Part 2: South Korean intelligence officer had to fight both Seoul and the Dept. of Homeland Security for asylum in the U.S.

Part 2: South Korean intelligence officer had to fight both Seoul and the Dept. of Homeland Security for asylum in the U.S.

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk Following is an excerpt from a book by WorldTribune and Geostrategy-Direct columnist Donald Kirk and the Korean author Kim Ki-Sam, “How South Korea’s Kim Dae-Jung bought his Peace Prize and financed Kim Jong-Il’s nuclear program”. South Korea’s first woman president has been impeached over allegations involving a confidante, but […]

Brave new cyber-spy world: From Moscow with love-hate

Brave new cyber-spy world: From Moscow with love-hate

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON – Once upon a time, in an era that’s faded into the near-forgotten history of The Cold War, Moscow was the enemy, and those who believed otherwise were labeled “comsymps” for Communist sympathizers. The phenomenon of “the Red scare,” meaning the fears inflicted by the specter of “commies” […]

Rogue states search Trump tweets for clues as Oval Office awaits new occupant

Rogue states search Trump tweets for clues as Oval Office awaits new occupant

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON ― President-elect Donald Trump will be flexing America’s muscles against both China and North Korea from almost the moment he sits down in the Oval Office of the White House, at least to judge from his recent tweets. “China has been taking out massive amounts of money & […]

Yankee go home, Yankee hang around: Mixed messages from East Asia

Yankee go home, Yankee hang around: Mixed messages from East Asia

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, is riding a populist wave with his declarations that he doesn’t need American military or commercial aid or agreements for U.S. forces to advise and assist the armed forces of the Philippines. He seems to want to reverse careful efforts on both […]

North Korea ecstatic as mass protests neutralize a resolute leader in Seoul

North Korea ecstatic as mass protests neutralize a resolute leader in Seoul

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk Too bad President-elect Donald Trump’s phone call to President Park Geun-Hye the day after his victory may be his only chance to talk with her. Even if she’s still in the Blue House when he moves into the White House, she’ll be in no position to display her leadership […]

North Korea ‘experts’ agree on the certainty of uncertain outcomes

North Korea ‘experts’ agree on the certainty of uncertain outcomes

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com JEJU ― Ask an expert analyst how to deal with North Korea, and the responses range from getting tough to massaging gently. Nobody has the real answer ― though some people like to talk with absolute certainty ― and there’s no proof that anything’s going to work. The […]

Art of the deal: How about a summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un at the Korean DMZ?

Art of the deal: How about a summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un at the Korean DMZ?

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com Donald Trump may be running neck and neck with Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential sweepstakes if the polls are at all credible, but there’s one constituency in which he appears to be well ahead. That’s within the ruling circles in Pyongyang. He’s winning popularity there for two […]

South Korea’s Park rains on Kim Jong Un’s coronation parade

South Korea’s Park rains on Kim Jong Un’s coronation parade

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com Kim Jong-Un celebrates his “coronation” in Pyongyang Friday while forgetting about one unpleasant reality that deepens North Korea’s isolation in an already hostile world. He presides over North Korea’s biggest-ever party, the Seventh Workers’ Party Congress, while Iran, his longtime partner in nuclear crime, vastly improves its ties […]

A filmmaker’s stealth coup: Zooming in on North Korean mind control

A filmmaker’s stealth coup: Zooming in on North Korean mind control

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com Russian documentary filmmaker Vitaly Mansky has managed to bamboozle his North Korean hosts in a confidence game that’s one of the greater journalistic coups ever scored against the regime. Mansky, having given the North Koreans the clear impression that he wanted to collaborate fully with them, totally deceived […]

The New York Times vs. consummate New Yorker Donald Trump

The New York Times vs. consummate New Yorker Donald Trump

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com WASHINGTON ― Talk about local boy making good, and then look at the case of Donald Trump. He’s a New Yorker through and through ― looks, talks and acts like one, arrogant, sneering and sure of himself. So what are the New York papers saying about him? Clearly, […]