More good news

Times Online :

We had already witnessed one sign that North Korea's totalitarian system is dissolving, even as its leaders boast of owning nuclear weapons to deter their enemies. "It's just like the Berlin Wall," Pastor Douglas Shin, a Christian activist, said by telephone from Seoul. "The slow-motion exodus is the beginning of the end." ... According to exiles, North Korean agents in Beijing and Ulan Bator are frantically selling assets to raise cash — an important sign, says one activist, because “the secret police can always smell the crisis coming before anybody else”. ... Bush’s re-election dealt a blow to Kim, 62, who had gambled on a win by John Kerry, the Democratic candidate. Kim used a strategy of divide and delay to drag out nuclear talks with the United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea through 2004. Kim lost his bet and now faces four more years of Bush, who says that he “loathes” the North Korean leader and has vowed to strip him of atomic weapons.

North Korea has been on the verge of collapse for a while now, especially since it's hopes of nuclear extortion have been blocked by the Bush administration. The real trick though is engineering a 'soft collapse' that doesn't reignite war on the Korean Peninsula. The multi-party talks, especially the inclusion of China are a big factor in that balancing act.