Misplaced Priorities?

If you had the choice to spend $45 million for a significant chance at preventing a nuclear attack, would you? Well, the US government wouldn't.

North Korea, the 'Sopranos' state
By Todd Crowell

When US Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow recently called North Korea a "criminal regime", he was not speaking metaphorically. He was not talking about the North's abysmal human-rights record, illegal missile sales or efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

No, he was talking about crime - as in counterfeiting US banknotes and cigarette packages, money-laundering and drug-trafficking. These issues have suddenly risen to the forefront of Washington's agenda and become a major stumbling block in the renewal of the six-party nuclear-disarmament talks.

Hey, don't get me wrong. We should stop counterfeiting, but quietly and without jeopardising these talks.

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