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Hither and Yon

Burma and North Korea? No comparison

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
Comparisons between North Korea and Burma (also known as Myanmar) over the years have suggested that the two nations share some of the same problems.
However, even in the worst periods of military dictatorship, Burma never bore any similarity to North Korea. The contrast extends  Read More 
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North Korea triggers a U.S. missile defense showdown among major powers

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
North Korean rocket launches and nuclear tests risk getting boring.
The pattern is familiar: expressions of outrage, loud condemnation ― then nothing. Has the latest one-two punch of nuclear test and rocket launch changed a thing? The easy answer is not really ― but think again. The  Read More 
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Conflicting U.S. views on conflict resolution with N. Korea: What if there is no solution?

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
Donald Gregg, U.S. ambassador to Korea as the country was making the transition to democracy in the early 1990s, did not take kindly to my column [A former U.S. diplomat’s inexplicable defense of Kim Jong-Un] in which I quoted him, accurately, as  Read More 
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A former U.S. diplomat’s inexplicable defense of Kim Jong-Un

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
Donald Gregg, former U.S. ambassador to Korea, makes an astounding statement in a piece published after North Korea’s fourth nuclear test.
Striking “a very positive note,” he praises “the performance of Kim Jong-Un in improving the North Korean economy and downplaying nuclear threats  Read More 
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Asian summitry roars to a climax: With so much talk, what could go wrong?

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
It’s the season for summits with heavy overtones for Northeast Asia. After President Park Geun-Hye met President Barack Obama in Washington and President Xi Jinping in Beijing, after Xi met Obama in Washington, after President Putin saw Obama at the United Nations and Xi  Read More 
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Asian summitry roars to a climax: With so much talk, what could go wrong?

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
It’s the season for summits with heavy overtones for Northeast Asia. After President Park Geun-Hye met President Barack Obama in Washington and President Xi Jinping in Beijing, after Xi met Obama in Washington, after President Putin saw Obama at the United Nations and Xi  Read More 
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China’s loud signal to North Korea reminded Kim Jong-Un he’s not his own man

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
Conflict with South Korea is a gambit that North Korea cannot afford.
Much as leader Kim Jong-Un may have yearned to humiliate the South by ordering gunfire against the mega-loudspeakers broadcasting music, news and invidious commentary into the North from below the Demilitarized Zone, he  Read More 
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Shared Pain of War and Colonisation Does Little to Heal Korea's Bitter Divisions

COMMENT›INSIGHT & OPINION
Donald Kirk sees no sign of a breakthrough in North-South relations, despite efforts to bridge the gap, as they separately mark their liberation from colonial rule

The tragedy of Korea is that "liberation" on August 15, 1945, was the prelude not to lasting peace and freedom but to the division of the peninsula  Read More 
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Korea Still Threatened by Imminent War 70 Years After Japan's Surrender

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
SEOUL — The looming 70th anniversary of the Japanese surrender and Korea’s ”liberation” reminds us of the dangers of new wars in a region where peace may be a fleeting phenomenon. North Korea, writhing under the humiliation of the failure of “Great Leader” Kim Il-Sung’ Read More 
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Spyware that targeted Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi deployed against Kim Jong-Un?

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
SEOUL — Cyber espionage is the cutting edge of modern warfare.
Think of all the great stuff intelligence agents learn from monitoring the conversations of just about everyone. The only problem is how to separate the meaningless, which means almost everything, from the inside clues that  Read More 
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