By ‘invitation’ only: North Korea’s blunt force approach to foreign language education

By ‘invitation’ only: North Korea’s blunt force approach to foreign language education

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com North Koreans some years ago had an unusual way of acquiring professional expertise in teaching people foreign languages. Rather than advertise for teachers, they kidnapped native speakers. Most of them were Japanese, but they also captured likely candidates from Europe and the Middle East. Robert Boynton, a professor […]

U.S. protests after Chinese military plane lands on S. China Sea island

U.S. protests after Chinese military plane lands on S. China Sea island

Special to WorldTribune.com The United States voiced its objection to China’s use of a military plane to land on a South China Sea man-made island in what Beijing claimed was a mission to evacuate three severely ill construction workers. “We’re aware that a Chinese military aircraft landed at Fiery Cross Reef on Sunday (April 17) […]

S. Korean president to visit Iran, longtime secret N. Korean strategic partner

S. Korean president to visit Iran, longtime secret N. Korean strategic partner

Special to WorldTribune.com Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Park Geun-Hye is due to become the first South Korean president to visit Iran, according to her office. Park’s office said on April 18 that she and Iranian President Hassan Rohani will next month discuss ways to boost bilateral relations as well as regional issues such […]

Do North Korean propaganda writers really want to channel Abraham Lincoln

Do North Korean propaganda writers really want to channel Abraham Lincoln

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com WASHINGTON – Credit someone in North Korea with a sense of historical irony. Who would have thought anyone up there would have dreamed of writing an imaginary letter from Abraham Lincoln to President Obama berating him for endorsing harsh UN sanctions and failing to halt the U.S. nuclear […]

N. Korea propaganda update: ‘Honest Abe’ pens an open letter from the grave to Obama

N. Korea propaganda update: ‘Honest Abe’ pens an open letter from the grave to Obama

Special to WorldTribune.com Honest Abe has a message for the current occupant of the White House: President Barack Obama should rethink economic sanctions against North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. At least, that’s what North Korea’s propaganda machine said in a bizarre open letter, written in what it said was the voice of Abraham Lincoln. “Hi […]

China closely watching as Burma evolves from a socialist winter

China closely watching as Burma evolves from a socialist winter

Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — A new dawn has come to Burma. At long last the political pariah state, also known as Myanmar, has ushered in a new civilian government in which Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has a strong if not formal hand at the democratic […]

Panama Papers implicate relatives of Xi, other top China leaders

Panama Papers implicate relatives of Xi, other top China leaders

Special to WorldTribune.com The Panama Papers have impacted officials at the top of China’s hierarchy which has spent the past year purging top rivals of President Xi Jinping on charges of corruption. At least three of the seven people on the Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee, the Chinese Communist Party’s most powerful committee, including Xi […]

Pop quiz: Is North Korea a terrorist state? Yes or no?

Pop quiz: Is North Korea a terrorist state? Yes or no?

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com WASHINGTON ― Here’s a question people here keep asking: Is North Korea a terrorist state? Forget about the missile shots. They’ve all landed in the sea and harmed no one. What about the nuclear tests? They dislocated some rocks deep underground but were otherwise harmless. So what does […]

What’s stalling Xi Jinping’s grandiose imperial dream? No money

What’s stalling Xi Jinping’s grandiose imperial dream? No money

Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, EastAsiaIntel.com Remember the “One Belt One Road” (OBOR), a multi-trillion-dollar intercontinental project that underpins President Xi Jinping’s ambition to catapult China to super-power status? The “Silk Road Economic Belt” links China with Central Asia, Turkey and all the way to Eastern Europe through a series of high-speed railways, highways […]

Vietnam detains intruding Chinese refueling vessel

Vietnam detains intruding Chinese refueling vessel

Special to WorldTribune.com Vietnam’s coast guard seized a Chinese vessel in the South China Sea on April 2, Vietnamese state media said. An April 4 report by Thanh Nien News said the crew of the vessel “admitted that they had entered deep [into] Vietnamese waters to refuel several other Chinese boats which were fishing illegally […]