Fourteen years ago on Monday, Daniel Pearl's body was found in a shallow grave north of Karachi. May 16 always leaves me melancholic, as Danny was a good friend. This year's anniversary, though, had me thinking of North Korea and a related bottle of scotch I owe the Wall Street Journal scribe.
We first become buddies in 1995 while working in the same Washington office. Danny and I quickly discovered a shared affinity for off-the-beaten-path travel, obscure art films and musicians few others had heard of. Once, we even talked our way backstage to meet one: Peter Himmelman, who later wrote a song about Danny's brutal death at the hands al-Qaida. On our frequent beer evenings, whether in Washington, Paris or New Delhi, we'd debate geopolitical quagmires and bet on how they might turn out "12 or 15 years from now." The wager was always the same: 18-year-old Macallan.
And I now owe Danny one thanks to the state of play in Pyongyang. I last saw him at the Taj Mahal Hotel bar in Mumbai in August 2001. That day, over too many overpriced draft beers, we debated topics, including whether the Internet would bring down China's Communist Party, the euro would survive, Islam and modernity could easily coexist and Pakistan might become a failed state. One of our most spirited debates, though, was my contention that the Kim Dynasty would shift to modernizing and opening North Korea. Danny argued that 12 to 15 years on, Pyongyang would be as isolated as ever.