NATIONAL WEEKLY EDITION: "A Starving Nemesis: Food shortages are at the heart of North Korea's troubles," by Blaine Harden, Washington Post, 16-22 March 2009.

The "eating problem," as it is known inside the Hermit Kingdom, literally stunts the lives of people there. Teenagers who escape to the south appear five inches shorter and 25 pounds lighter than their contemporaries in South Korea. Get this: "Mental retardation caused by malnutrition will disqualify about a quarter of potential military conscripts in North Korea," according to the National Intell Council. As I have long argued, this is the equivalent of the stunted kid that the social workers find trapped in the apartment closet. Meanwhile, Kim Jong Il seems to be losing control of the domestic economy, where profiteering rules thanks to the food shortages.