This is one of those “go pound sand” moments (Via. Japan Probe)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea’s military warned Friday that tensions between the two Koreas could become “catastrophic” if South Korea keeps sending propaganda leaflets into the communist nation.

The North’s tough talk was yet another sign that relations between the rivals have turned sour since new South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in February with a pledge to get tough on Pyongyang.

North Korea has since unleashed a spate of harsh rhetoric, including making threats to attack and hurling personal insults at Lee.

“If they do not want the present inter-Korean relations to lead to a catastrophic phase, they should take immediate steps to stop all forms of reckless scattering of leaflets at once,” the official Korean Central News Agency said.

There’s also a news segment that accompanies the report

One man’s garbage is everyone else’s link to the outside world.

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North Korean women are fighting for their right to feed their family

May 29 (Bloomberg) — Video clips of a sprawling marketplace, smuggled out of North Korea by an undercover journalist, show women selling goods including garments with heart-shaped price tags. The most conspicuous man is a monitor who shoos away unauthorized merchants.

Women almost exclusively operate the private stalls in the jangmadang, government-managed markets that ruler Kim Jong Il allowed to spring up after famine contributed to the collapse of North Korea’s economy in the 1990s. Late last year Kim lost his tolerance for these pockets of free enterprise, ordering many women out of the private sector and back into government- run factories.

In a communist country where dissent is rare, Kim’s actions angered women, many of whom are finding ways around the directives and returning to the markets. Some are even fighting back with public protests, at least one of which reportedly resulted in a physical fight with the police.

In times of famine, these female merchants will be key to survival. Whether this means a further breakdown of state control remains to be seen.