Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk SEOUL — The aftershock of the great Pohang earthquake in South Korea has been dramatic, intense, and controversial. That’s a reference to the abrupt cancellation of the greatest event in the lives of thousands of Korean high school students, namely the examination that all of them have to take, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — U.S. President Donald’s Trump’s whirlwind trip to East Asia was fraught with both promise and peril; the promise of expanding commercial alliances and reinforcing military alliances, and the peril of confronting North Korea’s ominous nuclear threat. In Seoul, South Korea’s bustling and free capital, the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Jeffrey T. Kuhner The establishment is on the verge of destroying Judge Roy Moore. If they succeed, it establishes the playbook to demolish any Trump populist in the future. They are not interested in the truth — or justice. It’s about blunting the momentum of the America First movement, and preserving the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk At least Donald Trump gave it a shot. He really wanted to make it up to Panmunjom but was turned back by the weather. For most visitors, the fog that hung over the line between North and South Korea would not have been too much for a beautiful U.S. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The recent killing of four U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers in Niger tragically highlighted a quiet but lethal conflict in sub-Saharan Africa’s Sahel region. Here in the confluence of the arid and largely forgotten lands of Mali, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania lay a […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk President Donald Trump faces obstacles when he gets to Seoul next week that have nothing to do with unruly mobs trying to shout loudly enough over mega-loudspeakers for him to hear them across rows of policemen in body armor. No doubt Trump’s handlers will come up with the proper […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The political optics could not have been more contrasting as China selected its leader and Japan elected its Prime Minister. In a grandiose and stunning setting, draped in the trappings of crimson and gold, 2,300 Chinese Communist Party (CCP) grandees predictably anointed Xi Jinping as […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk TOKYO ― The overwhelming success of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the latest elections for members of the Japanese “Diet” ― the peculiar word for Japan’s parliament or national assembly ― portends hardening of tensions and priorities in Northeast Asia. Yes, Abe would dearly like to revise Japan’s post-war […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Truth is often stranger than fiction. Indeed elections for new members of the UN’s 47-member Human Rights Council proved yet again that some of the least qualified and most repressive regimes would win coveted seats on the watchdog committee tasked with monitoring human rights and […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The line-up of warplanes on display beside the runway at Seoul Air Base has got to be intimidating. The sight of the latest American F35s and F22s along with all those South Korean fighters may frighten anyone contemplating war on the Korean Peninsula. They’re parked near spacious exhibition halls […]
