Special to WorldTribune.com Compiled by Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com China has scored a major strategic victory by concluding a $3-billion deal with Pyongyang to lease the Rason Port along the northern stretch of the Chinese-North Korean border for 50 years. According to reports from Beijing and South Korean media, China is to build within the Rason […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — The youngest son keeps his mouth shut, and the oldest one talks too much. Clearly, the silent one knows what’s best for him as he plays the title role bequeathed to him by his late father, North Korea’s “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-Il. Kim Jong-Un is showing […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com North Korea’s new ruler Kim Jong-Un has been increasingly inspecting military units — a sign of increasing tension with neighboring countries and an effort to gain the trust of the country’s ruling military establishment. Kim, who has ascended to power in December after the death of his father, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com WASHINGTON — Robert Park cried out in torment as he spoke on the phone from Seoul about what he had endured — not at the hands of the North Koreans who held him for 43 days after he crossed the frozen Tumen River into North Korea on Christmas […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com Obtaining foreign currency is the most important thing that Kim Jong-Un can do to secure the short-term future of his new regime, sources and analysts in Seoul say. Kim Jong-Un, believed to be in his late 20s, became ruler of the destitute country following the death of his […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com WASHINGTON — North Korea stands to be a major winner if Israeli hawks prevail and Israel attacks Iranian nuclear facilities. With Iran said in some quarters to be only months away from emerging as the world’s 10th nuclear weapons power, North Korea reportedly is producing more middle-range missiles […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com WASHINGTON — A former agent for South Korea’s multi-tentacled National Intelligence Service (NIS) has defeated an intensive United States government bid to have him extradited to Seoul and imprisoned for revealing the payoffs to North Korea that led to the historic June 2000 North-South Korean summit and the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com North Korea marked the first birthday of Kim Jong-Un since becoming the country’s top ruler with a documentary that highlights the young leader’s military prowess, despite the fact that he has no military background. Government officials and analysts in Seoul consider the airing of the cult-like documentary on […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com Kim Jong-Un’s faster-than-anticipated rise to North Korea’s top leadership suggests that he is vulnerable to possible domestic challenges following the death last month of his father, Kim Jong-Il, who handpicked the son as his successor, officials and analysts in Seoul say. The junior Kim, who is believed to […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The rise of the son as “supreme commander” of North Korea’s armed forces gives rise to nostalgia. Already the reign of the father is beginning to seem like the good old days. At least as long as Kim Jong-Il was around a certain sense of security prevailed. South […]