Unlikely Free Press champions: Defectors send balloons and leaflets North, rattling a nuclear power

By on    Columnists, COMMENTARY, Donald Kirk, Exclusives, NE Asia, North Korea, Rest of The Best, South Korea, Top Stories  

Unlikely Free Press champions: Defectors send balloons and leaflets North, rattling a nuclear power

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 […]

From ‘Sunshine’ to ‘Moonshine’: Seoul bureaucrats debate name for new N. Korea policy

By on    BB NE Asia, NE Asia, North Korea, South Korea, Top Stories, World Links, World Tribune  

From ‘Sunshine’ to ‘Moonshine’: Seoul bureaucrats debate name for new N. Korea policy

by WorldTribune Staff, June 11, 2017 Seoul insiders and observers are suggesting that liberal South Korean President Moon Jae-In name his North Korea policy “Moonshine” in the spirit of former liberal leader Kim Dae-Jung’s “Sunshine” policy. Both Koreas have political systems that assign unification of the divided country as the top priority. The Korean War […]

South Korean intelligence plot to purchase Peace Prize targeted the international media

By on    BB NE Asia, Columnists, Donald Kirk, Exclusives, Geostrategy-Direct, NE Asia, North Korea, South Korea, Stateside, Top Stories, U.S. Intelligence, U.S. Media, Washington  

South Korean intelligence plot to purchase Peace Prize targeted the international media

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk Following is the fifth 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”. While the governments of South Korea and the United States helped suppress publication […]

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

By on    BB NE Asia, Columnists, Donald Kirk, Exclusives, North Korea, South Korea, Top Stories, U.S. Intelligence, Washington  

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 […]

Daughter of a controversial leader runs for president of South Korea

By on    Exclusives, Life, NE Asia, South Korea, Top Stories  

Daughter of a controversial leader runs for president of South Korea

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The specter of Park Geun-Hye running for president of the Republic of Korea evokes almost as many memories for those foreigners who were here during the reign of her father as it does for millions of Koreans who share quite differing perspectives. As a journalist in pursuit of […]

China finally feeling heat over its ‘repatriation’ of N. Korean defectors to their doom

By on    China, Exclusives, Life, NE Asia, North Korea, South Korea, Top Stories  

China finally feeling heat over its ‘repatriation’ of N. Korean defectors to their doom

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — Star power, political pressure and diplomacy may be forcing the Chinese into second thoughts about their much reviled policy of sending North Korean defectors back to uncertain fates in North Korea whenever they catch them. In the face of pleas by well known performers and South […]