Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com Nearly 1 million North Koreans, out of the country’s 24 million people, are using mobile phones, making it increasingly difficult for the authoritarian regime to maintain strict control over the flow of information. Since North Korea introduced a 3G mobile phone network in a joint venture with Egyptian […]
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 […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com North Korea has quickly moved to cement its new leader’s position amid skepticism that an untested, inexperienced son in his late 20s could take the helm, beating out older and powerful military generals who presumably want to share power. Kim Jong-Un, the third son of Kim Jong-Il who […]
Sol W. Sanders A new era of increasing instability is opening in East Asia. The death of North Korean leader Kim Il-Jong is only adding another, if explosive, element to an already volatile equation: China enters a period of substantially slower economic growth, if not a crash, on the eve next autumn of a takeover […]
Wesley Pruden History loves irony, as Prof. Gingrich could (and no doubt will) tell us. Two men renowned for their deeds die more or less on the same day on opposite sides of the world. The bad guy gets the big headline, the good guy makes the front page one last time as a footnote […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com As many as 200 North Korean college students who had been mobilized for construction work have died in recent accidents caused by a lack of safety equipment and procedures. The reclusive country has launched notorious “speed battles” that force workers to perform faster without concern for safety, a […]
Special to WorldTribune.com LONDON — More details on North Korea’s presence in Iran’s missile and nuclear program have come to light, according to news reports from Seoul, South Korea. A diplomatic source said Pyongyang has deployed hundreds of specialists in nuclear weapons and missile facilities in Iran. The source, believed to be an intelligence official, […]