1. But now, in an age of cultural shrillness and unrestrained rumor-mongering on the Internet, these three questions are finding new adherents.

2. The shrillness may disguise disagreement in Pyongyang about how to deal with Mr Lee and Mr Obama.

3. The North's shrillness may also be an attempt to undermine the South as the North seeks a warming of relations with America as part of the talks over nuclear weapons.

4. It is an effective and proven way to restore high frequency speech and environmental sounds without undesirable artifacts or a perception of shrillness or tinniness.

5. IT CANNOT be said that it failed to warn them, for this week its propaganda organs reached a note of shrillness unusual even by North Korean standards.