secrecy

What's Dick Cheney got to do with this?

I mistook that map as downtown for a minuet.

Just wait until the North Koreans start getting YELP reviews,

Of course N. Korea is a paradise of NO corporate influence.

And their CO2 emissions are very low.

And they have very few cars and lots of condo bunkers. (OK they are not condos because condos are owned by people, not the government.)

It is starting to look like a planner's paradise. When will Portland start sending delegations there to study their success?

Thanks
JK

Good one JK!

JK. That was accurate, concise and wonderful. Unfortunately it went over the heads of the local planers and their sycophants.

The average North Korean citizen will be surprised to learn that Dear Leader has a Big Brother.

I don't know if any of you have zoomed in on the map and hoovered over some of the highlighted attractions but the comments are hilarious.

Inspired by the Portland City Council, North Korea will be billing Google and any Google user for the use of their country's image.

Actually, Stratfor has offered a sensible theory about North Korea. It goes something like this: The country is run by of course a heretical dictatorship wanting to remain in charge and it is economically poor. The dictatorship must close the country off from the outside world to prevent outside influences from stirring up competing political thought and action domestically. Once more, it must fiend a certain irrational belligerence towards world powers, as such powers might otherwise easily work to loosen the rein of the dictatorship. It also helps that such behavior can be used to exact certain amounts of ransom (oil and food, for example). So, the model is to act rather insane with some element of mass destruction capability even though the latter is mostly an illusion. North Korea's dictatorship family has successfully achieved a degree of equilibrium with this model. China also likes this structure as it keeps North Korea from becoming revolutionized by the ingenuity of the South Koreans (maybe too much western sympathies resting in South Korea). Also, America has to go to China asking for help to tone down North Korea's erratic behaviors.
At least George Bush II didn't have time to disturb this equilibrium (thank heavens for the two term limit on the U.S presidency).

I can't help but think that North Korea is being used in a much bigger chess game. As the world economy continues to falter, the only solution (in our current stage of human evolution) is War.

We are likely to see some real nasty events in the next few years.

As the song goes, "Enjoy yourself, it's later than you think..."