Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The stakes are escalating in the contest for Northeast Asia. North Korea’s got nukes and lots of missiles, most recently maybe the SLBM for submarine-launched ballistic missile. The U.S. has glistening new hardware too. THAAD, Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, the missile system for Star Wars, is capable, they […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The Great Game for Asia is assuming new dimensions. Korea counts on the U.S. for some of its most advanced weaponry, but Korea also is a source for weapons technology and components. That’s why India’s defense minister, Manohar Parrikar is in Seoul this week shopping for whatever Korea […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Beautiful women don’t have a lot to do with the graceful curves of a new motor vehicle, but you might not know that from visiting the Seoul Motor Show. By tradition, most manufacturers have assumed they can show off their cars far more effectively by draping them with […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com A crew member on the flight from London to Washington was quite emphatic when I asked his advice about what movie to choose. He said he’d seen a lot of people watching “Whiplash.” Often, I don’t watch much of anything on planes. I’m either too tired or too […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com When it comes to judging the performance of deceased national leaders under the icy glare of historical research, strongmen go down in collective memory as tough guys who defeated their enemies and built up their countries. Weak leaders are often regarded as mediocrities, especially if they were overthrown. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, EastAsiaIntel.com Beijing’s success in luring a number of key American allies to join the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has illustrated yet again Washington’s apparent failure to rein in the Xi Jinping administration’s ambitious plans to gradually displace the United States as the sole arbiter of global norms in […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Some of the terrible problems we read, hear and talk about so often are beyond solution. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated this week that as long as he was in office there would not be a Palestinian state. The two-state idea, he said, was not going to […]
Special to WorldTribune.com EastAsiaIntel.com SEOUL — North Korea’s description of a South Korean man’s attack on the U.S. ambassador to Seoul as “deserved punishment” indicates Pyongyang’s unwillingness to improve ties with Washington, a government source said. In a shocking attack on March 5, U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Mark Lippert was slashed on his face […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Incredibly, crackpots on the left, quick to echo any line from North Korea, compare the attack on U.S. ambassador Mark Lippert to the assassination of Hirobumi Ito, Japanese resident-general of Korea in the early days of the Japanese colonial era. I’ve received messages to that effect from some […]
Special to WorldTribune.com by Harlan Ullman Critics accuse President Barack Obama of being a foreign policy minimalist seeking to do the least harm (or no stupid “stuff”) rather than by choosing more effective if riskier solutions. In fairness, the president was dealt the most horrible hand on taking office dating back to FDR in 1933. […]