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Tue, June 19, 2018 | 04:30

Opinion > Columnists > Donald Kirk >

Menace of political violence

The populist revolt against President Park Geun-hye has grave implications for governance amid economic unease and high youth unemployment. In this uncertain transition period, Korea’s relationship with the United States is sure to undergo strains if not change while foes of her conservative pro-American policies line up in search of negotiations with North Korea after years of rising tensions.

Donald Kirk | 2016-12-15 16:55

Preserving the alliance

The many thousands of protesters who’ve been marching toward the walls of the restored palace of Korea’s dynastic kings toward the Blue House of latter-day presidents have been ignoring a likely target. That’s the American embassy, looming large, brightly lit and carefully protected by hundreds of policemen and dozens of police buses.

Donald Kirk | 2016-12-08 17:07

Regime change by impeachment

Enough, enough, we want no preachment - It’s time to vote on his impeachment!

Donald Kirk | 2016-12-01 17:28

Media mix facts with views

How did the American media get it so wrong? Why were the U.S. papers, TV networks and polls so off in their near-unanimous forecasts that Hillary Clinton would win - some believed by carrying almost every state? Those are questions about the latest U.S. presidential election that media people and just about everyone else will be debating forever.

Donald Kirk | 2016-11-29 16:06

Trump's plunge into Asia

The process of “making America great again” is filled with perils and pitfalls, nowhere more so than in Asia. The intricacies and subtleties of the Great Game for Asia often are about as incomprehensible to the experts as they are to amateurs and know-nothings. As President-elect Donald Trump and his team plunge into the Game, can or will they do away with decades of efforts at “understanding” by U.S. diplomats and intelligence analysts?

Donald Kirk | 2016-11-24 16:23

Protest in Seoul and US

Too bad President-elect Donald Trump’s phone call to President Park Geun-hye the day after his victory may be his only chance to talk with her. Even if she’s still in Cheong Wa Dae when he moves into the White House, she’ll be in no position to display her leadership at summit conferences.

Donald Kirk | 2016-11-17 16:02

Playing the games of war

An air of unreality pervaded the atmosphere if not the skies over Osan Air Base this week as three of the niftiest warplanes on the planet zoomed off the runway for wargames intended to strengthen their ability to work together to defeat a common foe. Circumspectly, officers of the American, Korean and British Royal Air Force avoided identifying the foe, but their circumlocutions on that topic were mere technicalities.

Donald Kirk | 2016-11-10 16:59

Girl talk at the summit

Hillary Clinton knows President Park Geun-hye pretty well. They met whenever Hillary visited Seoul as secretary of state or Ms. Park went to Washington. They have no doubt talked about what they would do about North Korea. Hillary had to be pledging undying U.S. support - “no daylight between us” - to show U.S. solidarity (“No daylight between us” is the D.C. equivalent of the Chinese expression, “As close as the lips to the teeth”).

Donald Kirk | 2016-11-03 16:04

Pivoting toward China

Rodrigo Duterte was reputed as a killer long before his election as president of the Philippines five months ago. He countenanced the slaughter of hundreds of drug addicts and dealers while mayor of Davao, the major port city on the rebel-infested southern island of Mindanao, and the arbitrary killing of upwards of 2,000 more druggies as president.

Donald Kirk | 2016-10-27 17:18

Russia's stake in North Korea

We hear so much about China and Japan competing on and for the Korean peninsula, now and historically, that we overlook one other great Northeast Asian power. That would be Russia, which has a 17-kilometer border with North Korea as the Tumen River flows into the sea. In the old days of the Soviet Union, trains crossed the river almost every day shipping oil into North Korea for almost nothing - that is, paid for in near worthless North Korean won. North Korean free-loading off Soviet largesse ended with the demise of Soviet rule in 1991, a happenstance that led to the famine that devastated...

Donald Kirk | 2016-10-20 17:02

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Daily life in North Korea