VLAD'S VOTE OF CONFIDENCE

Kim, following in the iconoclastic footsteps of his father, played host to one of the world's prickliest politicians this week: Russian hypernationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky. No meeting between the two was reported, but the heavy-drinking bad boy Vlad and Kim, reportedly a dedicated party animal who loves Cognac, seem to see eye to eye: Zhirinovsky carefully had nothing but good things to say about Kim in the North Korean press.