Sol W. Sanders Perhaps more than Westerners, Chinese have a gambling streak. Even during the darkest hours of Maoist oppression and pretended Puritanism, Beijing tolerated gambling on its southern flank in the Portuguese colony of Macau. Now reincorporated into China, in 2012 the world’s largest casino, holding the country’s only legal gambling monopoly, raked […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com LONDON — There was a time when Korea was best known overseas for Samsung gadgetry and Hyundai cars. Now Korea is permeating the global consciousness in ways that would have seemed unlikely if not impossible two or three years ago. The latest proof positive is a New Year’s […]
Special to WorldTribune.com North Korea watchers in Seoul have been paying keen attention to a mystery man who was spotted beside North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un at a ceremony on Dec. 16 marking the first anniversary of his father Kim Jong-Il’s death. A senior South Korean government official said the man is believed to be […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Less than one month after becoming general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the country’s commander-in-chief,Xi Jinping has displayed a flair for catchy slogans — and superior public-relations skills. The new chairman of the policy-setting Central Military Commission has also demonstrated a readiness to project China’s […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Robert Pak The author is a Korean-American minister and human rights activist who entered North Korea on Christmas day of 2009 to protest against genocide and crimes against humanity taking place within the country. He is a founding member of the nonpartisan Worldwide Coalition to Stop Genocide in North Korea. On […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The impending launch of a North Korean ballistic missile has as much to do with the propaganda goal of putting a satellite into orbit as to serve as a less than subtle bullying to neighboring states all undergoing a period of political transition. Though Pyongyang has forewarned regional governments […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com WASHINGTON — Shin Dong-Hyuk has an unequivocal message for anyone contemplating a trip to North Korea: Don’t go, you’re only aiding and abetting a money-hungry regime. Shin, who remains the only person to have escaped from North Korea’s notorious Camp 14, offered that blunt view at a session […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Tis’ the season in the General Assembly for some serious if generally overlooked work and reports. An Assembly committee has soundly condemned the continuing human and political rights abuses in three global transgressors; Syria, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the quaintly titled Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, aka […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The spectacle of the ASEAN summit in Phnom Penh did more to lay bare the problems, conflicts and paradoxes of relations among the region’s wildly different and widely scattered nations than to resolve them. The fact that at least three of the leaders at this year’s ASEAN summit […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com One of the biggest foreign and national security questions regarding the new Chinese Communist Party leadership is whether newly anointed General Secretary and Chairman of the Central Military Commission Xi Jinping will sponsor a foreign “adventure” to consolidate his relatively weak power base. Historical parallels are not lacking. […]
