North Korea

Portugal put on the most dominant performance of the World Cup, routing North Korea 7-0 on Monday in Cape Town. Simao Sabrosa, Hugo Almeida and Tiago scored over an eight-minute span in the second half, after Raul Meireles' 29th-minute goal gave Portugal the lead. Liedson added another in the 81st. Cristiano Ronaldo ended his goalless streak in the 87th minute, and Tiago added his second goal two minutes later. Ronaldo had not scored for his nation in a non-friendly match since the 2008 European Championship.

BEIJING — He is the new public face of North Korea: Jong Tae-se is a 26-year-old publicity hound with his own blog, where he strikes a sultry, bare-chested pose. He has appeared in television commercials. He drives a silver Hummer and likes to dress like hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur. When he goes on the road, he travels with a laptop, iPod and sometimes a Nintendo DS and a Sony PlayStation Portable. Jong is the star striker of North Korea's 2010 World Cup team. That makes him at this particular moment the most recognizable living North Korean, with the possible exception of the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il. This is the first time North Korea has qualified for the World Cup since 1966.

I write in reply to your editorial, "A new security plan" (May 29). You praise President Obama's security strategy that calls for diplomacy first as a triumph of common sense. You say Republicans will no doubt jump on the Obama strategy. Leaving the Republicans out, I believe President Obama, despite his grandiloquence in favor of diplomacy over war, knows little about the age old art of negotiating. He has ordered far more drone attacks in Pakistan against terrorists breeding in that country's tribal areas than his predecessor, President Bush.

S tuck in the 19th Century, Many Governmental Institutions, Practices Harm U.S. Many politicians and other Americans proudly and loudly carry the banner of "change." While important policy changes can occur, deep change in many governmental institutions and practices is about as alien to modern America as democracy is to Iran or North Korea. One might respond that the U.S. is an open society and leader in global innovation. True. In science, technology and business, we are great at change.

In 1979, a science and technology agreement between the United States and China paved the way for bilateral scientific cooperation that continues to benefit American science and society more broadly. Now, science diplomacy may help America open a door toward improved relations with Pyongyang, too. In December, six Americans representing leading scientific organizations sat down with their North Korean counterparts. The meeting took place on the heels of U.S. Special Envoy Stephen Bosworth's first official bilateral meeting with North Korea.

North and South Korea exchanged artillery fire along their disputed western sea border today, two days after the North designated no-sail zones in the area, the military and news reports said. North Korea fired several rounds of land-based artillery off its coast, an officer at the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said. The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said no casualities or damage were immediately reported. South Korea, in response, immediately fired warning shots from a marine base on an island near the sea border, according to Seoul's Yonhap news agency.

N one are so old, Thoreau once wrote, as those who have outlived their enthusiasms. By that standard, Sgt. Maj. Raymond Moran, the most chronologically advanced recruiter in the Army Reserve, might well also be its most youthful. "This isn't work; it's a labor of love," says Moran, a beloved figure at Fort Meade who is embarking on his 60th year of doing what he loves most: finding prospects for the Army, then putting his cheerful personality to work guiding their careers.

When President Barack Obama was named winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize in October, the country was in the midst of two foreign wars, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, threats of nuclear proliferation from North Korea and Iran and the specter of catastrophic global climate change. Nothing that has happened in the two months since has fundamentally altered that picture. Thus, the sight of President Obama accepting his award in Norway on Thursday was, on one level, fraught with irony.