When the going gets tough, the tough...well, go along. After denouncing the United Nations for decades, North Korea's xenophobic Communist government announced last week that it would apply for full membership in the organization--right behind South Korea. "As the South Korean authorities insist on their unilateral U.N. membership," the North Korean Foreign Ministry declared indignantly, "if we leave this alone, important issues related to the interest of the entire Korean nation will be dealt with in a biased manner on the U.N. rostrum."

Pyongyang's decision to join the U.N. is a glaring admission that its isolationist policy has been checkmated by Seoul's smooth cultivation of North Korea's main patrons, Moscow and Beijing. Anxious to extend burgeoning economic ties with capitalist--and prosperous--South Korea, neither the Soviet Union nor China is eager to oppose South Korea's application for U.N. membership, leaving North Korea little choice but to seek a seat as well.