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The Korea Times

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Donald Kirk

Gambling on defense

The prospect of President Trump abandoning friends and allies resonates here for reasons that have nothing to do with North or South Korea.

2019-02-07 17:29

Dangerous triangle

Here's a triangulation that's getting more acute every day: China, North Korea, the U.S. It's not just that China is North Korea's only real ally, its bulwark of defense since the 1950-53 Korean War. It's also that China's differences with the U.S. are deepening with the indictment of its biggest smartphone maker for theft of U.S. trade secrets, for industrial espionage and for money-laundering.

2019-01-31 17:38

Maintaining 'momentum'

The revelation of another “undeclared” North Korean missile base should send shock waves through all those concerned about the safety and security of the region, notably South Korea. Actually, however, it's hard to find ordinary people too worried about the latest report by esteemed experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington (CSIS).

2019-01-24 17:36

Does Kim need Trump?

U.S. President Donald Trump is facing such excruciating trouble on his own home front that you have to wonder when he's going to get enough time off to see Kim Jong-un. For that matter, you wonder if Kim will really want to see him all that much, knowing that he's besieged by enemies and may not even survive the remaining two years of his presidency, much less get elected to a second term.

2019-01-17 16:56

North Korea's win-win strategy

As the United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon won a reputation for diplomatic blandness. He took pains not to tread on the sensitivities of all the disparate, often hostile, sometimes warring, states that make up the U.N. That's not easy considering the explosions, brush fires and blood-letting that goes on every day.

2019-01-10 17:14

Forecasting Korea's future

The French have two expressions that capture the essence of Kim Jong-un's New Year address. First, there's “deja vu” - or maybe “deja vu all over again,” as the American baseball player Yogi Berra famously put it. And then there's "plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose” - “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”

2019-01-03 17:21

Missing Mattis on North Korea

The departure of Jim Mattis as defense secretary by the end of the year has grave implications for Korea. If there was one voice of reason, calm and common sense when it came to North Korea and the U.S. defense of the South, it was that of Mattis.

2018-12-27 17:07

Looking at South-North rail service

The notion of opening rail service between South and North Korea is captivating. You have to hope that someday the dream will come true and trains will be hauling passengers and freight from South to North and back again as they should have been doing for many years.

2018-12-20 17:31

Asking hard questions

It's fine to talk to the North Koreans about their nukes and missiles. Go ahead and tell them they're a threat to the world, the human race, to civilization. No problem. The North's stock retort, as we all know, is they're needed for self-defense against the Americans, who bombed the hell out of us in the Korean War.

2018-12-13 17:23

Talking about summitry

Summitry is in the air. Excitement and speculation are rife. Everyone is talking about talking. How about talks between the leaders of the two Koreas, between each of them and the U.S. president, maybe a meeting of all three together?

2018-12-06 17:35

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