N.Korea Inches Toward New Pragmatism

North Korea appears to be inching toward a new pragmatism stressing people's welfare rather than the constant martial tones it employed in the past. A New Year's Day message in the official media in early January urged the people to fulfill their assigned tasks, and one of the propaganda posters accompanying it calls on the people to stand their ground and look at the world.

Another poster shows a woman in traditional Korean costume and a child smiling behind piles of food, shoes, wine, and rainbow-striped traditional jackets. These messages of hope mask a dire reality.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has recently admitted openly that North Korea faces economic difficulties. "In the past, the leader [Kim Il-sung] always said he wished to feed our people with rice and meat soup, clothe them in silk, and let them live in tile-roofed houses. But we haven't yet fulfilled his wishes," he was quoted as saying by the official Rodong Sinmun newspaper.