North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un starts 2016 with a bang

North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un starts 2016 with a bang

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Not one week into the New Year, the North Koreans jolted global concerns as well as the Richter scale with a nuclear weapons test. While the underground blast shook the remote Punggye-ri region near the Russian border, the political reverberations of the bomb have been […]

Analyst: N. Korea saw Iran ‘gaming the system’, energized by Obama inaction after missile tests

Analyst: N. Korea saw Iran ‘gaming the system’, energized by Obama inaction after missile tests

Special to WorldTribune.com North Korea conducted another nuclear test after recognizing how Iran was “gaming the system” in the nuclear deal pushed by U.S. President Barack Obama, an analyst said. The Kim Jong-Un regime is continuing a tradition of information- and technology-sharing between North Korea and Iran and using it to “outwit” the U.S. and […]

Stephen Bosworth, ‘consummate diplomat’ brought his values to the table

Stephen Bosworth, ‘consummate diplomat’ brought his values to the table

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com American ambassadors to South Korea pursue a fine line between defense of the U.S.-Korean alliance and pursuit of North-South reconciliation. If they seem hell-bent on military goals, they’re accused of trying to push Korea into a war that nobody wants. And if they appear overly eager for talks, […]

Sayonara: Japan’s aging population, low birth rate leaves vacant properties

Sayonara: Japan’s aging population, low birth rate leaves vacant properties

Special to WorldTribune.com A surge in the number of abandoned homes in Japan has been attributed to the country’s aging population and low rate of births. According to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook, Japan’s death rate (the deaths during a year per 1,000 population) ranks 54th out of 225 countries. Japan also has the third-lowest recorded […]

2016: Light vs darkness, time to solve Syria, opportunity in Latin America, rising China threat

2016: Light vs darkness, time to solve Syria, opportunity in Latin America, rising China threat

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler NEW YORK — It’s time to consult the crystal snow globe for a look at both the likely and unexpected events which will shape the New Year. Serious strife both in the Middle East, and Africa to a lesser extent, have expanded leading to a culture of conflict […]

Best of Lev, 2012: China demonstrating will to dominate as West loses the will to resist

Best of Lev, 2012:  China demonstrating will to dominate as West loses the will to resist

Lev Navrozov From Moscow, the capital of the slave country founded in 1917, I came to New York, to the 21st floor of a skyscraper. The owners of the slave country had created their radio and television and even their own art and philosophy — in short, they created a new culture, with inevitable shortcomings. […]

Best of Lev: China demonstrating the will to dominate; West losing the will to resist

Best of Lev: China demonstrating the will to dominate; West losing the will to resist

Lev Navrozov, May 18, 2012 Lev Navrozov emigrated from the Soviet Union with his family in 1972. He so cherished the freedom of press he found here that he dedicated his remaining years to alerting otherwise-oblivious Americans to the global context of news. From Moscow, the capital of the slave country founded in 1917, I […]

Best of Lev: A school fable, recalled after election of 44th U.S. president

Best of Lev: A school fable, recalled after election of 44th U.S. president

THE BEST OF LEV NAVROZOV Lev Navrozov,Nov. 12, 2008 Lev Navrozov emigrated from the Soviet Union with his family in 1972. He so cherished the freedom of press he found here that he dedicated his remaining years to alerting otherwise-oblivious Americans to the global context of news. The following column was published Nov. 12, 2008. […]

The geopolitics of African resources: China plotting to tap them in new, ‘de-Americanized world’

The geopolitics of African resources: China plotting to tap them in new, ‘de-Americanized world’

Special to WorldTribune.com GIS/Defense & Foreign Affairs People’s Republic of China (PRC) officials are becoming increasingly apprehensive about the rise in the use of the westward corridor to export oil, diamonds, and rare minerals out of South Sudan and the Central African Republic via Cameroon. In other words, this creates a flow to Atlantic sea […]

Turkey’s missile defense deal with notorious ‘China Precision Machinery’ worries U.S.

Turkey’s missile defense deal with notorious ‘China Precision Machinery’ worries U.S.

Special to WorldTribune.com East-Asia-Intel.com The U.S. government has sent NATO ally Turkey a message expressing “serious concerns” over Ankara’s decision to choose a Chinese state-run weapons firm to co-produce an air and missile defense system known as the Red Flag-9 or HQ-9. China is still under sanctions by the U.S. and most European Union nations. […]