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Hither and Yon

A filmmaker’s stealth coup: Zooming in on North Korean mind control

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
Russian documentary filmmaker Vitaly Mansky has managed to bamboozle his North Korean hosts in a confidence game that’s one of the greater journalistic coups ever scored against the regime.
Mansky, having given the North Koreans the clear impression that he wanted to collaborate fully  Read More 
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By ‘invitation’ only: North Korea’s blunt force approach to foreign language education

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
North Koreans some years ago had an unusual way of acquiring professional expertise in teaching people foreign languages.
Rather than advertise for teachers, they kidnapped native speakers. Most of them were Japanese, but they also captured likely candidates from Europe and the Middle East.
Robert  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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Pop quiz: Is North Korea a terrorist state? Yes or no?

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
WASHINGTON ― Here’s a question people here keep asking: Is North Korea a terrorist state?
Forget about the missile shots. They’ve all landed in the sea and harmed no one. What about the nuclear tests? They dislocated some rocks deep underground but were otherwise  Read More 
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The New York Times vs. consummate New Yorker Donald Trump

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
WASHINGTON ― Talk about local boy making good, and then look at the case of Donald Trump.
He’s a New Yorker through and through ― looks, talks and acts like one, arrogant, sneering and sure of himself. So what are the New York papers saying  Read More 
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How the U.S. handles the baddest of bad actors: ISIL, Cuba and North Korea

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
WASHINGTON – The hype surrounding President Obama’s visit to Cuba quickly gave way to fear and loathing as the world absorbed the news of the slaughter perpetrated in Brussels, for which ISIL, the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, immediately claimed “credit.”
No sooner were  Read More 
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Back in the USA and tracking the news on Interstate 40: North Korea? Where?

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, EastAsiaIntel.com
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas ― North Korea’s top gun will have to try harder if he expects his threats of another nuclear test will win serious consideration in a U.S. presidential election year.
Driving through the American heartland, you hear hardly a thing about  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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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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