Donald Kirk

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 

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
The temptation to slash defense spending is overwhelming. Why worry about huge standing forces overseas when they’re not deployed much except on military exercises and war games that are repetitious and boring?
Easy to say, but the U.S. had only 500 advisers in South  Read More 

JIJI
JUN 30, 2015

SEOUL – A freelance U.S. journalist testified in a Seoul court that South Korea’s indictment of Japanese reporter Tatsuya Kato for allegedly defaming President Park Geun-hye was excessive.

Donald Kirk, 77, was testifying Monday at the Seoul Central District Court as a witness for Kato, 49, a former Seoul bureau chief for the  Read More 

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
AIDS, SARS, MERS ― the four-letter acronyms leap from the headlines like killers in a horror movie each time the latest deadly disease spreads shock and awe among people to whom the inability to find cures seems unimaginable.
It was just a century or so ago  Read More 

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
A crew member on the flight from London to Washington was quite emphatic when I asked his advice about what movie to choose. He said he’d seen a lot of people watching “Whiplash.”
Often, I don’t watch much of anything on planes. I’ Read More 

By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
Incredibly, crackpots on the left, quick to echo any line from North Korea, compare the attack on U.S. ambassador Mark Lippert to the assassination of Hirobumi Ito, Japanese resident-general of Korea in the early days of the Japanese colonial era. I’ve received messages to that effect from  Read More 

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
The growth of megachurches worldwide is a phenomenon in which thousands of individual churches or parishes each claim more than 2,000 members.
The Full Gospel Church in Yeoeuido is the world’s largest, with hundreds of thousands attending 10 or more services every Sunday. Nearly half the  Read More 

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
A lot of Koreans don’t know it, but Korea is cool.
Three newly published books say so. Two of them even have “cool” in the title — “The Birth of Korean Cool” by Euny Hong, who describes herself as having “spent her childhood in Chicago and in  Read More 

COMMENT›INSIGHT & OPINION
Pope's visit to Korea raises questions about plight of Christians
Donald Kirk says religious persecution is going on today in North Korea
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 14 August, 2014, 12:11pm
UPDATED : Friday, 15 August, 2014, 2:46am
Donald Kirk

Pope Francis will spend five days travelling around South Korea and meeting some of the country's five million Catholics  Read More 

Mini-wars and world wars: Some uncomfortable comparisons
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
Conflict between Israel and the Hamas bears some startling resemblances to that between North and South Korea. Think about it:
Israel and North Korea are both essentially client states. Israel couldn’t fight anyone, could not exist surrounded by Arab enemies, without  Read More