compare points problem on codeeval

gistfile1.txt

import sys

test_cases = open(sys.argv[1], 'r')

def north_south(src, dest):
    if src > dest:
        return "S"
    elif src < dest:
        return "N"
    else:
        return ""

def east_west(src, dest):
    if src > dest:
        return "W"
    elif src < dest:
        return "E"
    else:
        return ""

for test in test_cases:
#ignore if test is an empty line
    points = test.strip().split(' ')
    bob, viewpoint = (points[0], points[1]), (points[2], points[3])
    print (north_south(bob[0], viewpoint[0]) + east_west(bob[1], viewpoint[1])) or 'here'

test_cases.close()

I don't feel this is very Pythonic. I originally had the function defs lower in the file, but the program complained that it didn't know what 'north_south' was so clearly they aren't hoisted like in JS?

Also, the two functions are so similar they should be re-written to something DRYer.