Even more of a prison

Blaine Harden - author of Escape from Camp 14 - adds his voice to those warning that we shouldn't be fooled by the recent charm offensive from Pyongyang:

With each news cycle, North Korea's young dictator appears a bit more huggable. In late July, we learned that Kim Jong Un had married Comrade Ri Sol Ju, playing a poised Kate Middleton to his porcine Prince William. Together on television, we can watch the chosen couple smile, interact with happy children, and perform a lengthy inspection of an Oz-like kindergarten.

Thanks to North Korean state media, we know, too, that Kim is flirting with something that might possibly be construed as reform. He seems to have sacked a hard-line general. He could be rolling back the privileges of the army....

This clearly calculated narrative has performed public relations magic. Around the world, inquiring minds are eager for more images. Kim Jong Un is "trending" and headline writers are creating eye-candy for the Web. A headline from MSN Now teases "Sorry, ladies, your favorite North Korean dictator is off the market." We are devouring thinly sourced reports about the self-possessed" mystery woman" turned first lady. In the process, the world's last totalitarian state has received a soft-focus, Entertainment Tonight makeover.

Before we allow ourselves to get too hopeful or amused, it is worth noting that North Korea remains uniquely repressive. Indeed, after seven months under Kim Jong Un, the entire country seems to have become even more of a prison than it was under his father, Kim Jong Il, not less.

As many as 20,000 North Korean troops have been sent to seal the Chinese border; defections have declined sharply. It is now much more difficult for would-be defectors and smugglers to bribe their way out of (or back into) North Korea....

While Kim Jong Un and his wife trot around for televised inspections of miniature golf courses, there appears to be no significant change in the infamous political labor camps that have existed in North Korea for more than half a century....

Worth reading in full.