Exciting times in North Korea as they conduct nuclear tests, fire missiles, tear up treaties, and declare war on the rest of the world:
North Korea says it has abandoned the truce that ended the Korean war, amid rising tension in the region.
It blamed its decision on South Korea joining a US-led initiative to search ships for nuclear weapons.
It said the South's actions were a "declaration of war", and pledged to attack if its ships were stopped.
The move is part of an increasingly hard line being taken by North Korea, and comes two days after it conducted an underground nuclear test.
Meanwhile, South Korean news reports say that steam has been seen coming from a plant at the North's main nuclear facility, a sign that it has made good on its threat to restart efforts to make weapons-grade plutonium.
The United Nations Security Council is working on a strong resolution condemning North Korea's actions, including possible punitive measures.
Punitive measures? Surely not.
So what's going on? Is this a test for new president Obama? An attempt to divert attention from the suicide of former South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun? A smokescreen for, or sign of, internal dynastic struggles as the ailing Dear Leader plans his succession? No one knows.
Any clues at the official Korean Central News Agency? Well, oddly, there's this tale of a younger Kim Jong-Il:
The car carrying General Secretary Kim Jong Il was running a sightseeing road of Mt. Kuwol on May 1, Juche 86 (1997).
The road under construction was yet far short of completion. Not minding this, however, he did not take his eyes off a car window as if he was fathoming the troubles of the soldier builders.
He got off the car near the fork of the road in the mid-slope of the mountain and met commanding officers of a unit of the Korean People's Army engaged in the building of the holiday resort of Mt. Kuwol and highly appreciated the painstaking work of the soldier builders. He earnestly told them to spruce up the mountain to provide the people with a better resort of cultural recreation, true to the behest of President Kim Il Sung.
He went round a number of construction sites through the sightseeing road built by soldiers and spread before them a far-reaching blueprint to turn the mountain into a splendid resort of cultural recreation for the people.
The sun of May Day began to sink unnoticed.
Out of the ardent desire to provide him a happy time, if but for a moment, officials earnestly asked him to have a picture taken with them against the background of the picturesque scenery of the mountain.
He smiled a generous smile of understanding and said that was not a good idea when the resort was in the thick of construction and he would come again after the completion of the project and have a souvenir picture taken.
The officials were choked with emotion at his words full of warm love for the toiling soldier builders whom he thought before anyone else.
The story about the souvenir picture which was not taken will go down long to the posterity as a legend of the leader's love for the KPA soldiers along with Mt. Kuwol, a famous mountain of the people.
In the old days there used to be Kremlin watchers, who'd try to make sense of the bizarre pronouncements coming from official media sources in Moscow – reading between the lines, as it were. In that spirit I suggest that the decision to print this piece now, and the elegiac tone thereof, suggests that the Dear Leader may in fact be heading to join his father on top of the Holy Mountain of the Revolution. The clincher: that phrase "The sun of May Day began to sink unnoticed". The Dear Leader is sinking, if not sunk.
Well, it's as plausible as any other of the scenarios that are clogging up the editorial pages at the moment. And remember, if it's true, you read it here first.
Mick Hartley 
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