Two important papers by the U.S. Army's Strategic Studies Institute provide unique insights into the problems posed by North Korea: Criminal Sovereignty: Understanding North Korea's Illicit International Activities, and Understanding the North Korea Problem: Why it has Become the "Land of Lousy Options". Topics covered include: Kim Jong-il slush funds, Macao, Principle of Juche, Office #39, Drug Trafficking, Counterfeit Currency and Cigarettes, Taepo Dong missile, nuclear weapons, regional interests (China, Japan, Russia, South Korea). The "Land of Lousy Options" This monograph is intended to draw attention to the challenges faced by the United States in developing a coordinated strategy for dealing with North Korea. Despite the many decades of direct U.S. involvement on the Korean Peninsula, we continue to have little understanding of the North Korean culture or of events inside North Korea. We also do not have a long-term coordinated strategy for North Korea. Over the past decade, the United States has focused much of its attention on the Middle East and the War on Terror, and seems to only focus on North Korea in response to crises when they arise on the peninsula. The author provides a timely analysis and thoughtful insights into the significant challenges faced by the United States in developing a strategy for North Korea. He examines the complex history of U.S. policy toward North Korea over the past decade that has left the United States in a position of having no real strategy and virtually no influence over North Korea. Criminal Sovereignty: The authors of this monograph have exposed a key piece of the puzzle which helps to provide a better understanding of North Korea's surreptitious international behavior. For years, North Korea's military provocations have been obvious to the world, however, much of its decisionmaking is shrouded in secrecy, particularly that of a wide-range of clandestine activities. This monograph is unique in the way that it sheds lig