A Melting Border

North Korea is very much in the news these days. The world’s media rushes to report the spectacle of political purges. The disappearance of Kim Jong-un for a few weeks had columnists placing bets on the possibilities of a palace coup. And there are the constants of North Korean political rhetoric: the dear leaders, the running dogs, the seas of fire.

North Korea certainly serves a purpose for us. Its continued existence beyond its supposed “expiry date” allows us to revel in a type of nostalgia for the surer days of the Cold War, a time when everyone knew who the enemy was, when our foes were “over there” and did not threaten from within, and when individual leaders could be easily villainized. Whether it is reports that Kim Jong-il sank eight holes-in-one the first time he ever played golf, or that his son, tired of the continued presence of an old girlfriend, arranged to...