As many as 26 U.S. and South Korean Web sites have been hit by thousands of zombified computers in the last two days, according to news agencies from both countries. Though the hackers responsible have not stepped forward, South Korea's intelligence service believes the widespread outages are the work of the North Korean government:

'This is not a simple attack by an individual hacker, but appears to be thoroughly planned and executed by a specific organization or on a state level,' the National Intelligence Service said in a statement, adding that it is cooperating with the American investigative authorities to investigate the attacks."

In addition to a handful of South Korean government agencies and private organizations, The New York Times claims denial-of-service attacks also affected Web sites maintained by the following:

... those of the White House, the State Department and the New York Stock Exchange ... The Treasury Department, Secret Service, Federal Trade Commission and Transportation Department Web sites were all down at varying points."

The implications of an attack on any country's economic infrastructure can be pretty dire. Corporations can expect as much as a five percent drop in their stock price following a cyberattack. 

Here's a quick preview of "Crossing Heaven's Border," the season premier of Wide Angle's first televised episode of the season, which airs on PBS tonight in the United States. You can learn more about this episode here or view more content from Wide Angle on Passport here:

North Korean defectors take a life-threatening journey traveling thousands of miles through China, Laos and Thailand, in the hope of settling as free citizens in South Korea. Intrepid South Korean journalists risk their own lives to capture the action and emotion.

During the past two weeks, diplomats and experts have continued to watch nervously as a U.S. destroyer has shadowed the North Korean transport ship Kang Nam 1. Now, the ship has apparently turned around -- and nobody in the U.S. defense establishment knows what to make of it.

U.S. officials said Tuesday that a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back toward the north where it came from, after being tracked for more than a week by American Navy vessels on suspicion of carrying illegal weapons.

The move keeps the U.S. and the rest of the international community guessing: Where is the Kang Nam going? Does its cargo include materials banned by a new U.N. anti-proliferation resolution?[...]

The U.N. resolution allows the international community to ask for permission to board and search any suspect ship on the seas. If permission for inspection is refused, authorities can ask for an inspection in whichever nation where the ship pulls into port.

North Korea has said it would consider any interception of its ships a declaration of war.

Two officials had said earlier in the day Tuesday that the Kang Nam had been moving very slowly in recent days, something that could signal it was trying to conserve fuel.

They said they didn't know what the turnaround of the ship means, nor what prompted it.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said Sunday that Washington was "following the progress of that ship very closely," but she would not say whether the U.S. would confront the Kang Nam.

Even before the unexpected reverse in course, some in Washington were beginning to doubt the whole operation:

Inside the White House, they are beginning to call it "The Cruise to Nowhere."

For more than two weeks now, White House officials have been receiving frequent updates on a rusting North Korean ship, the Kang Nam 1, as it makes its way dead-slow across the South China Sea. Earlier this month, Mr. Obama's aides thought the aging hulk - with its long rap sheet for surreptitious deliveries of missiles and arms - would be the first test of a United Nations Security Council resolution giving countries the right to hail suspect shipments, and order them to a nearby port for inspection.

But now some top officials in the Obama administration are beginning to wonder whether Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader, ordered the Kang Nam 1 out on a fishing expedition - in hopes that a new American president will be his first catch.

"The whole thing just doesn't add up," said one senior administration official who has been tracking the cargo ship's lazy summer journey. "My worry is that we make a big demand about seeing the cargo, and then there's a tense standoff, and when it's all over we discover that old man Kim set us up to look like George Bush searching for nonexistent W.M.D."

With this kind of "made-you-look" trickery, perhaps Kim Jong Il has been taking lessons from Lucy van Pelt.

KHIN MAUNG WIN/AFP/Getty Images

Reports surfaced yesterday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is under hospital care (again), after Kim's health took a turn for the worse last month. It's unclear whether he's been replaced by a body double, but suspicions run rampant:

In April NightWatch presented side-by-side images of Chubby Kim and Cadaverous Kim published by the North Koreans within a few days of each other. The latest image shows a man whose physiology is in-between the others, but whose left arm is straight down and never moves in the 66 second clip.  It might be Kim but only his handlers would know.

Kim's last public appearance took place in April. But prior to that, he had not been seen since August 2008, when many suspect he was hit by a stroke. Though a photo of him made the rounds shortly thereafter, the image is widely believed to have been doctored.

And apparently she's a music buff. A little North Korean Kremlinology from Nightwatch's John McCreary:

Yonhap also reported an infrequent sighting of Kim’s only sister, according to North Korean state media today. Kim Cho'ng-il was accompanied by his sister Kim Kyong-hui during an undated visit to a music school.

According to the state media, Kim Chong-il  "gave guidance" for the production of the Russian opera "Evgeni Onegin" at the Pyongyang Kim Won Gyun Conservatory, the report said. He was accompanied by Workers' Party "Secretary Kim Ki-nam and department directors Kim Kyong-hui, Chang Song-taek and Ch'oe Ik-kyu." [...]

According to Yonhap, Kim Kyong-hui, a department director in the Workers' Party, was last seen in a still photo of a parliamentary meeting in 2003. She has been photographed at significant events, such the funeral of her and Kim’s father, Kim Il Sung, in 1994 and at parliamentary sessions. She has never been photographed with her brother Kim Chong-il during one of his inspection tours.

Kim Kyong-hui is married to Chang Song-taek who was appointed to the National Defense Commission in April, for the first time. The National Defense Commission is the highest policy-making organization in the state, and is chaired by Kim Chong-il. The North Korean government is very much a family affair in that the family members of Kim Il-sung and his wives and his son and his wives and children all have jobs in the government. Plus their body guards and the families of their body guards also have jobs.

Jang (or Chang, depending on what style of transliteration you choose) Song-taek is a name that keeps popping up in analyses of the North Korean regime. He could emerge as the "man behind the curtain" if one of Kim Jong Il's sons takes formal power.

Earlier this year, Ken E. Gause wrote about all that we didn't know regarding North Korea's succession head-scratcher. And while media speculation over the outcome has been spinning since 2003, it wasn't until yesterday that Kim Jong-Il declared his third and youngest son, Kim Jong-Un, his future replacement.

North Koreans call him "Commander Kim," a small clue into the way Jong-Un, 26, might run the show. He enjoys a close relationship with the military, having attended Kim Il-Sung Military University before being appointed to the National Defense Commission. North Korea's recent missile and nuclear tests, experts say, is likely an attempt by the Dear Leader to consolidate the military's authority — and by extension, his son's.

But, says one report, while the succession issue seems to have been resolved, the announcement is a prime opportunity for Jang Song-Taek, the Dear Leader's brother-in-law:

Jang, who is married to Kim Jong Il's younger sister, was purged five years ago after being seen as a threat to Kim Jong Il's authority. But he was brought back ... to get a spot on the powerful National Defense Commission. Working in Kim Jong Woon's shadows, Jang could bide his time consolidating power and emerge as the country's next dictator, Choi and other analysts say: "This is political power," Choi says. "This is not something you share."

JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images

If you were the prime minister of Japan, what would be on your mind right now, given that North Korea had just tested a nuclear device that reportedly had the explosive power  of the bomb dropped on Nagasaki?

My guess is you'd be looking into the possibility of Japan's becoming a nuclear  power as soon as possible. Already, North Korea's ballistic missile tests had been unsettling folks in Tokyo. Hawks in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party have been questioning Japan's pacifistic constitution for years, and they are proposing that the Japanese military be allowed to launch pre-emptive strikes against North Korea.

"Japan should have the ability to strike enemy bases within the scope of its defence-oriented policy, in order not to sit and wait for death," an LDP committee's proposal reads.

This incident is, in a way, a political gift to Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, who has long taken a tough line on North Korea. He's bound to take advantage of the nuclear test to put some more distance between the LDP and the opposition Democratic Party, which has been steadily gaining strength ahead of general elections that are expected for later this year.

Japan going nuclear would not please the Chinese, and it could inspire Taiwan to revive its own nuclear dreams. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Kim Jong Il, the North Korean dictator, started another term in office today, after winning the country's election last month with 100 percent of votes.

It marked one of the few public appearances the Dear Leader's made since suffering a stroke. He appeared significantly thinner, his hair sparse on his head, moving arthritically. (Just months ago, the North Korean news agency released photos of him looking robust to counter rumors about his health.)

Reports note that Kim is likely preparing to pick which of his three sons will succeed him -- a transition which has the potential to end the communist state's isolationist foreign policy. The youngest son, Jong-un, around 25 years old, seems the likeliest candidate.

The middle son suffers from unnamed but allegedly debilitating diseases; the eldest became infamous when he attempted to sneak into Japan to visit Tokyo Disneyland with a fake passport. The New York Times writes:

In recent months, [the oldest son] has been in the news after speaking to Japanese reporters who spotted him at the Beijing airport and in Macao. When Japanese reporters spotted him on Tuesday in Macao, he was quoted as saying that he was “much worried about” regional tensions after the rocket launching last weekend.

“If I was a designated successor, I wouldn’t be here in Macao talking to you now,” he was quoted as saying when asked about his chances of succeeding his father.

 Photo: DPRK/KRT 

The successful satellite launch symbolic of the leaping advance made in the nation's space science and technology was conducted against the background of the stirring period when a high-pitched drive for bringing about a fresh great revolutionary surge is under way throughout the country to open the gate to a great prosperous and powerful nation without fail by 2012, the centenary of birth of President Kim Il Sung, under the far-reaching plan of General Secretary Kim Jong Il. This is powerfully encouraging the Korean people all out in the general advance.

While the sattelite is most likely somewhere under the Pacific now, KCNA is reporting that it's in orbit, transmitting a recording of the "Song of General Kim Il Sung" back to earth. Just in case you're wondering what that sounds like:

As North Korea moves toward its planned "satellite launch" in early April, Japan isn't the only country, that looks like it wants to be prepared to shoot the missile down. Noah Schachtman writes:

In what appears to be a response, the U.S. Navy is keeping a pair of destroyers in the East Sea, following joint exercises with the South Koreans. At least one of those ships, the USS John S. McCain, is capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.

The North Korean space launch vehicle, dubbed the Unha-2, is supposedly derived from the TaepoDong 2 (TD-2) missile. Pyongyang has been developing the thing since the 90s, but has never successfully shot one off. If that's right, it means the North Korean launcher is substantially bigger than the one Iran used. Tehran's Safir-2 has a mass of 26 tons. The Union of Concerned Scientists' David Wright thinks the TD-2 is more like 80 tons, more than three times the mass. (MIT's Geoffrey Forden comes up with a similar figure.)

If those estimates are on target, it means that a successful North Korean missile test could be much more destabilizing than the Iranian launch. Forden calculates it could send a "1000 kilogram warhead over the pole a distance of almost 12,000 kilometers," or 7,200 miles. The satellite the Iranians put in orbit was only 27 kilograms. And, of course, Kim Jong-Il already has nukes; the mullahs don't, yet.

As we've noted before, the British Foreign Offices's diplo-blogging experiment has, for the most part, been a resounding success. But all that might be undone by this post by Ambassador to North Korea Peter Hughes on the country's recent "election," which reads more like one of the Korean Central News Agency's floried dispatches. Here's a sample:

Spring seems to have arrived in Pyongyang, much the same as I suppose it has in Seoul. The weather during the weekend was relatively warm and sunny for the elections of  the 12th Supreme People's Assembly that took place on Sunday 8 March. There was a very festive atmosphere throughout the city. Many people were walking to or from the polling stations, or thronging the parks to have picnics or just stroll. Most of the ladies were dressed in the colourful traditional hanguk pokshik and the men in their best suits. Outside the central polling stations there were bands playing and people dancing and singing to entertain the queues of voters waiting patiently to select their representatives in the country's unicameral legislature. The booths selling drinks and snacks were very popular with the crowds and everyone seemed to be having a good time. The list of successful candidates was published on Monday. There was a reported turn-out of over 99% of the voters and all the candidates, including Kim Jong Il, were elected with 100% approval. In a few weeks time the Supreme People's Assembly will open for business which will include voting for the Chairman of the National Defence Committee (presently Kim Jong Il), and drawing up the budget for the coming financial year.

I don't mean to lecture the ambassador on the finer points of democratic politics, but 99 percent turnout is generally not considered a good thing. Looks like someone is hankering a slice of Kim's famous pizza.

The day's biggest news story is undoutedly the New York Times's bombshell about Barack Obama's planned grand bargain on missile defense and Iran with Russia. But the other Times reports an interesting development on missile defense in that other nuclear flashpoint, North Korea.

In a move that could have strategic implications for the whole northeast Asian region, the Japanese Government plans to dispatch naval destroyers equipped with anti-missile systems to the seas off North Korea, as the isolated dictatorship continues preparations for the launch of a rocket.

As long as the weapon passes through the atmosphere far above Japan, as seems to be the intention, the system will probably not be fired. But if the rocket malfunctions and threatens any of its islands, then Japan will become the first nation to use a long-range missile defence system in anger. [...]

If Japan tries and fails to take out a North Korean rocket, it will be an international humiliation and a crushing blow to the expensive missile defence programme, which is already expected to surpass its estimated cost of as much as $8.9 billion (£63 billion) by 2012. If it succeeds, it will rattle China, which already fears that the combined US-Japan missile defence effort will undermine its own limited nuclear deterrent.

It's likely that the system won't actually be deployed, but a real-world demonstration of a long-range anti-missile system would have implications for the missile defense debate in the United States as well.

It would be a lot harder for the Obama administration to continue to use the "effectiveness dodge" -- the argument that missile-defense systems should not be deployed because they cannot be proven effective -- if the Japanese are able to successfully shoot down a North Korean missile. On the other had, if the interceptors were to miss and Japan was embarrassed, it would actually make Obama's grand bargain a lot easier to pull off. 

Photo: U.S. Missile Defense Agency

NBC News reports on the status of Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs and the point man on U.S. negotiations with North Korea:

Hill said today that he has NOT been asked to stay on in an Obama administration. "I haven't talked to anybody about my future," he said in response to a reporter's question about a possible role in the diplomatic corps of the next president, adding wryly, "I do need to figure out what I'm going to do when I grow up." [...]

[Hill] spoke to reporters today in the wake of bad news for the U.S. in six-party talks, which suffered a major setback last week when North Korean negotiators refused to sign on to guidelines for a "verification protocol" that would open up north Korean nuclear facilities to intrusive inspections, including collecting and removing nuclear samples from the country.

Photo: FILE; FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images

François-Xavier Roux, the French doctor who treated North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, has confirmed that the country's Dear Leader did in fact suffer a stroke:

The doctor . . . told Le Figaro, the French daily: “Kim Jong-il suffered a stroke but did not undergo an operation. He is now better.”

Dr. Roux, a Paris-based neurosurgeon, added: “The photos that have just been published seem recent and authentic to me. I have the impression that he is in charge in North Korea. I can’t say more because of medical confidentiality and state secrecy.”

That was the easy part. It'll take a 007-level intelligence effort to find out who's been jockeying for Kim's position.

AFP/AFP/Getty Images