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Sat, July 22, 2017 | 15:37

Opinion > Columnists > Donald Kirk >

Moon's war of words

WASHINGTON - The standoff on the Korean peninsula is entering a new phase. While President Moon Jae-in calls for talks with North Koreans, he is also honoring the U.S.-Korean alliance and insisting the North give up its nuclear program. Can Moon have it both ways? He’s besieged by protesters who expect him to abandon totally the policies of his conservative predecessors and support North Korea’s strategy of weakening the South from within. Against leftist demands, for instance, he is holding on to THAAD, the terminal high altitude area defense system that consists of one counter-missile batt...

Donald Kirk | 2017-07-20 17:37

Art of diplomatic deal

WASHINGTON - We keep hearing so often about tight U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia that we forget the Saudis kicked out the last U.S. troops in the early 2000’s. Seems they regarded the U.S. presence as an affront to Islam more than a decade after U.S. forces drove Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi army out of Kuwait and possibly saved Saudi Arabia from being overrun as well. That’s just a detail in the convoluted, incomprehensible puzzle of the Middle East, but the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Saudi Arabia is particularly significant considering where they wound up. Yes, the largest U.S. air base ov...

Donald Kirk | 2017-07-13 18:34

Giving peace another chance

WASHINGTON - Pro-Northers have got to be more than a little disappointed by the recent summit between the presidents of the Republic of Korea and the United States. Judging from all the blather they were emitting before the summit, the pro-North crowd would have far rather seen President Moon Jae-in and President Trump pulling out their stilettos, jabbing one another with sly innuendoes if not full-frontal attacks.

Donald Kirk | 2017-07-06 17:12

Talking for peace

WASHINGTON - The good news about President Moon Jae-in’s summitry with President Donald Trump this week is they’re talking as partners in the drive to end North Korea’s nuclear program and bring about inter-Korean reconciliation. A major barrier to cooperation, however, is loose talk about a peace treaty or peace agreement that would formally “end” the 1950-53 Korean War more than six decades after the truce was signed at Panmunjeom. Sure, why not sign a treaty, say the deal’s advocates, after which all sides will live happily and peacefully, no more “incidents.” Actually, however, any such ...

Donald Kirk | 2017-06-29 16:13

'Peace will spur US investment in N. Korea'

An exercise in terrorism

The death of Otto Warmbier provides a powerful reminder of the torture and terrorism perpetrated by one of the world’s most repressive regimes. Americans are no doubt aware of the tyranny of the dynasty led by a man who revels in ordering the development of long-range missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads to the U.S., but how many know about the suffering of the millions who have died in his gulag system?

Donald Kirk | 2017-06-22 17:08

Peace or appeasement?

WASHINGTON - Christine Ahn, a policy analyst with the Korea Peace Network, had what appeared to be good news as she opened a conference here with the portentous title, “Off Ramps to War: Paths to Building Peace with North Korea.” Otto Warmbier, the University of Virginia student accused of having torn a banner from a wall as a souvenir on what was to have been his last day on a typical Pyongyang tour, was coming home after 17 months’ imprisonment.

Donald Kirk | 2017-06-15 17:54

Talking in circles at Jeju

JEJU - Gary Samore of the Belfer Center at Harvard, formerly with the Obama administration, suggested at the annual Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity that resolution of North Korea’s nukes-and-missiles program may be insoluble. That sense weighs heavily on policy-makers in Seoul and Washington. How can Koreans and Americans agree on a common approach, and where is South Korea going in its alliance with the U.S.? Americans and Koreans alike wondered how long the special U.S.-Korea relationship can endure despite the claims of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and ...

Donald Kirk | 2017-06-08 17:52

Hangover after the honeymoon

It's tempting for punsters to play on the surname Moon. There’s “honeymoon,” of course, and “moonshine” - the latter for whiskey distilled in the mountains of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee by the light of the moon. How long, then, will the honeymoon last for President Moon Jae-in while North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un orders weekly missile shots? The question assumes critical relevance after the North’s latest test of a Scud missile that flew nearly 300 miles before landing in waters inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone. The tests have definitely diluted the thrills of a honeymoon in wh...

Donald Kirk | 2017-06-01 17:16

Trump tower over Pyongyang?

Everybody’s talking about overtures to Pyongyang. Informal talks, secret talks, talks about talks - then, somewhere in everyone’s pet solution, comes the killer line: Pyongyang has to “freeze” its missile-and-nuclear program before real talking begins. It’s unlikely Kim Jong-un will “freeze” anything, but here’s an idea. Remember that enormous triangular-shaped building that dominates the Pyongyang skyline? That’s right, the Ryugyong Hotel, 105 stories, 330 meters high, never opened, a monument to failure. The Ryugyong is celebrating an anniversary of sorts. Well, maybe not a celebration, ju...

Donald Kirk | 2017-05-25 17:28

Testing the alliance

Would Kim Jong-un mind giving Moon Jae-in a break? More than any other South Korean leader in years, Moon would like nothing better than to be the one to bring about North-South reconciliation. Wouldn’t it be great, Moon’s newly appointed former activists must be saying, if Kim Jong-un invited Moon to Pyongyang instead of awaiting “the right conditions.” It would be so easy for Kim to outfox the Americans, who clearly think Moon will settle down, mute his pronouncements about talks with the North and cooperate as did his predecessors. But no, right away, Kim Jong-un opted to turn Moon’s drea...

Donald Kirk | 2017-05-18 17:34

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Park's impeachment