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Sat, June 23, 2018 | 20:46

Opinion > Columnists > Donald Kirk >

Trump's 'American moment'

Don't count on the Winter Olympics as the moment for rapprochement on the Korean peninsula. That message came through loud and clear in President Donald Trump's first “state of the union” address. “Our new American moment,” as Trump called this turbulent time in U.S. history, does not mean happy talk and dialogue with America's enemies.

Donald Kirk | 2018-02-01 17:14

Tet and Korea, 50 years later

VIRGINIA BEACH, Virginia - How quickly we forget. Memories, dates and events fade away, only to be revived on anniversaries. A lot of historical events are barely recalled. I was in a country named “South” Vietnam 50 years ago when North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces attacked almost every city and town at the opening of Tet, the Lunar New Year. The 50th anniversary of Tet 1968 has to be the topic of colorful reminiscences and guilt-dripping analyses about the American role in foreign wars, but how many remember two other events in the month of January 1968 that stand out in modern Korean h...

Donald Kirk | 2018-01-25 15:59

Checking those N.Korean dancers

WASHINGTON - Ah, let the games begin! The fun and games, that is, of seeing how the clever North Koreans play the Winter Olympics for all they’re worth. For sure, North Korean strategists are looking for a diplomatic and political triumph regardless of who wins what at PyeongChang and Gangneung. Already, by getting the South to agree on a joint women’s hockey team and on athletes from North and South parading under the one-Korea flag at the opening and closing ceremonies, they’ve put the Americans on the defensive. Who would doubt such gestures should prove a lot more effective than all thos...

Donald Kirk | 2018-01-18 16:27

Second-guessing Korean history

WASHINGTON - Uh oh. Watch for all the soothsayers putting in their two cents or two won worth on the future of the Korean Peninsula, post-PyeongChang. Beware of the cognoscenti with dire forecasts of capitulation to the evil Northers, with hopeful words of peace at last, with demands for cancellation of U.S.-South Korean military exercises, with pleas for more and bigger war games to show Kim Jong-un he can never “drive a wedge” between those “ironclad” allies, the U.S. and South Korea.

Donald Kirk | 2018-01-11 17:20

'Strategic ambiguity' versus 'strategic patience'

Here's another term for President Trump's North Korea policy. How about “strategic ambiguity” in place of the “strategic patience” of the Obama era? The Trumpsters persist in saying they've come up with a new and bolder and better way of putting Kim Jong-un in his place, applying “maximum pressure” to force him to give up his nukes and missiles, but that's not happening.

Donald Kirk | 2018-01-04 20:04

Darkest Hour': a film with a message

WASHINGTON - Historical comparisons can be terribly flawed. Bearing that in mind, I could not help but think of talk about talks with North Korea while watching a new British film, “Darkest Hour,” all about Winston Churchill in the darkest early days of World War II spurning pleas to negotiate with Hitler's Nazi Germany. Italy, Germany's axis ally, offered to mediate between the two.

Donald Kirk | 2017-12-28 18:03

Why North Korea wages cyberwar

WASHINGTON - Here’s a target the deadliest, most accurate missile isn’t going to touch: the computers in North Korea that are responsible for wreaking havoc around the world. It’s all very well to talk about “the military option” or even a “pre-emptive attack" on a North Korean nuclear and missile site. You can fantasize U.S. war planes, hefty B1 bombers, sleek stealth-like F22s and F35s, maybe a few F18s and F15s in the mix, staging day and night raids wiping out all the North Korean targets deemed capable of sending missiles tipped with nuclear warheads to targets in the U.S. That would be...

Donald Kirk | 2017-12-21 17:07

Playing the waiting game

By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON ― A lot of people here, from right to left politically, think war on the Korean peninsula is imminent. Kim Jong-un, they say, is eager to order a seventh nuclear test as well as test shots of intercontinental ballistic missiles. And would not President Trump love to stage a “preemptive strike” to frustrate Kim’s grand design ― or at least attack in retaliation after Kim had already gotten away with a few more tests?Maybe, but believe it or not the U.S. is in no position to risk Korean War II, to stage a “preemptive strik...

Donald Kirk | 2017-12-14 16:53

Trump's 'intelligence' problem

You have to wonder about Michael Flynn, the retired army lieutenant general who served as President Donald Trump's national security adviser for 24 days before he was forced to resign. He had spent his 33-year military career as an intelligence officer but was dumb enough to lie to the FBI about his contacts with Russians before Trump's inauguration.

Donald Kirk | 2017-12-07 16:33

Meaning of a missile test

He had to do it, didn't he? Just when the optimists were saying, well, it's been a few weeks since the last one, maybe he's learned his lesson.

Donald Kirk | 2017-11-30 17:39

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