Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The political choreography was classic. The staging was epic. But the outcome remains unpredictable. North Korea’s reclusive leader Kim Jong-Un and his entourage secretly rolled into Beijing on a special armored train later to be greeted and then feted by the Supreme Leader of the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The appointment of John Bolton as President Trump’s national security adviser portends a tough U.S. policy toward the North even as South Korea’s President Moon Jae-In is planning to meet North Korea’s Kim Jong-Un in late April and Trump is to see Kim in May. Conservatives in the U.S. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty U.S. President Donald Trump is replacing National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster with former UN Ambassador John Bolton, an outspoken hawk who has advocated using military force against Iran and North Korea. Trump tweeted late on March 22 that McMaster, 55, had done “an outstanding job and […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The fate of three American citizens still imprisoned in North Korea is on the line in a flurry of talks between North Korean and Swedish diplomats in the run-up to next month’s summit between North Korea’s leader KimJong-Un and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-In and then the summit in […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has accused Iran of “mucking around” in Iraq’s parliamentary elections, in which Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi is seeking another term in office in May. “Iran is following Russia’s example of mucking around in Iraq’s elections,” Mattis told reporters as he returned […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty U.S. President Donald Trump has said he wants the U.S. military to create a new “space force” that would be separate from the Pentagon’s current army, navy, and air force. Trump told troops at the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station near San Diego on March 13 […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk Don’t hold your breath. We’ve been disappointed so often in moves toward North-South reconciliation that it’s hard to believe any face-to-face talks between President Moon Jae-In and North Korea’s “respected leader” Kim Jong-Un will lead to resolution of a nuclear crisis that’s only worsened in recent years. But wait! […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk SEOUL — U.S. President Donald Trump is putting the best face on the agreement for North and South Korean leaders to meet next month at the truce village of Panmunjom, on the North-South line 55 kilometers north of Seoul for the third inter-Korean summit. Despite pervasive doubts about North […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk SEOUL — Whenever experts talk about “confederation” or “reunification” between North and South Korea, they overlook the fate of tens of thousands of people confined to prison camps in the North for offenses that might threaten the regime. Examples of such “crimes” include Christian worship, possession of a bible […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty WASHINGTON — If it hasn’t started already, then a new arms race is almost certainly about to get under way, arms-control experts and analysts warn. With his announcement that Russia has developed new strategic weapons, including a nuclear-powered missile that he said can fly indefinitely and […]
