Loose change for December 20, 2009

 North Korea news and stuff 

•  North Korean-made jeans, under the brand name Noko, have finally gone on sale in Sweden. 
• The Korea Institute of Defense Analyses says that North Korea is capable of achieving the technology needed to miniaturize nuclear weapons. 
• Yonhap takes a year-end look at North Korea's political developments during 2009.

 Other Korea-related stuff 

• The Seoul government has begun a test run of eco-friendly taxis, with a vision of switching from gasoline-hybrid vehicles to a fleet of LGP-hybrid vehicles known as "LPI hybrids." 
• POSCO is going to spend $651 for a seventy-percent stake in an Indonesian steelmaker.
• After Chejudo tangerines have met European import standards, the British are going to import them. Yum. 

 Miscellany 

• A Taiwanese scholar laments that the gap between the ROC and the ROK in exports and in wages has doubled during Taiwan's "lost decade."
• The US prison population is to see its first drop since 1972.