Kim Jong-il's 'useful idiots' in the West By David Scofield The term "useful idiots" has been widely used over the years to describe apologists from Western democracies who could be counted upon to offer slavish praise despite obvious evidence of the egregious system they supported. During Joseph Stalin's reign of terror there was the infamous Walter Duranty, a correspondent for the New York Times who in 1932 won the Pulitzer Prize for his glowing prose praising Stalin and the communist utopia he was building. Duranty chose to ignore the malice of the regime, the brutality of Stalin's forces and the...