The U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, confirms suspicions the Democratic People's Republic of Korea has engaged in a systematic program involving the hoarding of U.S. and European musical instruments over the past 15 months. In a phone interview with Department of Commerce spokesman Robert Miller he told us, "we began to notice an unusual amount of stringed instrument export activity — banjos initially, and mandolins are following suit — headed west on international flights out of airports like Seattle, L.A., Portland and San Francisco starting around mid-2014. - Greg GuitarBuster