Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk Advocates of a “peace treaty” with North Korea believe, unanimously, that such a treaty would serve some real purpose other than provide the North with ammunition for withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Korea and closure of U.S. bases. The slightest scrutiny of history should make painfully clear that […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The vision of a brave new world in China three decades ago was captivating, exhilarating proof at last that democracy could prevail in an outpouring of revulsion over Communist dictatorship. Alas, it was not to be. The hypnotic image of reform, of the forces of right defeating evil, yielded […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON ― President Trump’s visit to Japan carries a message for South Korea as much as anywhere else. It’s time to call a halt to outpourings of anti-Japanese sentiment. That’s not to say South Koreans should bury their bitterness over the decades of Japanese rule, the slaughter of Koreans […]
by WorldTribune Staff, May 29, 2019 A petition on the South Korean Blue House Petition website which calls for the impeachment of liberal President Moon Jae-In has amassed 243,450 signatures, a report said. The petition was posted on April 30 and it will collect support until May 30, the East Asia Research Center reported. The […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON – South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in has been trying so hard to achieve the impossible dream of reconciliation with North Korea that it’s easy for foreign observers to forget a strong, traditional conservative opposition that deeply opposes the pattern of concessions to the will of North Korea’s leader […]
by WorldTribune Staff, May 14, 2019 With Kim Jong-Un observing, North Korea on May 4 launched a series of projectiles featuring a short-range ballistic missile and large-caliber multiple launch rocket systems from Hodo peninsula in the Wonsan area. A group of retired Korean military officials condemned the North’s latest missile test and, at the same […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk SEOUL — The sinking of the Sewol ferry five years ago was one of the greatest tragedies in Korean history. The memory for me, along with many others, is especially poignant since I spent hours in the great school gymnasium where families of the 304 victims, most of them […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk Ban Ki-Moon, now that he’s no longer United Nations secretary-general, can offer frank views that would definitely have had North Korean diplomats screaming bloody murder in the UN headquarters had he expressed them there. Ban, ever bland, polite, genial, the essence of the seasoned diplomat, gave about as reasoned […]
by WorldTribune Staff, March 26, 2019 On March 15, the Incheon City Council angered conservative South Koreans by passing an ordinance that called for compensating families of natives of Wolmi Island who died or had to leave their hometowns due to bombing by U.S. and UN forces during the Incheon landing operation on September 15, […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk President Moon Jae-In almost accidentally stepped into a battle that did not have to happen with journalists for foreign news organizations. The ruckus was all about a Korean reporter for Bloomberg who wrote in September that Moon sounded like a spokesman for Kim Jong-Un by singing the praises of […]