Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk In the excitement over impending summits, we may have forgotten one other solution everyone was talking about, oh, just a month or two ago. Whatever happened to all the enthusiasm for forcing Kim Jong-Un out of his job by internal upheaval, external attack, or maybe just a plain old […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk SEOUL — U.S. President Donald Trump is putting the best face on the agreement for North and South Korean leaders to meet next month at the truce village of Panmunjom, on the North-South line 55 kilometers north of Seoul for the third inter-Korean summit. Despite pervasive doubts about North […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk SEOUL — Whenever experts talk about “confederation” or “reunification” between North and South Korea, they overlook the fate of tens of thousands of people confined to prison camps in the North for offenses that might threaten the regime. Examples of such “crimes” include Christian worship, possession of a bible […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk PYEONGCHANG ― Now I know firsthand what they’re talking about when they say the Russians are tricky. Yes, they’ve gotten into American and other websites, tried to sway the U.S. presidential election and are not to be trusted, but those were media reports. In an era of fake news, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk U.S. officials remain deeply skeptical of North Korea’s intentions while South Korea’s President Moon Jae-In seeks to build on the momentum toward negotiations in the aftermath of the Winter Olympics. The White House is awaiting a firm signal directly from Pyongyang about the prospects for talks while wondering about […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Ivanka Trump’s upcoming weekend in South Korea is sure to set off another round of intense speculation while the vice chairman of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party leads a delegation south at just about the same time. The big question is whether the presidential daughter […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The strange case of NBC sports commentator Joshua Cooper Ramo touched the sensitive nerves of millions of Koreans. Thousands responded with indignation, aggrieved feelings, even outrage to his on-air remark at the Winter Olympics to the effect that “every Korean will tell you that Japan as a cultural and […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk American policy-makers appear highly uncertain and divided among themselves as to moves toward negotiation between North and South Korea in the wake of the Winter Olympics. The view from the White House, is that President Donald Trump has succeeded in forcing the hand of Kim Jong-Un, compelling him to […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk Mid-winter is not exactly the best time for mass demonstrations in South Korea. Protesters prefer to wait for spring, but the Winter Olympics leave them no choice. Flag-wavers are out there during the coldest ever Olympics, the rightists waving Korean and American flags, leftists and liberals those one-Korea flags, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk SEOUL — Don’t count on the Winter Olympics as the moment for rapprochement on the Korean peninsula. That message came through loud and clear in President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address. “Our new American moment,” as Trump called this turbulent time in U.S. history, does not […]
