Separated at birth

He stands five foot two in stocking feet, adding two inches to his dumpy physique with elevated shoes. He has taken a country blessed with natural resources and an educated populace with a dedicated work ethic and reduced it to the level of the most abysmal third-world pesthole. He has assassinated foreign statesmen, blown up civilian airlines loaded with innocent passengers, and sold weapons to terrorists around the world. He is diverting resources that his country cannot spare to accelerate a program whereby he can become a nuclear power capable of proliferating weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups in return for hard cash. He has surrounded himself with sycophants and toadies, lives in hedonistic luxury, and threatens his neighbors and the world with nuclear weapons. Who is this strange person? He is Kim Jong Il, aberrant ruler of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea--or North Korea. The more we are able to crack the facade of North Korea, the more we learn of the dark, repugnant secrets that have been held close for decades. Peering through the cracks, we are able to discern an implacable hatred for America, South Korea, and other free nations. There were good and sufficient reasons for President George W. Bush to declare North Korea a charter member of the "Axis of Evil." Americans heard him and wondered: Just what is going on over there that makes it such a threat? SEPARATED AT BIRTH addresses those concerns, exploring North Korea's twentieth-century history, its separation from South Korea, as well as its place in the East and its relation to China, the U.S., and Japan. Cucullu discusses our options--both military and diplomatic-and fills in some of the gaps in our knowledge so that we can be better prepared to deal with a nation easily described as a "rogue" one.