Tom on clandestine connectivity

First, a brief note: You'll probably be hearing less from me about Tom Barnett in the future because I have volunteered to help him out with proofreading. It's a different kind of reading, and I have other things in mind, so I probably won't digest his stuff as much. I'm excited about being involved in a small way with his work. Since I'll be posting less, you should just read his weblog if you want more of him (obviously).

On to today's post. Cell phones are banned by the government of North Korea.

Who's stirring up this trouble? The Chinese, who are installing relay stations along the border, which in turn seems to be fueling a mini-boom in illicit cell phones in the Hermit Kingdom.

What drives this infrastructural development? Whenever cross-border trade begins with either China or the South, North Korean officials and merchants ask their counterparts for cell phones. Gotta like that.

Subversive capitalism from the Chinese: there are so many nice things about that...