A FRONT PAGE STORY in the March 1, 2005 Los Angeles Times was headlined “North Korea, Without the Rancor.” The author, Barbara Demick, met with a North Korean businessman in a North Korean-owned karaoke bar in Beijing. The article presented this “businessman’s” view of the world. His views were favorable of Kim Jung Il, dismissive of human rights complaints about North Korea’s brutal treatment of its people, and silent about both the famine (that is believed to have killed 2 million in the 1990s) and the North Koreans’ obstruction of international relief efforts.

The entire article should be read but these are the choice quotes: