Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON ― North Korea pops off another ICBM, and suddenly the U.S. media is full of talking heads offering views and solutions. They range from the extremes of annihilating North Korea’s nuclear and missile facilities to, “Oh, just sign a peace treaty and everything will be okay.” It’s hard […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON — Americans are so fixated on the issues of healthcare and Russia that tightening sanctions on North Korea almost escapes notice. One minute the networks are vying with one another on what passes as “analysis” on President Trump’s efforts to replace Obamacare with Trumpcare, and the next they’re […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON – The standoff on the Korean peninsula is entering a new phase. While President Moon Jae-In calls for talks with North Koreans, he is also honoring the U.S.-Korean alliance and insisting the North give up its nuclear program. Can Moon have it both ways? He’s besieged by protesters […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON ― We hear so often about tight U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia that we forget the Saudis kicked out the last U.S. troops in the early 2000’s. Seems they regarded the U.S. presence as an affront to Islam more than a decade after U.S. forces drove Saddam Hussein’s […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON – Pro-Northers have got to be more than a little disappointed by the recent summit between the presidents of the Republic of Korea and the United States. Judging from all the blather they were emitting before the summit, the pro-North crowd would have far rather seen President Moon […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON – The good news about President Moon Jae-In’s summitry with President Donald Trump this week is they’re talking as partners in the drive to end North Korea’s nuclear program and bring about inter-Korean reconciliation. A major barrier to cooperation, however, is loose talk about a peace treaty or […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The death of Otto Warmbier provides a powerful reminder of the torture and terrorism perpetrated by one of the world’s most repressive regimes. Americans are no doubt aware of the tyranny of the dynasty led by a man who revels in ordering the development of long-range missiles capable of […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON – Christine Ahn, a policy analyst with the Korea Peace Network, had what appeared to be good news as she opened a conference here with the portentous title, “Off Ramps to War: Paths to Building Peace with North Korea.” Otto Warmbier, the University of Virginia student accused of […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk JEJU ― Gary Samore of the Belfer Center at Harvard, formerly with the Obama administration, suggested at the annual Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity that resolution of North Korea’s nukes-and-missiles program may be insoluble. That sense weighs heavily on policy-makers in Seoul and Washington. How can Koreans and […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk It’s tempting for punsters to play on the surname Moon. There’s “honeymoon,” of course, and “moonshine” – the latter for whiskey distilled in the mountains of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee by the light of the moon. How long, then, will the honeymoon last for President Moon Jae-In while North […]
