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Donald Kirk

www.donaldkirk.com

Hither and Yon

As U.S. loses ‘its edge’, India looks to South Korea for defense options

April 17, 2015
Tags: Manohar Parrikar, India, Korea, Pakistan, China, Lakhvinder Singh, arms sales, Great Game
Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
The Great Game for Asia is assuming new dimensions.
Korea counts on the U.S. for some of its most advanced weaponry, but Korea also is a source for weapons technology and components. That’s why India’s defense minister, Manohar Parrikar is in Seoul  Read More 
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Checking out the cars on display and ranking the shapely models that aren’t actual accessories

April 10, 2015
Tags: Hyundai, Seoul Motor Show, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Citroen, GM Korea, Kia, Renault Samsung
Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
Beautiful women don’t have a lot to do with the graceful curves of a new motor vehicle, but you might not know that from visiting the Seoul Motor Show. By tradition, most manufacturers have assumed they can show off their cars far more effectively  Read More 
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"Whiplash": Is backlash due to the secret sauce of cultural and Korean excellence?

April 5, 2015
Tags: Whiplash, J.K. Simmons, Miles Teller, Oscars, school bullying, south korea
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 
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2 tough Asian leaders will be rememered longer than nicer mediocrities

March 26, 2015
Tags: Lee Kuan Yew, Park Chung-hee, Kim Dae-jung, Singapore, Korea, Kim Il-sung, Park Geun-hye, Lee Hsien Loong, Chun Doo-hwan
Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
When it comes to judging the performance of deceased national leaders under the icy glare of historical research, strongmen go down in collective memory as tough guys who defeated their enemies and built up their countries. Weak leaders are often regarded as mediocrities, especially if  Read More 
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Irreconcilable differences: Let’s not go to pieces over peace

March 21, 2015
Tags: BenjaminNetanyahu, John Boehner, Palestine, two-state solution, Gaza strip, Israel, North Korea, Kashmir, India, Pakistan
Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
Some of the terrible problems we read, hear and talk about so often are beyond solution.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated this week that as long as he was in office there would not be a Palestinian state. The two-state idea, he said,  Read More 
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Friend or foe? Attacks on U.S. ambassadors in safe neighborhoods

March 12, 2015
Tags: Mark Lippert, Hirobumi Ito, Edwin O. Reischauer, Ahn Jung-geun, south korea, Japan
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 
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Dealing with Iran: Give diplomacy a shot

March 7, 2015
Tags: Netanyahu, Iran, Persia, North Korea, Israel, ISIL
Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s exhortations to the U.S. Congress to forget about a “bad deal” with Iran avoids one problem. Absent a deal, who believes Iran will scale down its nuclear program? Is Iran likely to give up on the whole idea  Read More 
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With all the angst over Netanyahu’s visit and Iran, why no mention of North Korea?

February 26, 2015
Tags: Netanyahu, Boehner, Iran, nuclear program, North Korea
Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
President Obama faces a foreign policy predicament of gigantic proportions.
The leader of Israel is coming to Washington, doing an end run around the White House, taking his case to a Republican-controlled Congress that’s eager for just about any excuse to pillory the President.
 Read More 
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As Korean crisis looms, a Kissingeresque 'Peace-is-at-hand' fix is the wrong answer

February 12, 2015
Tags: Kissinger, John Negroponte, Paris peace, Rory Kennedy, "Last Days in Vietnam, " North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Le Duc Tho
As Korean crisis looms, a Kissingeresque ‘Peace-is-at-hand’ fix is the wrong answer
Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
Comparisons between the Korean and Vietnam wars have always been misleading if not ridiculous, never more so than when Henry Kissinger, in a new documentary, “Last Days in Vietnam,” says that he  Read More 
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What Kenji Goto understood that his killers did not

February 5, 2015
Tags: kenji goto, ISIS, Vietnam, Cambodia, Baghdad, Iraq, Syria, ISIL, ampatuan, Philippines, maguindanao
Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
The murder of journalists at the hands of ISIS forces shows how far a few daring correspondents will go to find out what’s going on.
Covering wars has always been hazardous, never more so than when highly resourceful, motivated reporters go beyond the protective  Read More 
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