By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Presidents, prime ministers, kings and potentates are gathering in New York for the 69th General Assembly of the UN. But as diplomats come together for the annual general debate which begins on Sept. 24, there’s a cloud of political and social unease greeting delegations from the 193 member […]
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The visit of Pope Francis to Korea coincides with the 69th anniversary tomorrow, Friday, Aug. 15, of the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II. The eyes of the world will be on the pontiff as he celebrates Mass in Daejeon’s World Cup Stadium on Asian Youth Day while […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com China’s President Xi Jinping makes a careful distinction between U.S. President Obama and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. It’s OK to talk to the former, just not the latter. And so Xi and Obama got on the phone earlier this week to talk about the world. But China […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com The hurriedly-arranged state visit to Seoul by China’s supreme leader Xi Jinping, scheduled to take place July 3 to July 4, indicates that unexpected, even seemingly insurmountable disagreements between the two countries, have surfaced to require a direct intervention from Beijing’s top leader. In the last several years, South Korea […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Alliances and policies have a way of shifting quickly, at opportune or even inopportune moments. What’s China’s President Xi Jinping doing in Seoul this week, and why are the Japanese talking to the North Koreans? For that matter, how come Japan is revising its stern no-war policy so […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to South Korea in early July heralds a new era of China’s relations with both Koreas. Traditionally, a new Chinese head of state would first visit the DPRK — with which China still maintains a mutual defense treaty — before South Korea. This was true […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — The tragedy of the sunken South Korean ferry the Sewol is now old news. The international press barely covers the long aftermath as divers look for the last missing bodies. The news has receded from the lead position in the Korean media and sometimes barely makes […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The seas were running quite high when I took a small ferry from Mokpo, a port city on South Korea’s southwestern coast, to the idyllic island of Jeju a month before the tragedy of the ferry boat that sank with 476 people on board, most of them students […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — The word “trilateral” has a certain allure among those in search of ways to pull disparate nations or regions together. A group of three might cooperate while a group of two might form an alliance and fight the third one, the odd man out. Rather than […]
Special to WorldTribune.com East-Asia-Intel.com South Korean President Park Geun-Hye said an ‘economic bonanza’ would result from the unification of North and South Korea. Park used her trip to the former East German city of Dresden to unveil a package of proposals calling for bolstering exchanges with North Korea to lay the groundwork for reunification of […]