Dear Jong-il, sorry, but George is in a hurry
It may not have been a White House Christmas card, but the unprecedented letter sent this week from US President George W. Bush to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is still significant.
It indicates both Mr Bush's deepening desire for action on the North Korean front in the twilight of his troubled two-term, as well his new faith in Clintonesque-style engagement, long sneered at by his Republican supporters.
Mr Bush addressed the letter 'Dear Mr Chairman' and signed it, 'Sincerely'.
It was a far cry from the 'Axis of Evil' rhetoric that marked the early days of his presidency.
Then, Mr Kim was a 'dangerous man' and a 'tyrant', the head of 'an oppressive regime whose people live in fear and starvation'.
North Korea had its own choice descriptions in those days, including one favoured reference to Mr Bush as a 'half-baked man'. This time, however, Pyongyang also curbed its more bellicose instincts. The Korean Central News Agency confirmed that Mr Kim had received the letter, but avoided further comment.
Such an exchange is hardly standard for this White House. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got a dismissive response to a long letter he sent to Mr Bush in May, for example.
But the latest postbox diplomacy comes at what Mr Bush described in the letter as a 'critical juncture'. The end-of-year deadline is looming for Pyongyang to declare the extent of its nuclear programmes and stockpiles - a key intermediate step in the implementation of the February six-nation deal on a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.
The move follows Pyongyang shutting its key nuclear reactors at Yongbyon - a site visited by the US State Department's envoy on North Korea, Christopher Hill, before he delivered the letter. Once the declaration is made, the North must then verifiably dismantle its weapons and programme.
This in turn will bring the glittering prize of the document - a formal peace deal ending the Korean war and the prospect of normal diplomatic ties with its enemies, South Korea, Japan and the United States.
Diplomatic sources are expecting hiccups along the way, and warn the deadline may be missed given Pyongyang's habitual prickliness and back-sliding in even minor negotiations. Yet many are still struck by the progress this year and express a highly cautious optimism going into next year, even as they wonder whether North Korea is really intending to confirm - and then disable - the full extent of its nuclear stockpiles.
One of the greatest nagging doubts is figuring out exactly what North Korea wants in the long term, beyond the survival of the world's last Stalinist hermit state. No one is expecting Mr Kim to spell it out by return mail any time soon.
The reverence and respect that surrounded the 80th birthday on Wednesday of Thailand's revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, also leads to a vexing question - how will Thais one day cope without him? The issue of succession is not openly discussed in Thailand, yet it still occupies many minds.
King Bhumibol's moral authority has been forged during 61 years on the throne, making him the world's longest-serving constitutional monarch. Many Thais cannot imagine life without him, given the fact that his reign has been the one constant in a country that has struggled for political stability.
King Bhumibol is expected to be succeeded by Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, under royal laws dating back to the 1920s that set the male line.
The prince, King Bhumibol's and Queen Sirikit's only son, has previously acknowledged the scale of the task he faces.
Several well-placed Thai analysts have noted previously that the king's moral authority is not a hereditary right and is not simply transferred with the throne.
It must, they say, be earned.
