Although the political dynamic between North and South Korea may not be the most interesting thing you’ve ever read about, there was some progress last week in the process of engaging the Kimmy Kim Kim Il.

South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun was in the North trying to play nice with the neighbors. The Foreign Policy blog reported a rumor that Hyun was scheduled to bring Il a flat screen tv as a gift because I guess the Best Buy in Pyongyang ran out of them and he’s a huge Denise Richards fan, particularly “Wild Things”. Normal North Koreans are not allowed to have DVDs from South Korea however, and according to Reuters the police usually shut off the electricity to a building before making a raid so they can go inside and see what DVD or tape is in the player.  Pretty ingenious if you ask me, and the one thing he’s done right is the mandatory 10-year sentence in a hard labor camp issued to anyone possessing a Dave Matthews concert DVD, or the movie “Armageddon” because he hates Ben Affleck more than George Bush and free market economies combined.

Anyway, Hyun realized a tv would violate the international ban on luxury goods to North Korea and left the Samsung at home. His host proved to be quite hospitable though, and presented Hyun with 4 tons of pine mushrooms. This may seem like a gift more befitting of Luigi and Mario, the heads of state of Super Mario World, however they are a Korean delicacy and sell for up to $654/kg., so 4 tons equates to about $2.6 million worth of mushrooms. Holy Shitake. Sucks to be outdone on the gift front by a failed state, but I bet Hyun wrote a nicer card…