Meanwhile, in N. Korea

Africa strategy

World Tribune TV

Cosmic Tribune

Home » NE Asia “NE Asia”

Asia’s bloody border wars: The Koreas and Pakistan-India

Nawaz Sharif at his home near Lahore, Pakistan, May 13. /Roberto Schmidt/AFP/Getty Images

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com NEW DELHI — North Korean declarations of “a state of war” on the Korean peninsula tend to make people forget bloodier border confrontations elsewhere in Asia. None is more volatile than the standoff along nearly 3,000 kilometers of heavily guarded fencing that separates Pakistan from India. Koreans point [...]

Posted in BB Top Story,Exclusives,India,Mideast,NE Asia,North Korea,Pakistan,South Korea,Top Stories | Read More »

Kim Jong-Un shifts focus to economy from military escalation

An undated photo released on April 28 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un visiting the Haedanghwa Health Complex with wife Ri Sol-Ju.  /European Pressphoto Agency

Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un who mobilized the military and threatened U.S. allies with Weapons of Mass Destruction for the past months has shifted his focus to the economic front. On March 31, the Workers’ Party adopted the country’s “new strategic course of parallel economic construction and nuclear weapons development [...]

Posted in BB NORTH EAST ASIA,Exclusives,Intel Brief,Life,NE Asia,North Korea,Top Stories | Read More »

Inside China: Tough talking Xi Jinping goes easy on rampant PLA corruption

Gen. Xu Caihou, left, and Chinese President Hu Jintao at banquet marking the 63th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on Sept. 29, 2012.  /Feng Li/Getty Images AsiaPac

Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com After becoming simultaneously General Secretary and Chairman of the Central Military Commission at the 18th Chinese Communist Party Congress last November, Xi Jinping put it as its top priority to consolidate his power base in the People’s Liberation Army. He also wanted to build up his credentials as [...]

Posted in BB Top Story,China,Exclusives,Intel Brief,NE Asia,Newsletter,Recent Hits,Top Stories,World Links | Read More »

Kenneth Bae’s unforgiveable ‘crime’: Christianity

KennethBae-300x153

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The outlook for Kenneth Bae, the American preacher/tour guide who’s been sentenced to 15 years hard labor in North Korea, is bleak. That’s because his offenses against the system sound a lot more serious than those of three people rescued by former American presidents in great blazes of [...]

Posted in BB NORTH EAST ASIA,Exclusives,NE Asia,North Korea,Stateside,Top Stories,U.S. Intelligence | Read More »

N. Korean paratroopers exercise near China to block defections; border villages demolished

Chinese soldiers on patrol near the North Korean border.  /AFP

Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com North Korean troops have demolished villages near the border with China and forcibly relocated residents to prevent defections that could threaten the Kim Jong-Un regime, sources in Seoul said. “North Korea has been tearing down villages along the Duman (Tumen) River and relocating villagers to places further from the border,” [...]

Posted in BB NORTH EAST ASIA,China,Exclusives,Intel Brief,Life,NE Asia,North Korea,Top Stories | Read More »

‘Get ready to fight’: China shifts from Deng’s ‘low profile’ to Mao’s aggression

A Chinese paramilitary policeman stands guard in front of the portrait of former Chinese Leader Mao Zedong near Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Nothing illustrates better the conservative turn that Chinese politics and foreign policy have taken under the Xi Jinping administration than the way ministers and senior cadres are reviving the credos – and familiar sayings – of Chairman Mao Zedong. Consider the reaction of the new Chinese ambassador to [...]

Posted in BB Inside China,China,Exclusives,Intel Brief,Life,NE Asia,Stateside,Top Stories,U.S. Intelligence | Read More »

Netanyahu, in Beijing, urged not to push issue of Iran’s nuclear program

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  /Reuters/Aly Song

Special to WorldTribune.com TEL AVIV — Israel’s leading strategic institute has urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to focus on Iran’s nuclear program in his forthcoming visit to China. The Institute for National Security Studies said the Netanyahu visit to China on May 6, the first in more than six years, marked an opportunity to [...]

Posted in BB NORTH EAST ASIA,China,Exclusives,Israel,Mideast,NE Asia,Newsletter | Read More »

More Chinese trouble, this time on top of the world

High stake in India's high country.  /economist.com

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com NEW DELHI — Chinese forces have staged an “intrusion” into Indian territory that would have been top world news had they been North Korean troops straying across the DMZ into South Korea. On China’s outer fringes, a few dozen Chinese troops huddled in tents at an altitude of [...]

Posted in BB NORTH EAST ASIA,China,Exclusives,India,Life,Mideast,NE Asia,Newsletter,Top Stories | Read More »

North Korea approaches Iran for possible weapons-for-oil deal

An Iranian oil tanker docks with an oil facility owned by the Iranian National Oil Company in the Persian Gulf.

Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — Facing toughened international sanctions for its latest nuclear and missile programs, North Korea has reached out to another blacklisted rogue state for a possible weapons-for-oil deal. Pyongyang recently sent an energy delegation led by Crude Oil Industry Minister Pae Hak to Iran, which holds the world’s fourth-largest proven [...]

Posted in BB NORTH EAST ASIA,Exclusives,Intel Brief,Iran,Mideast,NE Asia,Newsletter,North Korea | Read More »

China’s Defense White Paper: 1.6 of 2.3 million PLA forces are for domestic ‘social stability’

The Chinese PLA ground force stands at 850,000.

Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Willy Lam is traveling. The Chinese government on April 16 published the much anticipated document called “The Diversified Applications of China’s Armed Forces,” commonly known as the Chinese Defense White Paper. The report details the communist country’s defense policy, strategic outlook, services strength, and weapons development. The Chinese [...]

Posted in BB Inside China,BB NORTH EAST ASIA,China,Exclusives,Intel Brief,Life,NE Asia,Newsletter,Top Stories | Read More »