Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON – America’s top leaders are clearly uncertain as to how to retaliate for North Korea’s latest long-range missile test without resorting to a military option. President Donald Trump pledged, “We will take care of it” but showed no sign of unleashing the “fire and fury” that he had […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON — U.S. and South Korean warplanes will be crisscrossing the skies above and around South Korea early next month in the biggest show of allied force against the North so far. U.S. President Donald Trump and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-In agreed on the need to stage the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The U.S. has opened a bold new assault on North Korea’s nuclear-and-missile program with a one-two punch designating the North as a “state sponsor of terror” and then imposing new sanctions. Analysts doubt if these measures will result in immediate capitulation of the regime of Kim Jong-Un to give […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk SEOUL — The aftershock of the great Pohang earthquake in South Korea has been dramatic, intense, and controversial. That’s a reference to the abrupt cancellation of the greatest event in the lives of thousands of Korean high school students, namely the examination that all of them have to take, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk At least Donald Trump gave it a shot. He really wanted to make it up to Panmunjom but was turned back by the weather. For most visitors, the fog that hung over the line between North and South Korea would not have been too much for a beautiful U.S. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk President Donald Trump faces obstacles when he gets to Seoul next week that have nothing to do with unruly mobs trying to shout loudly enough over mega-loudspeakers for him to hear them across rows of policemen in body armor. No doubt Trump’s handlers will come up with the proper […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk TOKYO ― The overwhelming success of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the latest elections for members of the Japanese “Diet” ― the peculiar word for Japan’s parliament or national assembly ― portends hardening of tensions and priorities in Northeast Asia. Yes, Abe would dearly like to revise Japan’s post-war […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The line-up of warplanes on display beside the runway at Seoul Air Base has got to be intimidating. The sight of the latest American F35s and F22s along with all those South Korean fighters may frighten anyone contemplating war on the Korean Peninsula. They’re parked near spacious exhibition halls […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk Donald Trump at times engages in such flights of rhetorical fancy that a lot of people think he’s crazy or anyway unpredictable. How can you be sure of a president who talks about destroying North Korea, who holds out “the military option” ― but professes to want to avoid […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk SEOUL —South Korea’s outspoken radicals and leftists can hardly hide their dismay. To the consternation of organizers of the candlelight crusade that brought down the government of the conservative Park Geun-Hye, ousted and jailed on a wide range of offenses, their one-time hero, Moon Jae-In, elected president as Park’s […]
