Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com Donald Trump may be running neck and neck with Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential sweepstakes if the polls are at all credible, but there’s one constituency in which he appears to be well ahead. That’s within the ruling circles in Pyongyang. He’s winning popularity there for two […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, EastAsiaIntel.com SEOUL — North Korea has prioritized increasing the rage of its submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) to 2,000 kilometers, a military source here said. The North is also said to be building 3,000-ton submarines that can carry multiple SLBMs, the source said. “North Korea is believed to have made […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas ― North Korea’s top gun will have to try harder if he expects his threats of another nuclear test will win serious consideration in a U.S. presidential election year. Driving through the American heartland, you hear hardly a thing about the latest threats from Pyongyang. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Not one week into the New Year, the North Koreans jolted global concerns as well as the Richter scale with a nuclear weapons test. While the underground blast shook the remote Punggye-ri region near the Russian border, the political reverberations of the bomb have been […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Defectors from North Korea all have harrowing tales of suffering that are difficult to imagine in real life. Their stories differ widely depending on the circumstances — some have spent time in prisons, most have not. Many have been hungry, or have seen relatives and friends starve to […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — A growing global wave of criticism, concern and consternation continues as both the UN General Assembly and now the Security Council have firmly condemned North Korea’s communist regime for human rights abuses to its own population. The moves come amid widening, and overdue, international attention […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Maybe we should all be thankful. No harm done in this Sony/North Korea flap; just a war of words. A torrent of them, in fact, but so far no fatalities, no injuries, merely hurt feelings, stunned outrage, routine mass media sturm and drang. Ok, sound and fury, signifying […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The North Koreans could not have come up with a better way to publicize a movie. Can anyone imagine a Hollywood comedy causing a diplomatic storm involving United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and threats of “resolute and merciless” retaliation against the country that spawned this slapstick nonsense? The […]
Special to WorldTribune.com East-Asia-Intel Trade between North Korea and China jumped more than 62 percent in 2011 over the previous year, reflecting the North’s deepening reliance on its neighbor for economic survival, Seoul’s state trade agency said. According to figures compiled by the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), the value of bilateral trade reached $5.63 […]
NEW: EAST-ASIA-INTEL.COM INSIDE NORTH KOREA By Lee Jong-Heon East-Asia-Intel.com, October 26, 2011 SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, accompanied by his son and heir-apparent Kim Jong-Un, rushed to military fortresses after he heard about the bloody killing of his colleague dictator Moammar Gadhafi in Libya. The two Kims made a “surprise visit” […]