Will Middle East Protests Spill Over Into….North Korea? Pyongyang On 'Full Alert'

Very interesting reports are coming from the Korean Peninsula. South Korea’s Chosun reports:

“The North Korean authorities are apparently on full alert as news trickles in about pro-democracy protests in the Middle East despite an official blackout. According to a source, security agents have banned all gatherings, especially of university students, as news spreads about the public revolts in Egypt, Tunisia and elsewhere in the Arab world.

The source added that partitions have been removed in restaurants across the country, and security agents break up even small gatherings in open-air markets.

“This is the first time I saw even partitions removed from restaurants in North Korea,” a recent defector said. Students in Pyongyang have begun whispering that the Kim Jong-il regime, which has ruled for 50 years, needs to change, and news about the ouster of dictators in North Africa is spreading in open-air markets.

North Korea’s state-run media have either blacked out news of the protests completely or are reporting falsely that they are being staged by anti-American forces. News about the protests in Egypt, which ousted president Hosni Mubarak, is nonetheless spreading because hundreds of North Koreans visit China each month to make money, and what they learn there is quickly disseminated throughout the wealthier classes in the North.