KAMRAN ALISHOV WRITES-The United Nations Security Council announced an emergency meeting following North Korea’s latest missile launch. On October 19th, North Korea fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile into waters off the coast of Japan. The information was immediately confirmed by South Korea’s military. At around 10:17 am, South Korea’s Joint…
Tag: Pyongyang
NORTH-SOUTH DIVIDE: ONLY KOREANS THEMSELVES CAN FIND A WAY OUT OF THE IMPASSE
TOM PLATE WRITES — Frustrations come with any occupation, and writing columns about Asia and America, as I have without stop for 25 years, is no exception. Asia is powerful and dynamic, and one size does not fit all. But, for me, no one subject has proven more elusive and…
NORTH KOREA: WHAT’S NEXT UNDER THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION?
VALERIA GURROLA WRITES — April 30th, 2021, marks US President Biden’s first one hundred days since taking office in January at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic in the United States. He has wasted no time setting the tone for the future of North Korean relations. North Korea must denuclearize—or…
KOREAN PENINSULA: HOPES AND FEARS ABOUT BIDEN’S NORTH KOREAN POLICY
MOON CHUNG-IN WRITES — While it doesn’t appear that the Joe Biden administration has completed its review of North Korea policy yet, the outlines of that policy seem to be slowly taking shape. Ned Price, a spokesperson for the US State Department, said on Feb. 12 that the North Korean…
KOREAN PENINSULA: THERE MAY BE NO WAY OUT
This following is a special and important interview with South Korea’s special presidential advisor Moon Ching-in that appeared in the Korea Times on November 01, 2018 – By Kim Bo-eun, Kim Yoo-chul Differences between South Korea and the United States on how to push North Korea’s denuclearization are standing out…
SOUTH KOREA: KOREA TIMES REPRINTS SO-CALLED ‘PLATE PROPOSAL’ FOR CHINA-US ACCORD ON DPRK
TOM PLATE WRITES IN THE KOREA TIMES OF SEOUL – The need for China and the United States to come together in a persistently adult geopolitical two-some has never been more urgent. Gamesmanship must be minimized. Statesmanship must be maximized. Just ask Mr. Ban Ki-moon, career diplomat. The other night…
HONG KONG: SO WHO IS XI JINPING?
TOM PLATE WRITES – Begin with the unpretentious wisdom of the late Yogi Berra, a notably inarticulate Hall of Fame baseball player celebrated for memorable ‘Yogi-isms’: “It’s tough to make predictions,” one went, “especially about the future.” But the wish for the better can parent premature thoughts; the caring media…
NORTH KOREA: How the Other 90% Lives
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – When two Associated Press journalists visited North Korea over the summer, they saw things few, if any, foreigners have ever seen. No, they did not see concentration camps or nuclear weapons. But they did get to see what life is like for North Koreans from all…
NORTH KOREA: Miracle on the 38th Parallel
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – Miracles happen every day, and the Korean Peninsula’s latest political development proves this. How else can you explain the fact that North and South Korea appear to be discussing a return to peaceful negotiations? At the Asian Games’ closing ceremony earlier this month, North Korean officials…
NORTH KOREA: Human Rights Capital of the World?
RYAN LIPPERT WRITES – Certainly a country with the title “The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea” is all about freedom and equality…right? Earlier this year, the United Nations published a report on the state of human rights in North Korea. It found that the country has one of the worst human…
LOS ANGELES: How to Handle Difficult North Korea
A GUEST COLUMN BY SPENCER KIM, A MEMBER OF THE U.S. COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS — North Korea has successfully, sort of, launched a long-range missile. We are outraged. We want more sanctions; we want to pressure them till they say uncle or collapse. We wonder how China could be…
NORTH KOREA: Students Allowed Rare Access to Internet
In isolated and government-controlled North Korea, students are being given a surprisingly liberal opportunity. According to The Korea Times, a widely circulated English-language daily newspaper in South Korea, some students at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) are accessing the Internet, albeit for purely research-oriented purposes. PUST is a…
NORTH KOREA: A Rare View of NK Public Opinion Thanks to Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) reported from Pyongyang on the recent announcement of the United States and North Korean agreement to freeze North Korea’s nuclear activities in exchange for much needed food aid. Washington sees this as a promising first step towards discussing disarmament; yet, according to the AP, “rare interviews”…
THE TWO KOREAS: The Reaction to Pyongyang’s Overture (an Update)
The Western news media – and especially The Economist Magazine of London – have been almost incautiously optimistic about recent diplomatic developments coming out of North Korea. But the media in South Korea has been rather cautious about Pyongyang’s latest pitch to suspend parts of its nuclear program, to allow…
NORTH KOREA: College Students Get Third Degree on Hurry-up Construction Sites
Pictures taken in North Korea by an American tourist purport to show that the country is mobilizing college students to help finish massive construction projects in time for the nation’s centennial birthday celebration of its late founder Kim Il-Sung, according to Yonhap News Agency, the leading news agency of South Korea.
NORTH KOREA: Communist Country’s Citizens Stranded Across the Middle East
North Korean citizens are stranded in the Middle East, specifically Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, and Kuwait. They are being prevented from returning home, for fear that they would spread news of the social unrest in the region throughout North Korea.