Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com North Korea’s youthful leader Kim Jong-Un has made high-profile public tours of frontline border areas, with tensions across the inter-Korean border running high during South Korean-U.S. joint military exercises. Kim’s activism represents a significant departure from the public persona of his late father and predecessor Kim Jong-Il who […]
Sol W. Sanders That clanking and screeching you hear out of Washington, almost drowning out the caterwauling of the budget debate, is the Obama administration making a 180-degree turn on Pacific Ocean anti-missile defense. As usual with the cloying mainstream media, the significance of this complete reversal of strategy has been obfuscated at the […]
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 […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Pyongyang’s claim to have called Gen. James Thurman, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, to warn him about “a grave situation” on the Korean Peninsula inspires speculation about what the general and his caller from the North might have talked about. North Korea did not say who made the […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — “Oops, they did it again,” to paraphrase the old Britney Spears song. Indeed North Korea’s baby-faced dictator Kim Jong-Un decided to test another nuclear weapon, and thrust his reclusive but reckless country back into the headlines. In terms of political disruption, Kim’s tantrum seemed to have worked, but in […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Shortly after the Security Council unanimously condemned the recent North Korean missile launch and demanded that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea abandon nuclear testing, Pyongyang’s rulers decided to up the political ante. They announced that they are on the verge of a third nuclear test and for good […]
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 By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com LONDON — There was a time when Korea was best known overseas for Samsung gadgetry and Hyundai cars. Now Korea is permeating the global consciousness in ways that would have seemed unlikely if not impossible two or three years ago. The latest proof positive is a New Year’s […]
John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The impending launch of a North Korean ballistic missile has as much to do with the propaganda goal of putting a satellite into orbit as to serve as a less than subtle bullying to neighboring states all undergoing a period of political transition. Though Pyongyang has forewarned regional governments […]
