The Economist on North Korea

North Korea v South Korea: A merry dance | The Economist

This short story from a few days ago about strange political behaviour from North Korea, even before today's nuclear and missile tests:

On May 15th, it announced that it was unilaterally tearing up wage and other agreements governing the Kaesong industrial zone, a joint North-South business project just inside North Korea. South Koreans, it says, can either lump it or leave. The 100 or so South Korean firms that employ 38,000 North Koreans and generate millions of dollars a year for the cash-strapped regime of Kim Jong Il are making contingency plans to bring their people home.

This row joins a veritable conga of others, and not just with South Korea.

It's all a worry, to say the least.

UPDATE: Time magazine's article on this is also worrying. It appears most analysts believe Kim has another half dozen nuclear weapons.

As the article notes, the US has virtually nothing new to try because "the North hasn't given Obama even the slimmest reed on which to hang an alteration in policy."

Can't the West (or South) make contact with any sane potential replacement for the ruling family from within North Korea? Does anyone know whether the 26 year old son rumoured to be the replacement for Kim Jong Il is more sane than his father?