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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 »

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 »

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 »

Kim’s absence from public view triggers speculation about the hierarchy in Pyongyang

Military officials applaud together with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un during the Unhasu concert in Pyongyang in this picture released by North Korea's KCNA news agency April 16.  /Reuters/KCNA

Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s two-week absence from the state media propaganda feed coincided with a reduction in the stream of belligerent threats against South Korea and the West. This has in turn triggered speculation of a coup against the youthful dictator. But government officials and analysts in [...]

Posted in Exclusives,Intel Brief,Life,NE Asia,Newsletter,North Korea,Top Stories | Read More »

Talking to Kim Jong-Un: South of the border, no one is spoiling for a fight

South Koreans demonstrate for peace talks.

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Amid much fanfare, North Korea has advanced to the brink of the dreaded Second Korean War. Now the question is whether there’s a face-saving way to bring about dialogue. Can’t North Korea, at some stage, declare a rhetorical victory and go into negotiations? U.S. Secretary of State John [...]

Posted in BB Inside China,China,Exclusives,NE Asia,Newsletter,North Korea,South Korea,Stateside,Top Stories,U.S. Intelligence | Read More »

Tail wags the dog: U.S. policy of outsourcing N. Korea crisis to China has failed

Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Beijing on April 13.  /Yohsuke Mizuno/AP

Special to WorldTribune.com By Parris H. Chang In diplomacy, an inch can be longer than a foot, and the weak can wield greater leverage over the strong. This is why North Korea, a rogue state, impoverished and vulnerable is able to irritate, bully and even threaten the two superpowers, the U.S. and China. For many [...]

Posted in China,Exclusives,Life,NE Asia,Newsletter,North Korea,Recent Hits,Stateside,Top Stories,U.S. Politics | Read More »

N. Koreans held hostage by a totalitarian monarch and a three-way global chess match

Workers stand in a field damaged by flooding in Songchon County, North Korea in August 2012.  /David Guttenfelder/AP

Special to WorldTribune.com By Brian M Downing The present Korean crisis is fusing a callow dynast with entrenched generals, putting on a show of strength and purpose for the people who must endure dreadful hardships, and setting the stage for demanding greater aid and reduced sanctions from outside powers. The crisis may also prove important [...]

Posted in Africa / Europe,China,Exclusives,NE Asia,Newsletter,North Korea,Russia,Stateside,Top Stories,U.S. Intelligence | Read More »

What would the Iron Lady have done about North Korea?

Another Iron Lady? South Korean President Park Geun-Hye delivers her inaugural address in Seoul.

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com Memories and images of Margaret Thatcher and her legacy as displayed in the media this week evoke an obvious question: What would the Iron Lady have done about North Korea? The answer would seem clear. It’s hard to imagine the woman who dispatched troops to the Falklands in [...]

Posted in Africa / Europe,Americas,Argentina,BB Americas,England,Exclusives,Life,NE Asia,Newsletter,North Korea,South Korea,Top Stories,World Links | Read More »