Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com A dazzling array of manipulators and operators, swindlers and do-gooders and odd-balls parade across the stage of the Asian drama, some long enough for star billing, others relegated to bit roles, maybe 15 minutes or less of fame, before fading into obscurity. Get to know them a little, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com TEL AVIV — North Korea played a major role in the construction of a chemical weapons facility targeted by Israel on Jan. 30, a report said. Israel Defense magazine reported that North Korea helped design and build the Jamariya facility outside Damascus. Israel has not formally claimed responsibility for the Jan. 30 […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com While China’s new supremo has made rhetorical pledges about following in the reformist footsteps of Deng Xiaoping, General Secretary Xi Jinping has adopted measures that smack a lot more of the philosophy of Mao Zedong. Mao launched in 1951 the so-called “Three Antis movement” against corruption, a wasteful […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Compiled by Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com The U.S. oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp has decided to sell its stakes in the West Qurna phase 1 oilfield in Iraq. Exxon will sell its stakes to Chinese state-run oil giant China National Petroleum Corp [CNPC], China’s official newspaper China Daily confirmed on Jan. 24. With […]
Sol W. Sanders TAIPEI – The U.S.’ 50-year-old alliance with [Formosa] Taiwan is eroding slowly but surely in the face of Beijing’s siren call and growing indifference of the Obama administration. Yet at a moment when U.S. strategy ostensibly calls for a “pivot” toward Asia, the de facto alliance could never have been more […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Sol W. Sanders TAIPEI – Annette Lu Hsiu-lien, former Taiwan vice president, proposes a demilitarized settlement of the East China islands flash point between China and Japan. In an interview with WorldTribune, Lu claimed Taiwan actually has the best claim to the Diaoyutai/Senkaku chain of uninhabited islands. Although China seems to […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com MANCHESTER, England — The Brits face a problem that Koreans might — or might not — appreciate. By now Koreans have gotten thoroughly used to zipping up and down the Republic of Korea, that is, the Korean peninsula south of the DMZ, on super-fast trains at relatively inexpensive […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com North Korea independently built most of the key parts of the long-range rocket it launched in December 2012, indicating that the destitute nation has the capacity to build intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to the U.S., South Korean official said. After analyzing the […]
Sol W. Sanders BEIJING – Only a few hours in this capital of a country with 1.3 billion people are enough to pose the question of whether the control of the Communist Party may not be cracking under the growing strains accompanying the exposure of its economy to the outside world. Stalin perhaps had […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Shortly after the Security Council unanimously condemned the recent North Korean missile launch and demanded that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea abandon nuclear testing, Pyongyang’s rulers decided to up the political ante. They announced that they are on the verge of a third nuclear test and for good […]
