by WorldTribune Staff, May 21, 2021 Following Japan’s surrender in World War II and its occupation, headed by the “blue-eyed shogun: Gen. Douglas MacArthur, it adopted a “Peace Constitution” and has strictly limited defense spending since to less than 1 percent of its GDP. That’s about to change. Citing China’s increased capabilities in new areas […]
by WorldTribune Staff, January 5, 2021 Kim Yo-Jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, is reportedly poised to become the first woman dictator in modern history. Some who watch the secretive nation even believe she may have already ascended to that position. “The star of the younger sister of North Korea’s leader […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk South Korean leadership, by banning defectors from launching balloons wafting leaflets over North Korea, has struck a devastating blow against free speech and freedom of information in both Koreas. The anti-leaflet legislation is inspiring an adverse reaction not only in Seoul but also at the United Nations and in […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The North Korean economy is in such dire straits that none of the experts know quite what to do about it other than beg Kim Jong-Un, please, sir, reform the economy and do away with your nuclear program in return for sanctions relief and a lot of aid. If […]
Special to WorldTribune.com [Editor’s Note: Far East Correspondent Donald Kirk is back in the United States on leave.] By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON — The outbreak of protests in cities and even small communities across the U.S. reveals not only the extremes but also the confusion in American life. While the liberal media focuses on the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk China looms like an enormous bullying giant above its borders with India stretching more than 4,000 kilometers from the high Himalayas to the west to more mountains and lower level frontiers to the east. In between is Nepal, over which China wields increasing influence, and Bhutan, which is tied […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk SEOUL — The insistence of a pair of brothers on scattering hundreds of thousands of leaflets from balloons fired over North Korea confronts the South with tough questions. Is it worth upsetting North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and his sister, Kim Yo-Jong, knowing the negative effects the leaflets are […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The Samsung empire’s de facto leader, Jay Y. Lee, is a free man despite the best efforts of Korean government prosecutors to lock him up while he faces yet another trial to keep him from taking over the group as the only son of Lee Kun-Hee, still hospitalized and […]
by WorldTribune Staff, May 29, 2020 Details about what happened in Gwangju, South Korea from May 18 through May 27, 1980, remain elusive four decades later as the nation commemorates a watershed tragedy. It remains a highly-charged subject in which the roles of the governments of the United States and South Korea in suppressing the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has dodged a bullet, meaning the onslaught of speculation about whether he was dead or alive, ill or just avoiding the coronavirus. It’s amazing how quickly and easily many of us were taken in by the initial report on the Daily NK, based on […]
