While North Korea’s border with Russia is only 11 miles long, it has served as a vital link to the outside world since the end of World War II, when the Kremlin helped establish the reclusive Communist state.
North Korea
A Separate Reality
North Korea’s threats can’t be taken at face value. The country’s leaders live in a parallel universe, united in fear and riven by paranoia.
The clock is ticking. Outward belligerence has never saved a regime doomed to collapse.
Method in the Madness
North Korea’s leaders are despicable but not crazy. After witnessing the fate of Saddam Hussein, who never got the bomb, and Gaddafi, who abstained from it, developing a nuclear weapon is about the most rational thing a rogue state can do.
Putin Uses Railway to Expand Russian Influence in North Korea
Russian Railways, the state-run monopoly led by Putin confidant Vladimir Yakunin, is planning to complete a rail line crossing the North Korean-Russian border.
North Korea’s Isolated Spectacle
Ranks of perfectly coordinated dancers put on a show ranging from the seriously martial – women soldiers of the Korean People’s Army using tae-kwon-do blows to make mincemeat of “Yankee invaders” – to the seriously absurd – lines of dancing eggs and barnyard animals.
