Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com NEW DELHI — North Korean declarations of “a state of war” on the Korean peninsula tend to make people forget bloodier border confrontations elsewhere in Asia. None is more volatile than the standoff along nearly 3,000 kilometers of heavily guarded fencing that separates Pakistan from India. Koreans point […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The North Koreans have got to love this one. The ruckus over disputed islands gets so much play in Korea and Japan that Koreans and Japanese tend to forget they’ve got a real enemy lurking somewhere over the 38th parallel. That would be North Korea, whose strategists may […]
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 SEOUL — No matter which way South Korea looks, the government faces tough new/old issues with the two enormous powers that have subjected the Korean Peninsula to pain and suffering over the centuries. First, this week, the problem was with China after the skipper of a Chinese fishing […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com WASHINGTON — Call it a matter of conflicting — or colliding — messages. South Korean conservatives have forced a free-trade agreement with the United States through a fractious National Assembly. A U.S. Congress “supercommittee” has demonstrated the weakness of the American system of governance by abject, humiliating failure […]