CAMBRIDGE, England -- I have just returned from a week visit to North Korea, one of the countries on U.S. President George W. Bush's "axis of evil." I was one of three British academics running a workshop under a new technical assistance program inaugurated when the two countries opened diplomatic relations last year.
The workshop, on topics chosen by North Korea (international economic system, Western business practices and commercial law), lasted two days. The other four days we were taken to see monuments and museums, the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, as well as the birthplace, vast memorial and mausoleum of the Great Leader Kim Il Sung.
One's first visit to a country is always interesting, comparing preconceptions with reality. This is especially true in the case of North Korea, as so little is known about it that has not been passed though a propaganda sieve.