North Korea Blocks US on Journalists

North Korea's detention and imprisonment of three foreigners is adding to a pattern of increasingly belligerent behavior since dictator Kim Jong Il's recovery from a stroke-like illness last October, observers say. Since then, North Korea has launched a missile, pulled out of six-nation aid-for-disarmament talks, kicked out international weapons inspectors and said it may again test a nuclear weapon, something it first did in 2006. North Korea's treatment of the three detainees violates international human-rights practices, but news coverage of their situation has been overshadowed by the diplomatic fallout from Pyongyang's April 5 missile launch.