Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk BUSAN ― Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, had his hands in his pockets and a bored expression on his rugged face as President Moon Jae-In extolled high-tech Korean manufacturers on the big day of his summit with the leaders of 10 Southeast Asian countries. Having sat or […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — In an annual process of diplomatic musical chairs the 193 member UN General Assembly has picked five countries to serve on the Security Council as non-permanent members. Estonia, Niger, Tunisia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Vietnam were elected to two-year terms on the powerful […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — “Sometimes you have to walk,” was President Donald Trump’s stunning conclusion to the U.S./North Korea Summit in Hanoi, where political great expectations seemed to get ahead of the hard reality that Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program created an impasse to an expected diplomatic agreement between the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk HANOI ― The slogan, “Hanoi, City for Peace,” would have seemed unimaginable when I was a correspondent in Saigon at the height of the Vietnam War nearly half a century ago. This capital of what we then called “North” Vietnam was the heart of a desperate surge southward that […]
by WorldTribune Staff, February 27, 2019 The United States is ready to help North Korea reach its economic potential, President Donald Trump said on Feb. 27 as he met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in Hanoi, Vietnam. “I think that your country has tremendous economic potential, unbelievable, unlimited,” Trump said. “And I think that […]
by WorldTribune Staff, February 26, 2019 After a 65-hour trek across China on his green, bulletproof train, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un arrived at Dong Dang Railway Station at the Vietnam-China border at around 8:10 a.m. on Feb. 26. Accustomed to complete control of public information back home where the state media dominate, there was […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By John J. Metzler PARIS — The very name Cambodia evokes tragic memories and historical passions. This small Southeast Asian land which was ravaged by the communist Khmer Rouge genocide a generation ago, then occupied by neighboring Vietnam, and later, resuscitated back to life by a long forgotten United Nations peacekeeping and […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk What is this disturbing nonsense we sometimes hear about a “Vietnam model” for permanent peace on the Korean peninsula? Whoever’s talking about that either has to be joking or is totally unaware of the tragedy that befell South Vietnam after the signing of the “Paris peace accords” that were […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Geostrategy-Direct A report in Beijing’s state media said China’s increasing military “competitiveness” is making the United States “uneasy” and is contributing to the Americans’ need for more muscle flexing, namely the deployment of the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier group to the South China Sea. The U.S. carrier group, which includes […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia ― How quickly we forget. Memories, dates and events fade away, only to be revived on anniversaries. A lot of historical events are barely recalled. I was in a country named “South” Vietnam 50 years ago when North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces attacked almost every […]