Arranging a summit with North Korea marks a particular challenge, because the U.S doesn't have formal diplomatic relations with the
hermit kingdom.
To portray Eritrea as "an isolated,
hermit kingdom" is thus a deliberate distortion peddled mostly by US-funded outfits.
Recent tests of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles -- including the country's most powerful nuclear test ever, carried out last month -- show just how close the
Hermit Kingdom is to achieving its goals.
Park admits some details of her own story were changed to protect family members still living inside the
Hermit Kingdom. On other occasions, she adds, reporters have misunderstood her due to her less-than-flaw-less command of the English language.
It was once known as a
hermit kingdom as South Korea was isolated from the rest of the world.
However, all is not hunky dory in the
Hermit Kingdom on the Han River.
Kim Jong Un controls the North's 1.2-million troops and nuclear arms program, and the totalitarian regime's isolation and lack of transparency makes it difficult to understand the inner workings of the so-called
Hermit Kingdom.
In retrospect, it was a dangerous gamble to travel to the "
hermit kingdom'' of North Korea, or as it is formally known, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The cafe is only three blocks from the Friendship Bridge that spans the Yalu River, and its website calls the venue the "perfect stop off while enroute to or returning from the
Hermit Kingdom".
It's just so absurd." 'God said go to Dandong' On its website the coffee shop describes itself as "only metres from the border of North Korea", and "the perfect stop off while en route to or returning from the
Hermit Kingdom".
On a bank overlooking the Han River near Seoul is Jeoldusan, or the Hill of Beheadings, so named after 177 Korean Catholics were beheaded there in 1866-68 by the
hermit kingdom, which opposed foreign religion.
One of the main problems with the
hermit kingdom is that, unfortunately but inevitably, its opacity and proclivity towards bizarre pronouncements make it easier to mock than to analyse.