PYONGYANG: The most predicable thing about North Korea is its unpredictability. One day last week saw the son of its “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il arrested while entering Japan on a false passport (supposedly to take his son to Tokyo’s Disneyland), the next day brought a promise to maintain its moratorium on missile testing until 2003 as well as continue sales of missile technologies to countries like Iran. But there is a second, unchanging element in North Korean affairs: its basket-case economy.
PYONGYANG: The most predicable thing about North Korea is its unpredictability. One day last week saw the son of its “Dear Leader” Kim Jong Il arrested while entering Japan on a false passport (supposedly to take his son to Tokyo’s Disneyland), the next day brought a promise to maintain its moratorium on missile testing until 2003 as well as continue sales of missile technologies to countries like Iran. But there is a second, unchanging element in North Korean affairs: its basket-case economy.