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Fri, April 27, 2018 | 11:36

Opinion > Columnists > Donald Kirk >

Agreeing to disagree on NK

By Donald Kirk JEJU ― Ask an expert analyst how to deal with North Korea, and the responses range from getting tough to massaging gently. Nobody has the real answer ― though some people like to talk with absolute certainty ― and there’s no proof that anything’s going to work.The differences were sharply etched during last week’s Jeju Peace Forum at which former Korean foreign ministers sparred on the issue and soothsayers from the U.S., China and elsewhere exchanged quite different views. Nobody seemed to disagree more than Song Min-soon, foreign minister under th...

Donald Kirk | 2016-06-02 17:02

Sense and nonsense with NK

Donald Trump may be running neck and neck with Hillary Clinton in the U.S. presidential sweepstakes if the polls are at all credible, but there's one constituency in which he appears to be well ahead. That’s within the ruling circles in Pyongyang.

Donald Kirk | 2016-05-26 17:00

Remembering Gwangju in song

GWANGJU - The ghosts of the uprising of May 18, 1980, hover over this old but new city in a restive spirit that shows the disunity, the factional splits and the regional hatreds that persist in undermining the ability of South Korea to stand effectively against challenges from North Korea.

Donald Kirk | 2016-05-19 16:49

Challenging China on stage

We keep hearing about all the influence the Chinese have over North Korea. If only they’d exert their power, maybe cut off or slow down the flow of oil that’s the lifeblood of the country, then the North Koreans would start talking seriously about giving up their nukes. At least that’s the theory.

Donald Kirk | 2016-05-12 17:01

North Korea's deepening isolation

Kim Jong-un celebrates his “coronation”in Pyongyang today while forgetting about one unpleasant reality that deepens North Korea's isolation in an already hostile world. He presides over North Korea's biggest-ever party, the Seventh Workers' Party Congress, while Iran, his longtime partner in nuclear crime, vastly improves its ties with South Korea - so much so that we have to believe Iran won't be cooperating quite so much with North Korea as it has been for years on nukes and missiles.

Donald Kirk | 2016-05-05 16:05

Focusing on North Korea

Russian documentary filmmaker Vitaly Mansky has managed to bamboozle his North Korean hosts in a confidence game that's one of the greater journalistic coups ever scored against the regime. Mansky, having given the North Koreans the clear impression that he wanted to collaborate fully with them, totally deceived them in his portrayal of a little girl as she was groomed for her role in minutely scripted rehearsals for the anniversary two years ago of the late “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il’s birth. Far from churning out propaganda similar to a British team’s production in 2004 of the documentary “...

Donald Kirk | 2016-04-28 16:40

By 'invitation' only

North Koreans some years ago had an unusual way of acquiring professional expertise when it came to teaching people foreign languages. Rather than advertise for teachers, they kidnapped native speakers. Most of them were Japanese, but they also captured likely candidates from Europe and the Middle East.

Donald Kirk | 2016-04-21 16:53

Advice from deceased leaders

Credit someone in North Korea with a sense of historical irony. Who would have thought anyone up there would have dreamed of writing an imaginary letter from Abraham Lincoln to President Obama berating him for endorsing harsh UN sanctions and failing to halt the U.S. nuclear weapons program?

Donald Kirk | 2016-04-14 16:59

State of terrorism

WASHINGTON - Here’s a question people here keep asking: Is North Korea a terrorist state? Forget about the missile shots. They’ve all landed in the sea and harmed no one. What about the nuclear tests? They dislocated some rocks deep underground but were otherwise harmless. So what does it take to persuade the U.S. State Department to list North Korea, again, as a “state sponsor of terrorism”?

Donald Kirk | 2016-04-07 16:31

New York Times vs. Trump

WASHINGTON - Talk about local boy making good, and then look at the case of Donald Trump. He's a New Yorker through and through - looks, talks and acts like one, arrogant, sneering and sure of himself. So what are the New York papers saying about him? Clearly, he’s a bad boy who’s sadly disgraced himself.

Donald Kirk | 2016-03-31 16:25

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Moon with Kim [Photos]