Machine tool gets hero treatment in N. Korea A lathe was awarded one of North Korea's highest civilian honors for operating at full capacity over half a century. By TechNewsDaily Who says that a country's heroes have to be human? North Korea has bucked the trend by recently awarding a lowly machine tool with some of the highest honors and titles it can bestow. The authoritarian Communist country's official news service announced that "Lathe No. 26" had received the title "labor hero of the DPRK" (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and the "First Class of the Order of National Flag."...