[W]hen their propaganda lines up with their behavior in the real world it would be very foolhardy to ignore it. - Brian Reynolds Myers

[R]elative lack of popularity is not as important as the lack of popularity of a president in South Korea, where there is no bedrock state support to keep people patriotic even when they dislike a leader. But we Americans are more like the North Koreans in that regard. Does our patriotism rise and fall depending on who is in the White House? If we don’t like a president, do we start finding America’s enemies more likeable? No. We should therefore not assume that Kim Jong Un’s relative lack of stature means that support for the state is weakening.

North Korea’s interest in confederation is in first disarming and then eliminating the rival state.

The difference between East Germans and North Koreans is day and night.