"SURREAL LAND OF THE KIMS"

A recent example of typical American reporting on North Korea here.

I visited Russia when it was still the Soviet Union. I went to a circus and saw an "Uncle Sam" character chase Russian children around the big top aiming a scaled-down model of a missile at them.

I've been to Cuba, and been whispered to by dissidents about the repressive regime. But if I'm simply applying the weirdness filter, then nothing I've seen anywhere I've ever been - I mean nothing - compares to what I saw in and around Kim Il Sung square last week.

"The weirdness filter": Somehow I have missed the development of this useful and objective tool of analysis.

Some interesting video footage though.