North Korea trembling in the distance
Friday, February 25, 2011 at 10:27AM 
Little nervous in the service:
South Korea's online newspaper Daily NK reported on Wednesday that North Korea had created a special mobilization force to prevent any demonstrations similar to the recent uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.
Another daily, JoongAng Ilbo, said on Thursday that the authorities had begun purging elites who had studied abroad inRussia for fear of a possible coup by people "who were exposed to a Western lifestyle".
Yet another vernacular newspaper, Donga Ilbo, on Thursday ran a piece on the "dramatic increase" of North Korean females choosing prostitution amid worsening economic hardship, linking it to the growing social instability of the country.
Indeed, hopes of a Jasmine revolution in North Korea are rising amid coverage of increasing pockets of resistance across the country, including the cities of Jongju, Yongchon and Sonchon, to mention a few.
Citing several South Korean sources, the Korea JoongAng Daily in Seoul on Thursday said Meng Jianzhu, China's minister of public security, made a trip this month to North Korea to discuss ways to prevent the wave of democracy protests in the Middle East from spreading to China and North Korea.
Fascinating to consider.
This democracy wave (a premature judgment at best) is like any big wave: it nails some fixed targets while others escape. But the big thing is, everybody's been put on warning.
In one sense, this does feel like a rerun of the 1930s, just more upside than down in terms of expectations triggered by globalization (vice despair triggered by trade protectionism). The other big difference: the empowering of individuals vice states--and the complete lack of a countering economic ideology.
Hat tip to Brad Barbaza.
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