Talkin' missiles and melons with Kim Jong Il

[Captain Japan]

Japan tries to squeeze info. from N. Korea
ASSOCIATED PRESS via SeattlePI.com

TOKYO -- Could denying the gourmand dictator Kim Jong Il sweet Japanese melons push North Korea back to the negotiating table? Or would forcing upper-crust North Korean women to give up their favorite Japanese lipstick work?

Japanese lawmakers are stretching their imaginations for ways to squeeze concessions out of North Korea amid mounting frustration over Pyongyang's failure to disclose all it knows about the Japanese it kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s.

"We could stop the melon trade. Then Kim Jong Il wouldn't be able to eat delicious melons and he would be furious," said Ichita Yamamoto, a ruling party lawmaker. "He would ask, 'Where are my melons?'"...the rest...

Again, is the Onion slipping into the mainstream press again? In any case, more on Japanese melons:
Yubari: Japan's Melon Kingdom

[GuyJean]

"We could stop the melon trade. Then Kim Jong Il wouldn't be able to eat delicious melons and he would be furious,"

Man, the Japanese sure know how to intimidate..

GJ

[Captain Japan]

"He would ask, 'Where are my melons?'"

[Captain Japan]

"We could stop the melon trade. Then Kim Jong Il wouldn't be able to eat delicious melons and he would be furious,"

Man, the Japanese sure know how to intimidate..

And instill confidence...


Time Asia

Tsutomu Takebe, Japan's Agriculture Minister, jabs at a juicy slab of grilled steak, waves it in the air with chopsticks and pops it in his mouth. "I've never tasted such good beef!" he crows to a crowd of TV cameras and reporters at a hastily arranged press conference. Then Takebe motions to a fellow Cabinet member, Health Minister Chikara Sakaguchi, and announces: "He is a doctor, and he is going to eat it. So see, there are absolutely no problems with Japan's beef!" Sakaguchi dutifully chews and swallows. "Ah, I see now the beef is safe," he proclaims. "It's been sucked into my stomach, and I know for sure it is safe."

[Ketou]

Are there actually people out there, who after watching a politician eat a something, feel that it must be safe? Or think, when I grow up I want to have a barcode haircut too??

[Mulboyne]

1990: Agriculture Minister John Selwyn Gummer feeds his daughter Cordelia a beefburger in an attempt to calm rising panic over British beef