There have been reports filtering out about North Koreans falling prey to coronavirus despite Kim Jong Il sealing its 880-mile border with China, "most of it along the Yalu River into the Yellow Seat to the west," as well as its 11-mile border with Russia.

One sure sign of the regime's fears is that it failed to stage a parade in central Pyongyang on Saturday, the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the country's armed forces. Last year, Kim Jong Un himself presided over the procession that displayed the North's latest missiles and other fearsome hardware along with goose-stepping soldiers in serried ranks.

This year, nothing about the nation's nuclear warheads, much less the "new strategic weapon" that Kim has vowed to unveil. Rodong Sinmum, the newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party, merely cited the armed forces' supposed success combating "severe and dangerous difficulties"—and said nothing at all about the parade. -Daily Beast