It's Eric Hobsbawm's judgment that the North Korean regime is close to the nadir of current regimes. It's everyone else's judgment too. Is everyone in the world "sheerly arrogant"?
Koreans in the South are working hard to end the nearly 50 years of hostility. Many Koreans in the North would like to work hard to end the nearly 50 years of hostility. But if they say that perhaps the social, economic, and political system established by Kim Il Sung is not utopia, there life expectancy is low.
Tim Shorrock appears pathetic: a stooge in search of a Stalin, who has found one in Kim Jong Il.
Brad DeLong