Five Thoughts About North Korea

Back in 2000, when the unpredictable and seemingly maniacal North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was threatening general mayhem in Asia, the Economist magazine ran one of its most iconic covers. There was Kim waving blankly under the clever and very apt title, “Greetings Earthlings." Like father, like son. During the last few weeks, Kim’s 30-year-old, previously unemployed third son, Kim Jong Un — now the proud owner of a nuclear weapons force — has done his best to match his father’s record for madcap international rule-breaking and incivility.