Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com The zeal with which the Korean government pursued the case of Tatsuya Kato, charged with criminal libel, bears disturbing parallels to the records of other countries that prosecute critics. The charge of libel is a favorite weapon of authorities in Singapore and Malaysia, to name two notorious practitioners […]
Special to WorldTribune.com More than a dozen primitive wooden “ghost ships” found drifting in Japanese waters are probably North Korean fishing vessels, officials said. The Japanese coast guard found four badly decomposed bodies on a vessel discovered on Dec. 6. The coast guard said a total of 25 bodies have been found on the ghost […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com SEOUL — Freedom will ring on the streets of Seoul Saturday, when demonstrators denounce the government for numerous transgressions beginning with the scheme to impose state-edited, state-published school textbooks in place of those by independent scholars. People by now are so accustomed to the sounds of protests reverberating […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com This week’s Asia edition of Time magazine features the cover line, “What It Takes to Forgive a Killer.” Thinking the editors had had time to do a cover on the massacres in Paris, I discovered cloying, patronizing interviews with friends and relatives of the nine African-Americans shot and […]
Special to WorldTribune.com South Korea and Japan have agreed to push for a resolution to a long-time dispute that weakens both nations’ critical alliance with the United States and has damaged ties between the two nations for decades. Japan and South Korea are key U.S. allies in a joint geopolitical posture that counters expansionist communist […]
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 John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In its annual selection process, the full General Assembly has picked five countries to serve as non-permanent members on the UN Security Council. Importantly, Egypt, Japan and Ukraine as well as Senegal and Uruguay were chosen as the new members who will serve two year […]
Special to WorldTribune.com China has detained four Japanese nationals, one a defector from North Korea, on charges of spying for the Japan government. Tokyo has vehemently denied the charges which threaten to undermine the recent cooling of tensions between China and Japan that has included discussions on a summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and […]
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 U.S. and Japanese naval forces recently joined together for a tactical simulation dealing with an emergency in the Senkaku Islands. In the emergency scenario, a large number of ships that appear to be Chinese fishing boats sail to the islands and men posing as fishermen then go ashore. U.S. and Japanese officers […]