During a visit in the autumn of 2008, my negotiating team and I checked into a brand new, modern “Japanese-owned” hotel (there certainly were no Japanese there), watched the US vice-presidential debate on satellite-fed CNN, and in the evening enjoyed a European beer. In Eastern Europe in the 1980’s, such an anecdote might have been interpreted as a bellwether of deeper systemic change; in North Korea, it seemed more like a foray into the preserve of the country’s gangster elite.