Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Arcane Art of Kremlinology Remains Relevant for North Korea

Eunjung Cho

   A veteran practitioner of the arcane art of "Kremlinology" says the
   skills honed to decipher what was really happening in the ruling
   circles of a secretive Soviet Union remain useful today in trying to
   determine what is up with North Korea's leadership.

   "North Korea is the last bastion of the old Soviet-style communism,"
   says Alexander "Sandy" Vershbow, U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2001 to
   2005. "There is some intelligence collected about internal developments
   of North Korea, but it's still opaque. So the old techniques applied to
   the Soviet Union are still relevant to today's North Korea."

   Vershbow, who also served as the Soviet Union affairs director at the
   State Department during the last days of the Cold War, had his first
   foreign posting to Moscow in 1979, as a second secretary at the U.S.
   Embassy.

.