What brought this scene again to mind were news reports this week that in Russia's eastern port city of Vladivostok, two North Korean defectors climbed over a wall to enter the South Korean consulate, asking for asylum.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: North Korea, evil as usual

Or a gathering of international leftists, supporting Pyongyang's call for South Korea to tear down a wall along the Korean demilitarized zone.

CNN: stadium

But rapprochement talks between the countries hit a wall after conservative South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took office in early 2008, with a tougher stance toward the North than Kim and his successor, Roh Moo-hyun.

CNN: Former South Korean President Kim dies

In August, 2010, The Wall Street Journal reported that not only was Yun still in business, but he and another North Korean offical, Chun Byung-ho, were running an international weapons-trading network that U.S. officials were comparing in scale and tactics to those of A.Q.

FORBES: North Korea's Middle East Webs and Nuclear Wares