Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com President Park Geun-Hye is pursuing a fight-talk strategy. On Monday, South Korean gunners staged a live-fire exercise in waters well within hearing range of North Korea’s southwestern coast. Next, North and South Korean negotiators were planning to meet at Panmunjom. The contrast between military drills and diplomacy suggests […]
Special to WorldTribune.com U.S. President Barack Obama on Nov. 18 called on China to stop its land reclamation and military buildup in the South China Sea. “We agree on the need for bold steps to lower tensions, including pledging to halt further reclamation, new construction, and militarization of disputed areas in the South China Sea,” […]
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 North Korea has executed three women who were accused of making copies of and distributing a South Korean television show. The women, who resided near Hyesan University of the Arts in the northern Ryanggang Province, were arrested for recording a South Korean TV drama which is based on the true story of […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com The trilateral summit last weekend was long on promises but short on hard-and-fast commitments and planning. Yes, the fact that leaders of Korea, China and Japan could meet at all was remarkable considering Japan’s ongoing occupation of the Senkaku Islands, Diaoyu to the Chinese, in the East China […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Ongoing disputes in the South China Sea forced defense ministers of the 10 Association of East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to scrap a joint declaration during a two-day forum in Malaysia. The United States and its allies wanted the disputes, which include China’s continuing military buildup and construction on artificial islands, mentioned in […]
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 The United States is planning more “freedom of navigation” missions in the South China Sea, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said. “We will fly, sail and operate wherever international law permits,” Carter told a congressional hearing earlier this week. The USS Lassen, a guided-missile destroyer, sailed near one of China’s artificial islands […]
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 China said the United States engaged in a “deliberate provocation” when it sent a guided missile destroyer close to one of Beijing’s artificial islands in the South China Sea. The USS Lassen on Oct. 26 sailed within 12 nautical miles of Subi Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands chain. China’s Ministry of […]