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Wed, April 25, 2018 | 17:45

Opinion > Columnists > Donald Kirk >

'Options' for war and/or peace

In our obsession over prospects for peace on the Korean Peninsula, it's easy to forget what may be a more immediate, more serious clash of regional and great powers 8,000 kilometers away.

Donald Kirk | 2018-04-12 20:09

Taking odds on those summits

Here's a gambling game that Trump/Korea watchers might consider playing. How about odds on Trump meeting Kim Jong-un? That's a serious question considering the White House insists on those familiar initials, CVID, Complete, Verifiable, Irreversible Denuclearization of the North's nuclear program.

Donald Kirk | 2018-04-05 16:07

China and North Korea, best friends forever

There is a certain inevitability about China's need for North Korea and the North's need for China. The two may intuitively hate one another, but they can hardly stay apart in the regional tug of war. It's been that way ever since Chinese forces poured into North Korea to stave off the Americans who had reached the Yalu River line between the two, several months after the North Koreans invaded South Korea in June 1950.

Donald Kirk | 2018-03-29 17:11

Fears of flying

U.S. President Donald Trump is in such hot water in Washington that his summit with Kim Jong-un, if it actually happens, will be either a distraction or a welcome relief from the pressure-cooker atmosphere at home.

Donald Kirk | 2018-03-22 16:52

Fantasizing 'regime change'

In the excitement over impending summits, we may have forgotten one other solution everyone was talking about, oh, just a month or two ago. Whatever happened to all the enthusiasm for forcing Kim Jong-un out of his job by internal upheaval, external attack, or maybe just a plain old heart attack? Just because he's seeing President Moon Jae-in later next month and then maybe President Donald Trump in May, should we forget about “regime change”?

Donald Kirk | 2018-03-15 16:32

'Maybe this time'?

Don't hold your breath. We've been disappointed so often in moves toward North-South reconciliation that it's hard to believe any face-to-face talks between President Moon Jae-in and North Korea's “respected leader” Kim Jong-un will lead to resolution of a nuclear crisis that's only worsened in recent years.

Donald Kirk | 2018-03-08 16:59

Russian scammers, Olympic style

PYEONGCHANG -- Now I know firsthand what they're talking about when they say the Russians are tricky. Yes, they've gotten into American and other websites, tried to sway the U.S. presidential election and are not to be trusted, but those were media reports. In an era of fake news, how could anyone be sure?

Donald Kirk | 2018-03-01 16:40

Moves on the chessboard

Now the real games begin; the interplay between North and South Korea and between the U.S. and both Koreas. The players may have shifted some of the pieces around the chessboard during these most political of Winter Olympics, but it's much too early to know what happens next, much less the final moves.

Donald Kirk | 2018-02-22 16:57

Conflict of interests at NBC

The strange case of NBC sports commentator Joshua Cooper Ramo touched the sensitive nerves of millions of Koreans. Thousands responded with indignation, aggrieved feelings, even outrage to his on-air remark at the Winter Olympics to the effect that “every Korean will tell you that Japan as a cultural and technological and economic example has been so important to their own transformation.”

Donald Kirk | 2018-02-18 20:38

Olympic fever, then and now

Mid-winter is not exactly the best time for mass demonstrations in South Korea. Protesters prefer to wait for spring, but the Winter Olympics leave them no choice. Flag-wavers are out there during the coldest ever Olympics, the rightists waving Korean and American flags, leftists and liberals those one-Korea flags, the Korean Peninsula in blue on a white field.

Donald Kirk | 2018-02-08 16:21

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Missile attack on Syria