Donald Kirk

By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
The United Nations as a force for peace has never lived up to the hopes implicit in the name.
You can’t blame a succession of secretary-generals for the failures of the UN The current secretary-general, Ban Ki-Moon, may seem bland and ineffective, but there’s not much he  Read More 

Some in carefree Seoul worry about waging futuristic wars in the here and now
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
SEOUL — Star Wars is coming. Wait around long enough, and we’ll see missiles and interceptor projectiles knocking each other out in great blazes of flashing light hundreds of miles above from where we cower  Read More 

By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
Shots of the treacherously swirling seas off Korea’s southwestern coast in the film “Roaring Currents” — about an epic battle in which Adm. Yi Sun-sin’s iron-clad turtle boats withstood a Japanese fleet — conjure images of how the overloaded ferry the Sewol sank in those same waters in April.
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By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
History is full of such twists, turn and reversals. What are we to think of an American four-star general, medals and ribbons dripping from his chest, showing up in Hanoi talking up the idea of the U.S. shipping arms to the regime that dealt the U.S. the  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 

By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
The visit of Pope Francis to Korea coincides with the 69th anniversary tomorrow, Friday, Aug. 15, of the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II.
The eyes of the world will be on the pontiff as he celebrates Mass in Daejeon’s World Cup Stadium on Asian Youth  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 

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
Rocketing, bombing and bloodshed in the Middle East from Gaza to Syria and Iraq provide a bonanza for the world’s arms-manufacturers, none more than the North Koreans and the Americans.
For North Korea, the more rockets and missiles that are fired, the more they  Read More 

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk
The news from Ukraine and the Middle East carries grave implications for Northeast Asia, notably the Korean Peninsula.
Just think of all those missiles and artillery shells fired by North Korea over the east coast — generally without warning commercial airlines to stay away.
North Korean leader Kim  Read More 

Special to WorldTribune.com
By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com
China’s President Xi Jinping makes a careful distinction between U.S. President Obama and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. It’s OK to talk to the former, just not the latter. And so Xi and Obama got on the phone earlier this week  Read More