Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com It’s the season for summits with heavy overtones for Northeast Asia. After President Park Geun-Hye met President Barack Obama in Washington and President Xi Jinping in Beijing, after Xi met Obama in Washington, after President Putin saw Obama at the United Nations and Xi in Beijing, after Prime […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com SEOUL — Another round of visits for South Koreans to see their long-lost relatives in North Korea brings both hope and sadness. Anyone selected for a family visit has to know, after seeing a brother, sister, cousin or some other relative who may be hardly remembered, that it’s […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com President Obama might be considering the motto on which Woodrow Wilson ran for president in 1916 as his enduring legacy: “He kept us out of war.” That is, if he can forget that Wilson, after election to his second term, reversed course and sent American soldiers to Europe, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com SEOUL — The Trans-Pacific Partnership carries implications far beyond the commercial benefits that President Obama and others claim would result from it. Arguments pro and con in terms of the advantages and disadvantages for each of the 12 countries that have signed on to TPP are sure to […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com WASHINGTON ― You know how forgotten is the Korean War when you see a documentary about the young correspondents who battled U.S. officialdom in the early years of the Vietnam War and hear comparisons between Vietnam and World War II, Vietnam and Iraq ― and not one word […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com WASHINGTON ― China President Xi Jinping’s meeting with President Obama Friday is sure to be an exercise in double-and-triple talk that will sorely test the skills of both of them in papering over, covering up and otherwise evading issues that neither of them is going to be able […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com The spectacle of mass migrations is a permanent phenomenon of our times. Images of refugees risking lives to escape oppressive regimes, starvation, war and mayhem are embedded in our subconscious. Think of the thousands who escaped from Vietnam after the defeat of the American-backed Saigon regime, fleeing across […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com Here’s a twist on the shifting course of the recent military history of the region. The Philippines and Vietnam are about to become “strategic partners” in common cause against, yes, the Chinese. For those who may have forgotten, the U.S., having ruled the Philippines for nearly half a […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com China’s big show in Beijing is over, but its impact may not be as deep and far-reaching as forecast and hoped for. The soldiers have pranced around Tiananmen Square, the planes have swept overhead and President Xi Jinping has basked in glory 70 years after the defeat of […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — Maybe Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, should have kept his mouth shut. No matter what he might have said on the 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender, he would be the target of intensive criticism. The fact is the Japanese are done with apologizing for World […]