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Hither and Yon

How I got into the closing ceremonies at the PyeongChang Winter Games

March 2, 2018

Special to WorldTribune.com

By Donald Kirk

PYEONGCHANG ― Now I know firsthand what they’re talking about when they say the Russians are tricky. Yes, they’ve gotten into American and other websites, tried to sway the U.S. presidential election and are not to be trusted, but those were media reports. In  Read More 
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South Korea’s new leadership has a record of promoting summitry with North Korea

May 11, 2017
Special to WorldTribune.com

By Donald Kirk

The drama of South Korean history opens a tumultuous new act with the election of a liberal labor lawyer who has promised both to bring about detente with North Korea and satisfy the demands of restive masses fed up with alleged rightist abuses.

Whether Moon Jae-In  Read More 
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Make believe war games south of the DMZ, but what if the North is for real?

By World Tribune on November 10, 2016
Special to WorldTribune.com

By Donald Kirk

An air of unreality pervaded the atmosphere if not the skies over Osan Air Base this week as three of the niftiest warplanes on the planet zoomed off the runway for war games intended to strengthen their ability to work together to  Read More 
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Girl talk: Imagine what Hillary Clinton and South Korea’s Park Geun-Hye discussed in private

November 3, 2016
Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk

[Editors’ note: South Korean President Park Geun-Hye, the country’s first female president, is facing her biggest political crisis since coming to power in 2013. A close female friend, Choi Soon-Sil, 60, is accused of selling influence. She is the daughter of late religious leader Choi Tae-Min, who  Read More 
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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  Read More 
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Do North Korean propaganda writers really want to channel Abraham Lincoln

Do North Korean propaganda writers really want to channel Abraham Lincoln
Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
WASHINGTON – Credit someone in North Korea with a sense of historical irony. Who would have thought anyone up there would have dreamed of writing an imaginary letter from Abraham Lincoln to President Obama berating  Read More 
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Conflict resolution 101: Here’s how the U.S. should talk with the North Koreans

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
Listen to people talking about the panacea of “dialogue” and “a peace treaty” with North Korea.
They make it seem so simple. We need to talk, they say. We’ll never come to terms with North Korea if we don’t talk.
One advocate of  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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Media freedom on trial in Seoul

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
The zeal with which the Korean government pursued the case of Tatsuya Kato, charged with criminal libel, bears disturbing parallels to the records of other countries that prosecute critics. The charge of libel is a favorite weapon of authorities in Singapore and Malaysia, to name  Read More 
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Obama welcomes Xi: A matter of ‘optics’ and not much else

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
WASHINGTON -- China President Xi Jinping’s meeting with President Obama Friday is sure to be an exercise in double-and-triple talk that will sorely test the skills of both of them in papering over, covering up and otherwise evading issues that neither of them is going  Read More 
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