It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

A WALTER DURANTY FOR NORTH KOREA? Tasty Manatees thinks that WaPo reporter Glenn Kessler might qualify. I would probably differ somewhat. No one, at least no one I've ever heard or read, is presently arguing that there is no privation, starvation or oppression in North Korea. Kessler is merely channeling what Pritchard and company saw in P'yongyang: more signs of dynamism and change than they saw in previous visits. I doubt that either Pritchard or Kessler would argue that this translates into denying the existence of malnutrition and starvation in other parts or North Korea. If either assumes that signs of change in P'yongyang automatically mean that the domestic crises in North Korea are over, then they would be going too far. But I don't see either one making that assertion here.