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Donald Kirk

From 'ppalli-ppalli' to tragedy

Blame it on Korea's culture of “ppalli-ppalli” - “quickly, quickly.” That was the simplistic explanation that a Korean gave me for the crowd surge in the narrow Itaewon alley where so many were trapped, crushed and died last weekend. “They were madly pushing each other,” she said. “It's in the genes.”

2022-11-03 14:35

Act Three for Xi in China

Xi Jinping, the strongest, most enduring Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, opens possibly the climactic act of his rule with his uncontested election to a third five-year term as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, which controls just about everything in China. No, the government does not operate independently of the party. Top government officials are party members. Almost all young people hired for government jobs also belong to the party.

2022-10-20 14:21

Playing with fire

It's getting harder all the time to think that Kim Jong-un is just play-acting when he rams through a law saying North Korea can unleash a nuclear warhead whenever he feels threatened. And it's also getting harder to assume the Americans and South Koreans will never translate the lessons of their own war games into real live action.

2022-10-06 15:50

Art of non-apology

The pomp and circumstance surrounding the passing of Queen Elizabeth II evoked memories of the days of the British Raj.

2022-09-22 15:15

Admitting North Korea to 'nuclear club'

James Clapper, a retired air force lieutenant general who served two tours in South Korea and then as President Barack Obama's director of national intelligence from 2010 to 2017, has shocked a virtual forum by asking, rhetorically, if “our policy of demanding North Korean denuclearization is going to work.”

2022-09-08 15:44

Ukraine-style wars

Russia's invasion of Ukraine evokes unpleasant comparisons for Northeast Asia. It's easy to envisage China invading Taiwan or enabling a North Korean invasion of South Korea.

2022-08-25 17:10

At odds on Taiwan

China's claims to Taiwan bear a disturbing resemblance to Russia's war with Ukraine. You just cannot ignore the similarities and parallels despite the geographic differences.

2022-08-11 16:45

Edging toward war

Chinese rhetoric over Taiwan is getting more strident all the time. It's hard to believe the Chinese will go beyond the kind of big talk we've been hearing since Chiang Kai-shek fled there with his defeated forces before the victory of Mao's Red Army on the mainland in 1949, but the shrill nature of Chinese intimidation there and elsewhere is cause for mounting concern.

2022-07-28 17:00

New US ambassador takes aim

The United States has a new ambassador to South Korea at a pivotal moment in U.S.-Korean relations and the confrontation between North and South Korea. Philip Goldberg has arrived in Seoul just as the U.S. and the ROK are beginning to see eye to eye and South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol promises to repair the damage done during the presidency of his predecessor, Moon Jae-in.

2022-07-14 16:55

Carrying on Marcos' legacy

The inauguration of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as president of the Philippines opens a highly controversial period in the convoluted history of a country mired in rampant corruption, lawlessness and an anti-drug campaign that's taken at least 30,000 lives.

2022-06-30 16:32

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