Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk From the outset, the idea of implanting a Star Wars weapon capable of zapping an enemy missile 150 kilometers above the earth’s surface had to be controversial. The real problem from the South Korean viewpoint initially was, what for ― what we really need are short and mid-range missiles […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The prospect of Park Geun-Hye going to jail in the most sweeping political scandal in modern Korean history inspires invidious comparisons. Who, actually, was the most corrupt president since promulgation of the “democracy constitution” in 1987 at the height of demonstrations as massive as those we have witnessed in […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The sight of the American Stars and Stripes among the Taegukgi held high by loyalists to Park Geun-Hye is a reminder of the historical depth of ties among mostly aging Koreans to the country that rescued the South from annihilation by North Korea and China in the Korean War. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, dispensing pledges like a jolly Santa Claus pulling Christmas presents from his sled, arrives today (Friday) in Seoul from Tokyo and flies the following day to Beijing. After vowing undying U.S. support to Korea and Japan, he’ll assure China that THAAD presents no […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk Following is the fifth excerpt from a book by WorldTribune and Geostrategy-Direct columnist Donald Kirk and the Korean author Kim Ki-Sam, “How South Korea’s Kim Dae-Jung bought his Peace Prize and financed Kim Jong-Il’s nuclear program”. While the governments of South Korea and the United States helped suppress publication […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk Suddenly the outlook for keeping the peace on the Korean peninsula has taken an alarming turn for the worse. We’ve long been accustomed to the threat of Korean War II, but now it’s looking like more than a scary mirage. China is up in arms over the arrival of […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk To the rest of the world North Korea is an enigma. No one knows what’s happening among the elite who govern the country. There’s no telling what people are really thinking and saying on the streets of Pyongyang and other cities, much less in remote regions. All we get […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk Following is an excerpt from a book by WorldTribune and Geostrategy-Direct columnist Donald Kirk and the Korean author Kim Ki-Sam, “How South Korea’s Kim Dae-Jung bought his Peace Prize and financed Kim Jong-Il’s nuclear program”. While the governments of South Korea and the United States helped suppress publication of […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The poisoning of the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un should make everyone painfully aware of a category of “weapons of mass destruction” that’s overlooked in the controversy over nuclear devices. In all the negotiations, recriminations, talk and double-talk about North Korea’s nuclear menace, little is said about […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The assassination of Kim Jong-Nam promises to go down as one of those weird acts of terrorism that North Korea, in the face of all evidence to the contrary, will forever deny having perpetrated. The prevarication and obfuscation in this case would appear a little more ornate than North […]
