

Usually, North Korea doesn't miss an opportunity to castigate its Japanese enemy. Tokyo harbors "a militarist ambition for overseas aggression"; its top officials spew "a string of nonsense"; and the Japanese character possesses an "impudence and moral vulgarity." And that's just from one month's worth of dispatches from Pyongyang's official news agency.

Only now the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant has plunged Japan into its worst crisis since World War II. And the North Koreans are being... respectful. By their standards, at least.

The Korea Central News Agency, mouthpiece of the regime, has a solitary piece published in English on Japan's suffering, with the understated headline "Earthquake Damages Increase in Japan." (Poor site design will force you to click through, alas.) And there's nothing there about how the iniquity of the Japanese brings satisfaction to the devastation caused by the quake's aftermath, or anything else you might expect from Pyongyang – just a recap of the horror.

Here's the harshest the piece gets: "According to foreign news, Fukushima is turning into a ghost-like city due to a series of explosions of reactors.... Many horror-stricken people are leaving the city and roads are almost blocked as refugees and trucks are crowding the place about 50 km away from the city." It's hard to see any glee being expressed.

Indeed, North Korea seems not to be exploiting the quake for its foreign policy, either. Stars & Stripes sees little evidence of post-quake aggression from the North, despite months' worth of erratic and violent behavior during 2010. North Korea's Red Cross even expressed sympathy for Japanese earthquake victims.

There aren't many opportunities to credit Pyongyang's Stalinist government for basic humanity. And if any Korean-reading commenters spot any schadenfreude on the North's Korean-language social media outlets, let me know. But for now: way to keep your mouth shut when appropriate, Mr. Kim.

Photo: Paramount Picture

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