duplicity - vocabulary

duplicity - noun

Deceitfulness in conduct or speech; speaking and acting in two different, opposing ways; a twofold or double quality or state.

Note: The adjective duplicitous describes someone who is given to deceitful conduct or speech; a person who is two-faced.

Since North Korea's inception as a totalitarian state in 1948, Pyongyang has had only two rulers—Kim Il Sung (installed by Stalin) and his son, Kim Jong Il, who took charge after his father's death in 1994. The junior Kim's record over the past dozen years is not one of reform, but of brutality, duplicity and blackmail.

—Claudia Rosett “Food for Nukes?” Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2006

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