Justify your existence.

CNN reports that the US government is working on a 'luxury' items embargo on North Korea with the UN. The said 'luxury' items are things that the Dear Leader, North Korean 'president' Kim Jong Il, loves and cherishes such as French cognac, Segway scooters, iPods or plasma television sets.



These items may not seem to be luxury items in the West but believe me, in communist countries these things are unheard of. I've grown up in the USSR and a Wrigley's chewing gum was a luxurious item.



All is fine and dandy until you realize that such a ban is practically unenforceable. The Soviet Union was a closed system, and yet the Western items somehow managed to get through. And that was for the ordinary citizens against the wishes of the tight control by the authorities. Kim Jong Il is the authority in this case. He is going to buy these things from the private markets - there is not much of a difficulty to buy these things in China and then transport them in a boat across the river to North Korea.



So why now?



It all boils down to not having anything else to do. We are stuck in the corner because of our policies during the last few years, and any major initiative is doomed to failure as we lack credibility on the international scene. So we are reduced to coming up with silly things like this.