Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — North Korea has increasingly exported laborers since Kim Jong-Un took power in late 2011 in a bid to earn much-needed foreign currencies given the tightened international curbs on cash flows. The policy risks exposing more North Koreans to outside influences, which could result in more defections and cracks […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Edward Snowden seems to have considered just about every conceivable option for asylum. At least two countries, Venezuela and Nicaragua, whose leaders are deeply critical of U.S. foreign policy, are happy to accept him. He would no doubt be glad to live in either while disclosing still more […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — North Korean leaders have been living in fear of coming under Chinese control but had no option but to rely on the economic giant for much-needed hard currency, documents and sources said. According to the 2007 inter-Korean summit transcript disclosed by South Korea’s spy agency, then North Korean […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com NEW DELHI — The late “Great Leader” Kim Il-Sung no doubt drew upon the teachings of Mao Zedong when he formulated his philosophy of “juche” or self-reliance, but one word you never hear on visits to North Korea is “Maoism.” If North Korea recognizes Mao Zedong as an […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The outlook for Kenneth Bae, the American preacher/tour guide who’s been sentenced to 15 years hard labor in North Korea, is bleak. That’s because his offenses against the system sound a lot more serious than those of three people rescued by former American presidents in great blazes of […]
Special to WorldTribune.com East-Asia-Intel.com South Korea’s latest pop culture, including the international hit song “Gangnam Style,” has found its way into the tightly-controlled North Korean world, a video footage shows. In the clips, two North Koreans are sitting in a dark room with a blanket over their head to hide themselves, moving their shoulders up […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has shifted the nuclear game into a matter of national sovereignty as an offensive nuclear power, an issue that can never be put on the negotiating table, government officials and analysts here said. It is a significant departure from the tactics […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Once again the North Koreans are scoring a propaganda coup by exploiting the presence of a high-level American delegation. This time it’s Google Chairman Eric Schmidt traipsing off to Pyongyang in the hands of Bill Richardson, the former New Mexico governor, and Richardson’s long-time adviser, Tony Namkung. Richardson […]
Special to WorldTribune.com North Korea watchers in Seoul have been paying keen attention to a mystery man who was spotted beside North Korean ruler Kim Jong-Un at a ceremony on Dec. 16 marking the first anniversary of his father Kim Jong-Il’s death. A senior South Korean government official said the man is believed to be […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — Several additional senior North Korean officials favored by the country’s late leader Kim Jong-Il have been recently dismissed from their posts by new ruler Kim Jong-Un, who is cementing his own power base, officials and sources in Seoul say. Among those sacked in October are Minister […]