| Almost immediately after North Korea provoked | | | | North Korea sent him home with a bouquet of |
| the world by testing a nuclear weapon, the | | | | wailing regrets. |
| supplicant said, "We're sorry. Please, pass the | | | | "How could we have done such a thing?" the |
| collection basket." The Dennis The Menance | | | | official North Korean press agency lamented. |
| routine was part of the country's shaky policy to | | | | "Imagine how wrong we were! Forgive us and |
| extract as many donations as possible in its bid to | | | | hand over our incentives." |
| support a lavish lifestyle for Kim Jong IL without | | | | Confident of abundant support after the |
| the slightest evidence that his country has an | | | | departure of the Chinese dupe, the North Korean |
| economy. | | | | government held a Bordeaux-tilting celebration. It |
| The repentance was ideally timed to flatter its | | | | seems on the way to achieving every goal it |
| largest donor nation, China, which sent a nuclear | | | | hoped for as a result of its calculated one-two |
| envoy to discuss the upsetting explosion and, with | | | | punch of nuclear provocation followed with |
| oriental subtlety, to slap his butt for it. Spying the | | | | effusive repentance. |
| ideal opportunity to stroke its benefactor, at the | | | | Meanwhile, its citizens are left to wonder, amid |
| same time it might head off pending sanctions, | | | | the governmental hoopla, Where's the economy? |