yes, the asian root, the stuff you drink in tea or take a tablet, traditionally thought to have healing properties and to cure sexual dysfunction. the north koreans wanted to settle a $10 million check by giving the czechs $500,000 worth of the stuff. that is about 20 tons of ginseng. and the czechs only use about a ton and a half every year. so they said no deal. it's a funny story, but as with all things north korean, there is a more serious and sad side. the nation is a complete economic failure. it cannot even feed its own people. the reason north korea wanted to settle up in ginseng seems quite obvious. they don't have cash, and they didn't want to spend what little they have on a decades-old debt. and the debt to the czechs was just a fraction, a fraction of the country's entire debt. the cia says that north korea's outstanding debt was $12 billion in 2001. that's when they seem to have