What does one write as the final opinion piece for 2006? This year has seen so many big stories around the world. Asia-Pacific has had its fair share.

Forget APEC and Asean. They're just hubristic talk shops, ridiculous dress codes and photo ops. They are venues that create fanfare and images about which nobody cares.

Then there is North Korea. Its crackpot despot, Kim Jong Il is hell-bent on emptying what's left of his country's coffers while he drinks himself in stupid stupor and plunders North Korea's young women.

He'd rather let his people starve to death while he builds nuclear weapons, intent on destroying Japan, South Korea and the United States firm postwar allies, the latter two protectorates of Washington.