North Korea has sort of announced that they are about to test a new missile in August, a missile able to reach parts of Alaska. The U.S. has a carrier battle group in Pusan, South Korea. The Japanese are pleading with the Chinese, the Mongolians and anyone else who will listen to get the North Koreans to stop the test. A report is being prepared by a former U.S. Secretary of Defense on the whole North Korean problem. For a country that was supposed to starve to death during each of the past five winters, the North Koreans have done remarkably well in making themselves the focus of major powers. That achievement was not accidental. It was part of a skillful strategy we call the "Crazy Fearsome Cripple Gambit." In its own way, it is a work of art (Stratfor's Global Intelligence Update, Weekly Analysis, July 12, 1999).