text: Tags: foreign affairs, north korea, piracy, terrorism, united states
  
  Out of all the news about pirates last week, the most intriguing tidbit featured an unlikely combination of nations: In Somali waters, the United States Navy came to the aid of a North Korean vessel (and then airlifted the wounded to Yemen, the site of the 2000 terror attack on the destroyer U.S.S. Cole.)
  
  The Navy considered it all in a day’s “maritime security operations,” but the government in Pyongyang was not about to let the good deed go without acknowledgment, as the secretive government has done with so many other things over the years.
  
  Through its official news agency, North Korea said today, “We feel grateful to the United States for its assistance given to our crewmen.”
  
  If that wasn’t odd enough, the statement goes on to hail the incident as a “symbol of cooperation” between two nations “in the struggle against terrorism,” according to The Associated Press. That’s right, the leader of the war on terrorism and a member of the Axis of Evil, working together at last.
  
  Granted, North Korea’s words didn’t sound as warm as anything in the Thank You section of your local Hallmark store, but that shouldn’t be surprising. As a quick scan of a few other headlines from the Korean Central News Agency shows, sentiment is not their strong suit.
  
  Still, it was one of several signs of warming between the two longtime antagonists, now that North Korea is dismantling its nuclear program on schedule and the New York Philharmonic is considering an invitation to play in the capital.
  
  Not that North Korea has ceased to be an enormous worry, despite recent developments. South Korean officials stressed during Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates’ visit to Seoul on Thursday that the North, with its immense army and prickly world view, was still a threat to its neighbors.
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