BANGKOK -- Decades before European socialism crumbled, taking the Soviet Union down with it, young Russian communists were already having a hard time taking North Korea seriously. There on the distant Pacific coast was this bizarre and demanding little client state; extreme in its isolation, brutal in its governance and almost laughable in its personality cult-centered ideology.
According to a respected Russian Orientalist trained during the late Brezhnev era, "we used to laugh our hearts out (teachers included) over illustrated magazines in Russian regularly sent by the North Korean Embassy to the School of Asian and African Studies, Moscow State University. I don't think this attitude has changed much since then."
The odd, anachronistic visit of reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to cosmopolitan Moscow, culminating in a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 4 to sign a joint "Moscow Declaration" has hit many contemporary Russians like a bad joke.