he bled to death as the world looked on. Ultimately, it wasn't the Cold War nuclear sabre rattling and doomsday rhetoric which precipitated the end of the Cold War, and to fundamental political change, it was the intolerable and systematic abuse of human rights, and the killing of boys like Peter, which led populations to rise up and pull down the check points and walls. Mr.Pak Kil-yon is the first North Korean Minister to address the General Assembly since Kim Jong-un came to power after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, last December. The speech was full of invective and rhetoric -- with the time-honoured anti-American tirade and far-fetched claim that the US is planning a new war on the Peninsula. Special hatred was reserved for the South Korean government of Lee Myung-bak with the comment, "History will bring them to justice". Notwithstanding Lee's dismal record Pak's is a comment which also has particular application to those who shoot their own citizens. How will history judge them? Pak's doomsday speech was a missed opportunity to move on from threats, blackmail and bluster -- made all the more sad because Mr.Pak could have told the General Assembly about some of the opportunities which offer the North the chance for peaceful change. Mr.Pak should have highlighted the new economic reforms which his country has announced -- two welcome joint economic zones with China, brokered by Kim Jong-Un's uncle, Jang Song-taek. Hwanggumphyong and Wihwado Economic Zone and the Rason Economic Trade Zone