Kim Il Jong

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's historic meeting Monday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il elicited both hope and caution among Korean Americans in Los Angeles. "I am very much encouraged by what has been happening," said Jimmy Choi, a Koreatown dentist who has visited North Korea three times, most recently a year ago as chairman of the Los Angeles-based Korean Resource Center.

Are North Koreans nuts? Is their leader a certifiable wacko? Those questions become particularly important during crises in the isolated country's relations with the outside world. Pyongyang last week triggered the latest such crisis by announcing that it possessed nuclear weapons and would not return to talks on the issue with Washington, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and Moscow.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Monday denounced economic and democratic reformers as traitors, in an attack that could signal a policy shift or an impending purge in the hard-line Communist state. Kim's unusual public statement followed a report last week by a U.S. defense official that North Korea is forcing thousands of people to attend mass executions in an apparent attempt to quash dissent as the country heads into potential famine this winter.

An armored train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Il clattered across the North Korean border early Saturday, bringing the reclusive head of state home after a strange and protracted trip to Russia. The 24-day visit was only Kim's third journey outside North Korea since he took over leadership of the poor, totalitarian country in 1994 after the death of his father, Kim Il Sung. Both of his previous trips were to China.

One by one, the old-timers still clinging to power around North Korea's mysterious leader, Kim Jong Il, are dropping away. In the past month, the Communist regime's chief ideologue, its prime minister, two top military leaders, its vice minister of foreign affairs and an economic official all have defected, been deposed or died of "incurable" diseases. Is it mere coincidence or a chilling conspiracy?

He loves American movies, has collected thousands of videos and faithfully follows the Oscar buzz each year. He especially likes musicals and epics, although he says he's not sure he could bear to watch "Titanic" again. And he's crazy about basketball, knows U.S. teams and understands the difference between a zone and man-to-man defense. Kim Jong Il, an authoritarian leader in an isolated land, turns out not to be so cut off after all, U.S. officials discovered this week.

An armored train carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Il clattered across the North Korean border early Saturday, bringing the reclusive head of state home after a strange and protracted trip to Russia. The 24-day visit was only Kim's third journey outside North Korea since he took over leadership of the poor, totalitarian country in 1994 after the death of his father, Kim Il Sung. Both of his previous trips were to China.

Are North Koreans nuts? Is their leader a certifiable wacko? Those questions become particularly important during crises in the isolated country's relations with the outside world. Pyongyang last week triggered the latest such crisis by announcing that it possessed nuclear weapons and would not return to talks on the issue with Washington, Beijing, Seoul, Tokyo and Moscow.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il toured Russia's top space facilities Sunday, a day after holding talks with President Vladimir V. Putin that showcased renewed strategic ties. Russian officials insisted that Kim's tours of the Khrunichev space center and Mission Control outside Moscow were for pleasure, not business. He later boarded his armored train for a sightseeing trip to St. Petersburg.

The U.S. State Department long regarded North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as a terrorist and dictator, but that view is out of date now thanks to a policy flip-flop by the U.S. secretary of State. In Bangkok this past July, Madeleine Albright gave a hint of things to come when she put on her black bowler hat during the Assn. of South East Asian Nations meeting to perform a cabaret number for fellow diplomats. "The former rogue," she sang, is "now in vogue!"

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il toured Russia's top space facilities Sunday, a day after holding talks with President Vladimir V. Putin that showcased renewed strategic ties. Russian officials insisted that Kim's tours of the Khrunichev space center and Mission Control outside Moscow were for pleasure, not business. He later boarded his armored train for a sightseeing trip to St. Petersburg.

The U.S. State Department long regarded North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as a terrorist and dictator, but that view is out of date now thanks to a policy flip-flop by the U.S. secretary of State. In Bangkok this past July, Madeleine Albright gave a hint of things to come when she put on her black bowler hat during the Assn. of South East Asian Nations meeting to perform a cabaret number for fellow diplomats. "The former rogue," she sang, is "now in vogue!"

He loves American movies, has collected thousands of videos and faithfully follows the Oscar buzz each year. He especially likes musicals and epics, although he says he's not sure he could bear to watch "Titanic" again. And he's crazy about basketball, knows U.S. teams and understands the difference between a zone and man-to-man defense. Kim Jong Il, an authoritarian leader in an isolated land, turns out not to be so cut off after all, U.S. officials discovered this week.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's historic meeting Monday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il elicited both hope and caution among Korean Americans in Los Angeles. "I am very much encouraged by what has been happening," said Jimmy Choi, a Koreatown dentist who has visited North Korea three times, most recently a year ago as chairman of the Los Angeles-based Korean Resource Center.

One by one, the old-timers still clinging to power around North Korea's mysterious leader, Kim Jong Il, are dropping away. In the past month, the Communist regime's chief ideologue, its prime minister, two top military leaders, its vice minister of foreign affairs and an economic official all have defected, been deposed or died of "incurable" diseases. Is it mere coincidence or a chilling conspiracy?

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on Monday denounced economic and democratic reformers as traitors, in an attack that could signal a policy shift or an impending purge in the hard-line Communist state. Kim's unusual public statement followed a report last week by a U.S. defense official that North Korea is forcing thousands of people to attend mass executions in an apparent attempt to quash dissent as the country heads into potential famine this winter.

In what promises to be a historic illustration of the symbolic power of sports to bring people together, the two Koreas will march as one in the opening ceremony of the Sydney Summer Games, IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch confirmed Sunday night. Athletes from North and South Korea will walk together Friday night into Stadium Australia, wearing the same uniform and walking behind the Korean "unification flag," Samaranch said.

The impact of the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal has gone global. Bemused foreigners, who for months dismissed President Clinton's domestic troubles as a curious, yet harmless, example of America's collective neurosis about sex, now wrestle with a new truth: The leader of the free world is severely wounded. And for America's friends, that cannot be a good thing. "Clinton Broken," screamed the front-page headline in Friday's editions of the French daily Le Parisien.