In a novel effort that targets the lifestyle of North Korea's eccentric president, the Bush administration wants to make it tougher for him to buy iPods, plasma television sets, Segway electric scooters and more.Who comes up with these ideas? Better yet, who thinks it's a good idea? The U.S. is certainly not the only market for such things. North Korea is right next door to, I don't know, South Korea and Japan, not to mention fully able to log onto the Internet and place orders galore.Why bother? It's supposed to be an effort to punish North Korea for allegedly developing a nuclear bomb capacity, but it certainly won't do anything other than give North Korean leader Kim Jong Il a good laugh. He likes his liquor, as is well known, and he certainly has an appetite for Western luxury goods. But we can't imagine that this measure isn't going to stop him from appreciating—or attaining—such items.

But the list of proposed U.S. penalties, obtained by The Associated Press, aims to make Kim's swanky life harder: No more cognac, Rolex watches, cigarettes, artwork, expensive cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles, even personal watercraft such as Jet Skis.The population in North Korea, one of the world's most isolated economies, is impoverished and routinely suffers food shortages. The new trade ban would forbid U.S. shipments there of Rolexes, French cognac, plasma TVs, yachts and more, all items favored by Kim but unattainable by most anybody else."It's a new concept. It's kind of creative," said William Reinsch, a former senior Commerce Department official who oversaw trade restrictions with North Korea under President Bill Clinton.
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