Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Why is it every time we get optimistic about North Korea “opening up” or making concessions or engaging in serious reconciliation, we get so disillusioned? Remember Kim Dae-Jung’s “Sunshine Policy?” The North Koreans repaid him for his generosity by cranking up their nuclear program and exploding their first […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — The regime of North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un has turned to sports as the tool to shape his image of a genial and friendly leader at home and mend fences with South Korea and the United States, officials and analysts here say. The initiatives range from inviting former […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Dennis Rodman while in North Korea might have asked his friend “Kim” about North Korea and Syria. Too bad he missed the chance, along with any notion of getting “Kim” to “do me a solid,” as he once put it, and let him bring Kenneth Bae out of […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — When the Security Council passed a package of uncharacteristically tough sanctions on North Korea over the communist regime’s nuclear weapons tests and missile proliferation, the Pyongyang leadership went rhetorically ballistic. Pyongyang’s pro forma rants and raves towards South Korea and the United States were notched up to include scrapping […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com This just in — Dennis Rodman wasn’t quite Kim Jong-Un’s first choice as his guest for fun and games in Pyongyang. There was actually a move afoot to invite Michael Jordan, but there was a catch. The idea was that he would have gone with the blessing of […]