SEOUL — The race-baiting, personal insults and political provocations come almost daily, but not from any cutthroat comedian's stand-up routine.
Rather, they're bulletins from the Korean Central News Agency, the official North Korean government mouthpiece.
In the studied bombast of the KCNA, U.S. officials have long been deemed capitalistic "running dogs," "jackals" and "warmongers" and the Japanese decried as "reactionaries" and "militarist maniacs."
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, a favorite target of late, is mocked as a "stooge" and "lackey" whose "puppet forces" and "gang of traitors" will soon be decimated.
Contrast that with the poetic prose applied to Kim Jong Il, the beloved "Great Leader," who is lauded by KCNA as a "great statesman" and "peerlessly brilliant commander."
Much like Kim's awkward personal style -- his bouffant hairdo and array of oversize, Liberace-style sunglasses -- KCNA's releases, in Korean and English, are often lampooned by foreigners.
But North Korea watchers say the level of KCNA rhetoric offers a valuable insight to what the secretive government might be thinking, and where it may be headed.
Provocative actions such as the recent nuclear test and missile launches, for example, are signaled in advance by a harsher tone.
"There is no better window into North Korean perceptions, policies and plans for the future than what appears in the state media," said Robert Carlin, a former State Department analyst who once interpreted North Korea news media reports. "It's a reflection over time of what signals Pyongyang is sending to its friends, enemies and its own people."
Each day, KCNA carries government policy statements, strategy essays translated from state radio and the party daily as well as those roundhouse verbal punches the regime aims at its enemies.
A recent KCNA release about U.S. attempts to impose sanctions against North Korea, for example, was not encouraging, ending with a warning that "the situation is inching close to the brink of war due to the brigandish moves of the U.S."
Trying to figure out Pyongyang's next move involves monitoring what the government tells its people and its shifting stances toward its foes.
Still, analysts say, no North Korea tea-leaf reading is foolproof. The U.S. can only guess Pyongyang's next move in its nuclear buildup.
