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NPR's Ted Clark reports on the implications of Secretary of State Madeline Albright's planned trip to North Korea on Sunday. It is the latest indication that years of hostility and tension between Washington and Pyongyang are coming to an end. Fifty years ago yesterday, U.S. forces, under the auspices of the United Nations, briefly took control of the North Korean capital in a bloody three-year conflict that was a direct outgrowth of World War Two and Cold War attitudes.

A federal court judge in Portland, Maine has issued a temporary injunction, preventing the state of Maine from carrying a new law intended to lower prescription drug prices. The drug industry sought the injunction, claiming that the law was unconstitutional because it attempts to force companies to negotiate discounts on drugs. The state has not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling. Charlotte Renner of Maine Public Radio reports.

Internet toy seller E-Toys was supposed to be one of the e-commerce companies with a shot at becoming a retail powerhouse. It had a top-rated Web site, a vast selection of high-end toys and excellent customer service. But as NPR's Elaine Korry reports, E-Toys is having a miserable holiday season. Sales are running way below expectations, cash is running short, and the company is unlikely to survive without a merger or a major sell-off of assets.

NPR's Steve Inskeep reports on President-Elect George W. Bush's trip to Washington. Yesterday, he met at the capitol with leaders of both parties from the House and Senate. Bush says he still plans to send an education reform bill to Congress after he takes office, and he will also pursue a large tax cut, though some Republican leaders seem wary of it.

Host Bob Edwards talks with Joe Stephens, investigative reporter for the Washington Post, about the paper's series called The Body Hunters. The series is exploring how US pharmaceutical companies are taking their research and development programs abroad. This way of doing business is not illegal, but there are ethical questions as companies seek cheaper and less stringent regulatory markets to do what they can't do in the US.

David Kestenbaum reports on astronomers plans to deal with some future climate changes. A billion years from now the sun will swell and grow brighter as it burns more fuel. By nudging an asteroid into close passes with the earth, they say it would be possible to move our planet into a cooler, more distant orbit. That would buy us a five billion years to figure out what happens when the sun becomes a red giant and engulfs us.

NPR's Peter Kenyon reports on the latest findings by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights regarding the voting problems that occurred in Florida during last year's election. The Commission announced that it would be monitoring the Florida legislature to see what reforms come out of Tallahassee. In the meantime, there will be hearings held in Florida this spring to see if any change has been implemented since last fall's debacle.

Brooke Gladstone, co-host of the NPR program On the Media, reports on the national fascination with DVD players -- the DVD has penetrated the market twice as fast as the CD and almost three times faster than the VCR. The high-quality image and sound of the DVD allow home viewers to enjoy an experience much closer to the filmmaker's original vision -- special features include parts of the original film that were left out, background comments from the director or editor -- and all this is changing the average movie-goer.

NPR's Eric Weiner reports that women in Japan gradually are taking jobs as sushi chefs, something that used to be exclusively the province of men. But most of Japan's more than 30,000 sushi restaurants still refuse to hire women, and many men refuse to eat sushi that a woman has prepared. Men often believe that women have a higher body temperature and other physiological differences that make them unsuitable to prepare something as delicate as sushi.

NPR's Sarah Chayes reports French voters will cast ballots this month for mayors and city councilors under a new law requiring political parties to field equal numbers of male and female candidates. The idea of mandating gender parity on party lists originally met resistance. The French public, however, has now embraced the idea enthusiastically. Until now, France has had the lowest rate of participation in politics of any European Union nation.