The eccentric Stalinist leader of N. Korea, Kim Jong-Il, loves his French spirits, lobster, caviar, McDonald's hamburgers, and choice cuts of imported sushi. His sons love the jet-set lifestyle. While millions of his country's citizens have perished from famine and starvation, luxury goods, gathered at great expense, abound in Kim's compounds, and serve both personal and as currency for loyal elite supporters.

Officials at Everland amusement park in South Korea are set to showcase a pachyderm who can mimic human sounds perfectly. The 16-year-old male Asian elephant, named Kosik, is able to imitate sound of as many as eight Korean words including, "sit," "no," "yes," and "lie down. " Although researches have shown that elephants can mimic sounds, like that of a truck, but Kosik's ability is believed to be unique since it produces human like sounds.

A Korean man's search for the football used in South Korea's historic win against Spain during the 2002 World Cup comes to an end. Lee Jae-Hyung had been searching for the famous football for four years. A referee of the quarter-final match, Egyptian Gamal Ghandour, kept the ball and considered it a prized possession.

Some diplomats seem to have taken to "toilet diplomacy," after ASEAN delegates from China and Japan had an impromptu chat in the washroom. The Foreign Ministers of neighbors China and Japan have only met a few times due to territorial disputes and historical hostilities between the two countries.

Chinese border police have taken on a tough, new assignment: marriage counseling. Police officials say the policy, dubbed "love the people, consolidate the borders" makes sense. They say that happy people trust authorities and this makes the borders safer. Chen Weiming, director of the Ministry of Public Security's frontier bureau, says, "It provides a protective screen for the social and economic development of the country in this important strategic period. " He says duties for border police range from advising Mongolian herders on getting the best prices, to defusing family arguments. Chen declined to give details about asylum seekers entering China from North Korea.