the North-South divide

South Koreans watch a TV analysis of yesterday's North Korean missile launch. The excellent NYT story on the launch speculates, toward the end, that the North is racing the South to launch the first Korean satellite. More likely it's an ICBM shot across the bow of the USS Obama, but in either case it's a sorry waste of resources. The photograph says it all: in South Korea, well-dressed and well-fed citizens freely watch an flat-screen display of the day's events. And in the North, which imprisons journalists to make a point? One sorrows to think of it. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford