Kim Jong-il Faces Blue Xmas: No iPods, Harleys
By: Kim Jong-il has been a very naughty dictator. So Uncle Sam is making sure the North Korean leader will get little but coal in his Christmas stocking.
William Reinsch, president of the National Foreign Trade Council, told Carl Quintanilla on “Squawk Box” that the U.S. is taking a novel approach to fighting a totalitarian menace: by cutting off his pipeline of luxury imports.
Kim is famed for his lavish tastes: Hennessey cognac, Jet Ski rides, Segways, as well as heaps of Apple Computer’s iPods, and a fleet of – ironically -- good old Yankee motorcycles from Harley Davidson.
The strutting generalissimo in the Dr. Evil tunic often hands out these high-ticket goodies to his inner circle of supporters, too. So Reinsch told Quintanilla that the U.S. is leading several nations in a drive to outlaw the export of these goods to North Korea.
After alleged kidnappings of foreign nationals, brainwashing and wasting North Korea’s meager wealth on a nuclear-weapons program, Kim Jong-il has been naughty, indeed.
At least the self-styled “peerless leader” can still celebrate the Yuletide – in Communist fashion -- with Cuban cigars.