Biting the hand that feeds it

Typically, while friendly governments and international agencies are concerned about the acute suffering of the North Korean people after three successive years of natural disasters compounded by poor planning and lopsided priorities, Pyongyang itself seems to be thinking only of making propaganda points.

There seems to be no other explanation for the recent claim by North Korean Vice-Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon that "a war could break out at any moment" and his attempt to blame the United States, Japan and South Korea for this allegedly perilous situation.

This is literally biting the hand that feeds it, and for no reason that makes sense outside the bristling bastions of Kim Jong-il's secretive Stalinist state.

-- The Straits Times, Singapore