North Korea: Country (Finally) on the Grow

Turn away from the rich-with-irony scandal involving "greatest generation" wannabe Bob Greene, the rave reviews for a biopic based on the X-rated life and bloody death of the man who played the eponymous lead in Hogan's Heroes, and the possibility that Will and Grace will have a child together (perhaps the most desperate sitcom gambit since the Happy Days gang decamped en masse to save a fiscally troubled dude ranch).

If you really want to have your mind blown by unthinkable plot developments that mix equal parts Felliniesque absurdity and Hal Lindsey End-Is-Nearism, cast your eyes on Asia, past the Land of the Rising Sun (currently ruled by an Elvis-loving, crazy-coiffed prime minister), and past Red China (currently more receptive to capitalism than many parts of the U.S.).

Fix your gaze instead toward the Shemp Howard of the Axis of Evil, North Korea. Best known for causing the war that led indirectly to Alan Alda's early retirement and the only paying concert venue for coke-addled former First Brother Roger Clinton, North Korea has been taking measurable steps toward joining the civilized world.

As Reuters reports, these include "unprecedented events such as starting to reconnect rail and road links through the heavily mined North-South border, steps to reform its near-moribund economy and moving to improve ties with long-time foes, notably Japan." Specifically, North Korea has officially apologized to Japan for kidnapping close to a dozen Japanese citizens in the late 1970s and '80s as part of a bizarre plan to train spies. North Korea is also opening a second free trade zone and begging the U.S. to begin normalizing relations.

While the North Korean government had shown signs of liberalizing over the past decade or so, there's no question its inclusion in George W. Bush's "axis of evil" has pushed forward reform measures. North Korea's motives are undoubtedly mixed—and its history is one of unmitigated horror against its neighbors and its own citizens. But for a politically autistic country that has sustained the planet's most bizarre trans-generational cult of personality (a recent refugee noted in his memoir that he and his friends were raised to believe father-son dictators Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il were such "perfect beings…that neither of them defecated or urinated") and whose chief output for decades has been starving children, this represents real progress.

Indeed, if the Hermit Kingdom actually opens up and joins even the pre-modern world, it will represent one of the great foreign policy successes of the Bush administration.