Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, EastAsiaIntel.com The apparent leitmotif of this year’s meeting of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the top advisory body, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), consists of ways and means to resuscitate the Chinese economy. However, political issues – particularly differences among members of the Politburo Standing Committee […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas ― North Korea’s top gun will have to try harder if he expects his threats of another nuclear test will win serious consideration in a U.S. presidential election year. Driving through the American heartland, you hear hardly a thing about the latest threats from Pyongyang. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com An American tourist, accused of attempting to steal a propaganda poster from his hotel room, has been sentenced by a North Korean court to 15 years of hard labor. Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old University of Virginia student who was arrested while visiting the country in January, was sentenced on March 16 for […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Sol W. Sanders The U.S.’ confrontation with an increasingly powerful and incipiently aggressive China is getting much more complicated. There is no question of its high priority among the U.S.’ foreign policy issues. But were you a Chinese strategist attempting to measure an American opponent’s intentions, the contradictory U.S. positions might […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com Ho hum, here we go again. That seems to be the response to the latest rhetorical blasts from Pyongyang as U.S. and South Korean forces dive into their annual war games. A “preemptive nuclear strike”? Destruction of “bases of aggression”? Incineration of Seoul in “a sea of fire […]
Special to WorldTribune.com North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un said that North Korean scientists have miniaturized nuclear warheads in what is a “true nuclear deterrent” for the isolated country. The North Korean leader claimed the miniaturized warheads can be mounted on ballistic missiles and he has ordered the military to be prepared to launch pre-emptive attacks against […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council has tightened the economic sanctions noose on North Korea in response to the Pyongyang regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile proliferation. The fifteen member Council voted unanimously to slam a wide range of economic, scientific and trade bans on the reclusive communist […]
Special to WorldTribune.com A prominent Saudi cleric who is on Islamic State of Iraq and Levant’s (ISIL’s) hit list was shot and wounded in the Philippines on March 1. Sheikh Aaidh al-Qarni and Saudi diplomat Sheikh Turki Assaegh were both wounded in an assassination attempt as they left a university auditorium in the southern port […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com Listen to people talking about the panacea of “dialogue” and “a peace treaty” with North Korea. They make it seem so simple. We need to talk, they say. We’ll never come to terms with North Korea if we don’t talk. One advocate of dialogue put it this way […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Asian Pacific nations are spending big on “long overdue” military upgrades to counter the threat posed by China, according to a IHS Jane’s report. In 2015, nine of the 20 fastest-growing defense budgets were in the Asian Pacific, the report said. By 2020, total military spending in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region is […]
