Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk is a veteran newspaper correspondent who has worked throughout East Asia and in the Middle East. A columnist for WorldTribune.com and a correspondent for East-Asia-Intel.com, he has also written for the International Herald Tribune, the New York Times, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, CBS, Asian Wall Street Journal, National Review, Chicago Sun Times, South […]

Playing defense: Who are Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump kidding with their war of words?

Playing defense: Who are Kim Jong-Un and Donald Trump kidding with their war of words?

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk It wasn’t exactly a declaration of war, but it did come close. What else to make of President Trump’s remark that the U.S. might “totally destroy North Korea”? It was one thing to belittle Kim Jong-Un as “rocket man” but quite another to threaten annihilation of a country torn […]

Let’s make a deal: Donald Trump to remake Pyongyang’s skyline!

Let’s make a deal: Donald Trump to remake Pyongyang’s skyline!

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk Everybody’s talking about overtures to Pyongyang. Informal talks, secret talks, talks about talks – then, somewhere in everyone’s pet solution, comes the killer line: Pyongyang has to “freeze” its missile-and-nuclear program before real talking begins. It’s unlikely Kim Jong-Un will “freeze” anything, but here’s an idea. Remember that enormous […]

Art of the deal: How about a summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un at the Korean DMZ?

Art of the deal: How about a summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un at the Korean DMZ?

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com Donald Trump may be running neck and neck with Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential sweepstakes if the polls are at all credible, but there’s one constituency in which he appears to be well ahead. That’s within the ruling circles in Pyongyang. He’s winning popularity there for two […]

The New York Times vs. consummate New Yorker Donald Trump

The New York Times vs. consummate New Yorker Donald Trump

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com WASHINGTON ― Talk about local boy making good, and then look at the case of Donald Trump. He’s a New Yorker through and through ― looks, talks and acts like one, arrogant, sneering and sure of himself. So what are the New York papers saying about him? Clearly, […]

To say Kissinger ‘was a fraud would be too charitable,’ says Vietnam War correspondent

To say Kissinger ‘was a fraud would be too charitable,’ says Vietnam War correspondent

by WorldTribune Staff, December 3, 2023 On Oct. 26, 1972, then-U.S. National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger said “peace is at hand,” insisting he had reached a deal to end the Vietnam War which would have the “North” Vietnamese and their southern affiliate, the Viet Cong remaining in “South” Vietnam and eventually working out an accommodation […]

Report: Plot to kill Kim may have been foiled by ouster of conservative president in Seoul

Report: Plot to kill Kim may have been foiled by ouster of conservative president in Seoul

FPI / November 29, 2023 Geostrategy-Direct Just because Kim Jong-Un is paranoid doesn’t mean a wide variety of North Korean operatives aren’t out to kill him. An active and funded plot to assassinate Kim may have been foiled during the process in which South Korean conservative President Park Geun-Hye was impeached, according to a report. […]

Henry Kissinger and the post-Vietnam War legacy of U.S. military defeat

Henry Kissinger and the post-Vietnam War legacy of U.S. military defeat

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, May 23, 2023 The following by WorldTribune.com columnist Don Kirk, originally appeared in The Hill. The defeat of the American-equipped, American-advised South Vietnamese forces in the first four months of 1975 invites comparisons to today’s American support for Ukraine against Russian invasion. In contrast to the approval of vast amounts of aid provided thus […]

Saluting Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai; Jailed and silenced for questioning Xi’s authority

Saluting Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai; Jailed and silenced for questioning Xi’s authority

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The history of the media is full of stories about journalists who defied authority, risked death covering wars and sought stories behind cover-ups. Few media heroes can match Jimmy Lai, founder of Apple Daily, a Hong Kong paper that was shut down last year after 26 years of defending […]

Don’t forget Kim Jong-Un: Putin and Biden are not the only ones using the ‘N’ word

Don’t forget Kim Jong-Un: Putin and Biden are not the only ones using the ‘N’ word

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, October 12, 2022 The following by WorldTribune.com columnist Don Kirk, originally appeared in The Hill. How can President Biden talk about “Armageddon” in Ukraine after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin boasts of Russia’s nuclear strength without also mentioning North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s threats to use nuclear weapons? That question does not seem to have […]

1 2 3 33