While it has a million soldiers making up just one component of a robust military, its own satellite launching system and the ability to organize mass demonstrations on cue, North Korea is facing serious domestic problems with the coming winter.
In the North Korean Capital of Pyongyang, grocery stores have little merchandise for sale and there seems to be a lack of food generally. Elevators are without power across the country and there is scarce heating fuel available in a nation where the temperature drops to-20 Celsius.
Part of this is due the isolation that N. Korea has imposed on itself, part of it due to international ostracism from the state's refusal to adopt the capitalist economic system. The effects are now approaching a critical stage. Hundreds of thousands of North Koreas could freeze or starve before the upcoming winter is over. (Jane's Information Group, BBC, US State Dept.)
--LESLIE BUCKLE
The Dominion is a monthly paper published by an incipient network of independent journalists in Canada. It aims to provide accurate, critical coverage that is accountable to its readers and the subjects it tackles. Taking its name from Canada's official status as both a colony and a colonial force, the Dominion examines politics, culture and daily life with a view to understanding the exercise of power.