But can he still get DVDs of Team America?
Message to Dear Leader: No jet skis for you. No leather chaps, no silk PJs, no flat-screen TV. No Courvoisier, either. For the first time ever, the United States is attempting to use trade sanctions to target a specific person: North Korean president Kim Jong-il, who is known for his love of luxury goods (even ...
Message to Dear Leader: No jet skis for you. No leather chaps, no silk PJs, no flat-screen TV. No Courvoisier, either. For the first time ever, the United States is attempting to use trade sanctions to target a specific person: North Korean president Kim Jong-il, who is known for his love of luxury goods (even while his people are starving). The U.S. has proposed a list of items to be banned from North Korea in the wake of the rogue nation's nuclear tests earlier this year. The ban would be administered through the United Nations, which has already imposed sanctions on the shipment of weapons and other military equipment. What I wonder is, if Kim doesn't have cigars, perfumes, and brandy to shower upon his most favored friends, won't they abandon him? Oh wait, I guess that's the point -- to make him "so ronery, oh so ronery..."
More from Foreign Policy


Is Cold War Inevitable?
A new biography of George Kennan, the father of containment, raises questions about whether the old Cold War—and the emerging one with China—could have been avoided.


So You Want to Buy an Ambassadorship
The United States is the only Western government that routinely rewards mega-donors with top diplomatic posts.


Can China Pull Off Its Charm Offensive?
Why Beijing’s foreign-policy reset will—or won’t—work out.


Turkey’s Problem Isn’t Sweden. It’s the United States.
Erdogan has focused on Stockholm’s stance toward Kurdish exile groups, but Ankara’s real demand is the end of U.S. support for Kurds in Syria.