Word: kim
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...example. In the spartan North Korean city, few cars motor on the wide streets, and the decaying department store has a meager selection of basic packaged food and dull clothing. At night, schoolchildren gather in the main square to read under the floodlights pointed at a statue of Kim Il Sung, the country's founder. It's the brightest spot in a city plagued by chronic electrical power shortages. Meanwhile, across the Yalu River in the Chinese city of Dandong, new, white buildings rise above the riverbank, traffic clogs the streets, and moving walkways roll through a local shopping mall...
...Kim Jong Il, the Dear Leader, is of course more experienced at emulating Stalin's gulags than Adam Smith's capitalism. Yet Kim Yong Sul, North Korea's vice-minister for foreign trade, called the Sinuiju Special Administrative Region "a new historical miracle" wrought by Kim Jong Il "in the hope of achieving prosperity for Korea." Not so long ago, U.S. President George W. Bush branded North Korea a member of the "Axis of Evil," along with Iraq and Iran. But the xenophobic Kim now seems increasingly frantic to mend relations with the outside world and leapfrog his poverty-stricken...
...creation of the zone capped a summer of surprising moves by Kim to air out his Hermit Kingdom and curry favor with old enemies. Two years after dialogue between North Korea and the U.S. broke down, the Bush administration last week agreed to send an envoy to Pyongyang for talks on its missile development program and tensions on the peninsula. In September, Kim apologized to Japan for abducting 13 Japanese citizens during a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi?the first time Pyongyang has ever acknowledged the kidnappings. Kim also resumed a delayed effort to connect a railway between...
...meant to spur North Koreans to be more productive. Wages jumped as much as 20-fold, while prices for electricity, housing and rice were sharply increased from levels that were so low, the services were virtually given away. Companies are also starting to introduce bonuses for the best workers. Kim Sung Gi, a staff member of Pyongyang's largest library, says his salary increased 20 times to about $100 a month, while his rent was raised only five times. "I feel more satisfied," he says...
...Internet Explorer, but with no connection to the Web, they listlessly surf the library's own site. At one dimly lit lecture hall, students learn English by repeating phrases their teacher recites in praise of the Communist leadership. "All the people would unite single-handedly behind the great leader Kim Jong Il," they chant...