HMM: “North Korea’s Dear Leader Less Dear:”

North Korea’s official radio and news agency has dropped the honorific “Dear Leader” from its reports on the country’s leader, Kim Jong-il.

The report by Radiopress, a Japanese news agency that monitors North Korea’s radio, follows news this week that portraits of the North Korean leader have been removed from homes and offices.

“Powell: North Korea May Be Easing Stance on Nuclear Talks:”

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says North Korea may be ready to resume multi-party talks to defuse a crisis over its nuclear ambitions.

Mr. Powell told reporters en route to Chile for the APEC summit that the United States has seen signals coming out of North Korea where it said it never insisted the crisis be solved only through negotiations with the United States.

What’s going on? Beats me. Roger Simon has more thoughts.