Report: North Korea executes army chief of staff

Report: North Korea executes army chief of staff

Special to WorldTribune.com North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un continued his series of purges as army chief of staff Ri Yong-Gil was executed, according to a report on Feb. 10. Ri, who was chief of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) General Staff, was executed earlier this month “for corruption and factional conspiracy,” Yonhap and other South […]

‘Useless’: N. Korean satellite ‘tumbling in orbit,’ U.S. official says

‘Useless’: N. Korean satellite ‘tumbling in orbit,’ U.S. official says

Special to WorldTribune.com North Korea’s recently-launched satellite is “tumbling in orbit,” rendering it virtually “useless,” a U.S. official said. If the description is accurate, the satellite launched by Pyongyang on Feb. 7 would be incapable of functioning in any useful way, a senior U.S. defense official told CNN. Kwon Ki-hyun, a spokesperson for South Korea’s […]

Healing history’s bitter Japan-Philippines wounds

Healing history’s bitter Japan-Philippines wounds

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com MANILA ― No city suffered more in World War II than this sprawling metropolis of more than 10 million people. No enemy was more cruel, more hostile, more destructive than the Japanese after defeating U.S. forces in the Philippines at the outset of the war in the Pacific. […]

Iran says $100 billion in frozen assets ‘fully released’

Iran says $100 billion in frozen assets ‘fully released’

Special to WorldTribune.com Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Iran says it now has access to more than $100 billion worth of overseas assets that were unfrozen as a result of a landmark nuclear deal with world powers. Government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nobakht said much of the money was stored in banks in China, India, […]

Democratic Taiwan: More important than ever after failed U.S. ‘pivot to Asia’

Democratic Taiwan: More important than ever after failed U.S. ‘pivot to Asia’

Special to WorldTribune.com By Sol W. Sanders Largely ignored by the mainstream media, the Jan. 15 Taiwan elections have enormous implications not only for the Island’s 25 million people, but for China – and the U.S. Ironically, the election of the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] leader, Tsai Ing-wen, a woman at that — reinstalled a […]

Conflicting U.S. views on conflict resolution with N. Korea: What if there is no solution?

Conflicting U.S. views on conflict resolution with N. Korea: What if there is no solution?

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com Donald Gregg, U.S. ambassador to Korea as the country was making the transition to democracy in the early 1990s, did not take kindly to my column [A former U.S. diplomat’s inexplicable defense of Kim Jong-Un] in which I quoted him, accurately, as praising Kim Jong-Un “for improving the […]

China warns Soros against ‘declaring war’ on its currency

China warns Soros against ‘declaring war’ on its currency

Special to WorldTribune.com China has warned “financial predator” George Soros not to bet against its currency. “Soros’ challenge against the renminbi and Hong Kong dollar is unlikely to succeed, there is no doubt about that,” said a government official in an opinion piece. The article, headlined “Declaring war on China’s currency? Ha ha”, described Soros […]

Iran, China agree to strategic ties, $600 billion trade revival of ‘Silk Road’

Iran, China agree to strategic ties, $600 billion trade revival of ‘Silk Road’

Special to WorldTribune.com Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Chinese president Xi Jinping (foreground left) and Iranian President Hassan Rohani (foreground right) in Tehran on January 23. Iranian President Hassan Rohani says Iran and China have agreed to expand bilateral relations and boost trade to $600 billion over the next 10 years. Rohani made the […]

Khamenei celebrates capture of U.S. sailors as ‘God’s deed’, welcomes closer ties with China

Khamenei celebrates capture of U.S. sailors as ‘God’s deed’, welcomes closer ties with China

Special to WorldTribune.com Iran seeks closer ties to China as it “never trusted the West,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Jan. 23. During Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Teheran on Jan. 23, Iran’s supreme leader said the United States was “not honest” in the fight against terrorism in the Middle East. “Iranians never trusted […]

Malaysia arrests 7 ISIL-linked jihadists who were planning attacks

Malaysia arrests 7 ISIL-linked jihadists who were planning attacks

Special to WorldTribune.com Malaysian police have arrested seven members of a terror cell linked to Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL). “All the suspects are members of the same (terror) cell, which is responsible for planning to launch terror attacks in strategic locations across Malaysia,” national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said on Jan. […]