PYONGYANG -- Is change really in the air north of the Korean Peninsula's 38th parallel?
In the week that saw Red Cross officials from Japan and North Korea striking an accord on the search for Japanese nationals that Tokyo maintains were abducted, and the United States announcing that an envoy would travel to Pyongyang in a bid to break the stalemate on contacts since President George W. Bush entered the White House, subtle changes were also visible within the Hermit Kingdom's borders.
Children are eating ice cream on the street and multicolored trams are rattling through Pyongyang, beneath red flags and banners stretched between the peeling walls of apartment buildings. A regular visitor to this Stalinist state points out that neither were present on his last visit.