News: No iPods in North Korea

We just couldn’t help ourselves. News has been circulating around the Internet that the United States government has banned the sale of “luxury items” to North Korea in an effort to annoy Kim Jong Il.

The list of items, which rivals the list of Oprah’s Favorite Things, includes iPods, plasma TVs, and Segway scooters. What is fascinating is that the iPod is at the top of the list and even in the AP article’s headline. Other items proposed to be banned from export include cognac, Rolexes, cigarettes, artwork, expensive cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles, and personal watercraft.

Furthermore, there is no word whether or not various third-party vendors or even places such as eBay could allow “banned” items to travel across the Pacific.

Senior Commerce Department official William Reinsch states what almost everyone is thinking:

“The problem is there has always been and will always be this group of people who work at getting these goods illegally. [Small electronics, such as iPods or laptops, are] untraceable and available all over the place.”

The whole situation sounds rather amusing since many American high school students have iPods, yet Kim Jong Il can’t officially rock out to Frankie Goes to Hollywood.