SEOUL, South Korea – It must be one of the biggest growth industries here – North Korea-watching, or “Kim-ology” as I like to describe it. The army of Seoul-based journalists, analysts, diplomats and spooks trying to make sense of what’s happening the other side of the world’s most heavily fortified border.

Qualifications for joining this fraternity include a keen sense of the absurd, an (often) vivid imagination and a sense of humor.

It is also one of those rare occupations where it is impossible to be entirely wrong – or at least proven wrong, since the North is so secretive, so closed, that nobody outside (and most of those inside) really knows what’s going on in the mind of its reclusive leader. So the room to speculate on the basis of scant information (or disinformation) is enormous.

Hard to separate fact from fevered speculation
This week the Kim-ologists have been working overtime, as the Workers Party gathers in Pyongyang for its most important meeting in 30 years to rubberstamp leadership changes. The meeting was delayed, which Kim-ologists speculated was a result of heavy rain and flooding delaying the members arrival in the capital, or possibly the poor health of the Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il.

Nobody really knows.

In fact there is not much that we really do know. It’s hard to separate fact from fevered speculation. But here goes.

The Dear Leader’s youngest son, Kim Jong-Un has been appointed as a four-star general, and to the Workers’ Party’s Central Committee. Other family members have been promoted. We know all that, because it has been formally announced in the North.

The assumption is that Kim the senior wants to keep the job of running the country in the family for a third generation (Kim Jong Il took over from his father Kim Il Sung, the founder of the communist dynasty).

SLIDESHOW: The life of Kim Jong Il

We also think Kim Jong Il is sick, because he looks pretty rough in recent video. Precisely what’s wrong with him is a matter of speculation, but he’s thought to have suffered two strokes and to have diabetes.

How long does he have to live? The more imaginative Kim-ologists have already killed him off, and think we are being duped by a body double.

What of Kim the junior? We think he was educated in Switzerland under a false name (but forget about getting any real information out of the Swiss! Just look at their banks. Why do you think he was sent to school there in the first place?) Some photographs are circulating showing a chubby-faced youth (just like his dad, the caption often reads!), though their authenticity has been questioned.

INTERACTIVE: North Korea leadership succession

He is “about” 28, but nobody knows for sure, and he is the youngest of the three Kim sons we know about. As for his temperament, he’s variously been described as a fun-loving fan of American basketball, and a vindictive child – a “chip off the old block.”

Those who follow the North Korean media say that until this week there has been no mention of him at all, and even the announcements of his new roles failed to identify him as the Dear Leader’s son.

Some analysts writing in South Korean newspapers have claimed he is already acting as a personal assistant to his father, handling all the old man’s documents. Others describe him as a spoiled neophyte lacking any government experience whatever.

Word of week: ‘reportedly’
The most overused word this week has been “reportedly.” It’s a wonderful cop-out. It saves the writer from even having to properly source the information (or speculation).

The question for the United States is what it all means for regional tension and for handling this nuclear-armed state, which was recently blamed for torpedoing a South Korean patrol boat, killing 46 sailors.

Again we have wildly differing views from the Kim-ologists:

– One is that a continuation of the Kim dynasty will at least provide stability and stop the impoverished country from falling apart.

– Two is that it will fall apart, since young Kim’s elevation is a recipe for instability, especially if he follows the same failed economic policies as his dad. And if the Dear Leader dies soon, the army and other old guard members may try and push him aside, on the basis that he is nothing but a brand name.

– And three is that there will be an almighty power struggle within the Kim family itself.

I apologize if this blog is strong on intrigue and weak on facts. I really wish there were some facts. If it leaves you unsure of what is happening in the North, then you too are free to speculate!

By Maria Alcon, NBC News Producer

COPIAPO, Chile – During the morning drive to the San Jose Mine in Copiapo, Chile, it feels like you are driving on the moon.

For 40 minutes there is nothing but sand dunes and rocks all around you and a mist that makes for almost zero visibility. You can’t help but get the feeling you are driving to the end of the earth.

But you know you’re getting close when you pass two checkpoints to the mine. The spot where 33 miners are trapped deep below the earth’s surface is heavily guarded by police who only allow family members, press and those involved in the rescue effort.

Then, out of the rock, life suddenly takes form. “Camp Esperanza,” or “Camp Hope” as the families have coined it, is a beehive of family tents outside the mine.

There is one big communal tent for meals where the families can get food three times a day and snacks. Some journalists join in, too, since there is no place else to buy food within a 30-mile radius.

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Dreaming about kisses and hugs
Lila Ramirez’s tent is the first one you see. She’s often sitting on a folding chair around a campfire surrounded by her grandchildren.

“I’m exhausted,” she says. Ramirez has been living in a tent for almost two months waiting for her husband, Mario Gomez, to emerge. At 63 years old, he is the oldest of the trapped miners.

“I dream about the kiss and embrace I am going to give him.” She says that’s what keeps her going.

She sits across from the brother of Luis Urzua, the miner’s foreman who has been hailed as a hero for organizing the other miners and ensuring their survival.

Of course, the relatives of the trapped miners who have been waiting to see their loved ones for nearly two months are all practically family now.

Elizabeth Segovia, sister of trapped miner Dario Segovia, was working hard to get her fire going. She wanted to cook dinner for her family – some meat and corn.

“It keeps me busy and not thinking about it,” she said as she fanned the flames.

Maria Alcon/ NBC News

The lonely road to the San Jose Mine in Copiapo, Chile

A day in the life of the trapped Chilean miners

‘A little happiness’
The conditions at the mine are no better than a rudimentary campsite. Two portable toilets service about 100 people on the camp.

The clearing of rock continues, so trucks loaded with rubble spread the dust throughout the camp and you feel it breathing in. Families wash their clothes in buckets and hang them on clotheslines near their tents. A few lucky journalists are living in campers, the ultimate luxury here.

There’s also a clown, Rolando Gonzales or “Rolly” as the children call him. He organizes face painting activities and games for the kids. “The little ones need a little happiness,” he said and if he can help he’ll do just that. When he’s not clowning around, he is a miner, too.

The police do their part as well, giving children motorcycle and horse rides to keep them occupied.

The kids could use the entertainment – there is really nothing else at the camp except a couple of toys their families brought with them.

Trapped Underground: Learn more about the Chilean miners who have been trapped underground since Aug. 5

Many of the families prefer a little more privacy, away from the constant onslaught of media, and have taken refuge at a camp up a hill, protected by police, where no journalist can enter. Every afternoon they get bused up to the entrance of the mine so they can talk to the miners via fiber link or send them letters.

“They only get a few minutes because too much contact can also be bad for the miners’ mental health,” said Alberto Iturra Benavides, the rescue effort’s lead psychiatrist, who is treating the families and the miners every day.
Iturra said these men have survived the worst – and now that they can hear the rescue efforts above, feel hopeful that the end of their subterranean prison is approaching.

“There are ups and downs,” he said. “Some are worried about their kids, others are just exhausted.” But he is in awe of these men who have survived one of the worst situations imaginable and have still remained optimistic.

“They are very organized, they seek positive solutions,” said Iturra. “I believe they are going to emerge changed men. Men who appreciate life much more – who appreciate food, water and human contact more than they ever did before.”

Natalie Morales/ NBC News

One way in, one way out: The small entrance to the San Jose Mine in Copiapo, Chile

Families will emerge changed too. Ramirez said she will never allow her husband to go into a mine again. That will not be a problem since the miners have been hailed as national heroes and have gotten thousands of job offers around the country already.

At the camp, there is optimism that the rescue is near. Mid-October is what the families say, not November as the government had earlier told the media.

So the families are waiting hopefully, alongside journalists, for word that soon “Los 33” or “the 33” will be brought to the surface alive and well.

SLIDESHOW: Chilean mine collapse

By Martin Fletcher, NBC News Correspondent

I hadn’t even begun my trek down Israel’s coast and already it looked like I was going to get arrested.

At Rosh Hankikrah, by the metal gate that marks Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, an elderly man saw me writing notes and complained to the border guards.

I heard him say in Hebrew, “He’s writing!”

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“So what?” the female soldier said.

“Hoo lo ached mi shelanu,” the man said angrily. It means, “He isn’t one of us.” In other words, he isn’t a Jew, therefore he may be the enemy, and he could be recording our border secrets.

She looked at me, in my shorts, hat, with a backpack, and went to consult with her officer.

I thought, what a great beginning for a book on Israel – arrested for writing. I almost hoped I’d be led away at gunpoint. I continued making notes, recording the drama as it unfolded.

The young soldier returned and said to the man, “He can write if he wants to. It’s a free country.”

I had to laugh. Perfect. The goal of my book was to look at Israel from a different perspective, not through the prism of conflict, which is pretty much the only way Israel is seen, but as a nation of extraordinary complexity, achievement and fascination. Israel is so often referred to as an apartheid state, a regional bully, an oppressor of its Arabs, and here was a sign of something else: A free country.

A complex place
The news from Israel comes largely from east of the Green Line – the 1967 border with the Palestinians – and it’s a story of the Jewish settlers, the army, occupation, conflict, the struggle for East Jerusalem. It sounds awful.

Yet if you look at Israel from a different north-south line, the coast, and then look east, you see an entirely different place.

Seventy percent of Israelis live in the coastal plain in relative harmony with their Arab countrymen. You don’t hear much about that because there isn’t much to report. The only time you do hear about Ashkelon, Tel Aviv, Netanya, Haifa, and Nahariya is when there are bombs or the rockets are landing.

Over the years I received many phone calls from friends of friends and viewers asking if it was safe to visit Israel. I always said yes. And a week after they landed they’d call again and say, “Wow, this is such a great place. I had no idea.” So I decided to write a book about that great place about which so many people have no idea.

This is not to minimize the terrible problems of Israelis and Palestinians and the urgent need to solve them. But the story of the country’s charm and fascination is overwhelmed by its fight for survival.

After reporting the news from Israel for a total of 35 years I wanted to slow down a bit, take a leisurely stroll along the beautiful coastline, and view Israel from a fresh perspective.

Some journey
It was a fascinating journey: the worried old man trying to defend his country; the Israeli Arabs in Acre and Haifa living with the Jews yet always imagining a future without them; the man whose ideas saved Israel’s kibbutzim; the concerns of the young men about to join the army; the man who said being a prisoner-of-war in Syria was like a sanatorium after Auschwitz; the Jews from Arab countries, taking shelter from rockets fired from Gaza who said they could make peace with the Arabs in five minutes, but meanwhile, it’s war to the death; and a host of others all helped build a more complete and accurate and nicer picture of Israel than the one typically portrayed.

As for the border guards, when I finally reached my goal, Israel’s southern border with Gaza, I took a few innocuous photos of Gaza city in the distance and was promptly detained by soldiers who deleted my pictures.

I thought: How apt, bookending my trek with trouble with the soldiers. By then I was too tired to care. After two weeks hiking the coast in the blazing sun, and with a year of follow-up research ahead of me, I was tired and happy, and took the bus home.

Martin Fletcher has reported from the Middle East and other points across the globe for NBC News for over 25 years. His new book, “Walking Israel – A Personal Search for the Soul of a Nation,” published by St. Martin’s Press, goes on sale this week.