Under a Mushroom Cloud

KCNA via KNS / AFP

DEFIANT: North Korea shows off its hardware during a military parade in Pyongyang

A charter member of George W. Bush's infamous "axis of evil" on account of its nuclear-weapons program, arms sales and brutal human-rights record, North Korea was unsurprisingly targeted by Bush for regime change from the start. That Kim Jong Il — a man the American President once called a "pygmy" — has not only survived, but emerged in the twilight of the Bush era with an agreement eerily similar to the one he signed with Bill Clinton over a decade earlier, makes for a remarkable tale.

A fellow on Korean security at...

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