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Oh Young-jin Column

Mon, December 4, 2023 | 18:24

Oh Young-jin

North Korea's undelivered Christmas gift

North Korea has proved to be a very good mind-game player. Its latest is about a Christmas gift, but more exactly its failure to deliver one as “threatened.” The North has drawn attention with its Christmas threat. Every move it made was under scrutiny in an effort to know whether it might hurl a long-range missile or conduct a nuclear test. It is obvious that the North is tr...

Oh Young-jin | 2019-12-27 16:35

Oh Young-jin

North Korea's Kim Jong-un: Unlikely Santa Claus

I was looking for a topic that could fit the Christmas holiday season. As I was working Christmas Eve I may have felt cranky because I ended up with an anti-Christmas subject of a sort - North Korea. Writing about the subject carried some risks. What risk popped up in my mind first was a need to update this column considering the precarious state of situation, but then I thou...

Oh Young-jin | 2019-12-24 17:24

Oh Young-jin

Macron option for Korea

Korea may need a touch of Emmanuel Macron in reshaping its most important alliance with the United States. The French president is calling for a change to the Europe-U.S. alliance to meet changing conditions, best epitomized by what he calls Europe's reclamation of security sovereignty. The Macron call comes as U.S. President Donald Trump presses NATO countries to meet the pl...

Oh Young-jin | 2019-12-13 17:16

Oh Young-jin

Should China replace US as S. Korea's key ally?

Many Koreans would still find it unthinkable for China to replace the United States as their country's most important ally. After all, the U.S. helped defend Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War. In one of the first key clashes of the Cold War era, it was the communist Chinese, the ancestors of China's paramount leader Xi Jinping, who aided and abetted North Koreans. The resul...

Oh Young-jin | 2019-12-06 17:30

Oh Young-jin

Did Korea succumb to US pressure?

What has taken place in the lead-up to Korea's last-minute decision to extend “conditionally” its general security of military information agreement (GSOMIA) or military intelligence sharing pact with Japan? An equally important question is how this decision will affect the ROK-U.S. alliance. First of all, speculation is that Washington pushed a vulnerable pressure point for ...

Oh Young-jin | 2019-11-29 16:28

American deal: US always has its way, so far

Oh Young-jin

American deal: US always has its way, so far

The way we handle Americans in two current disputes - the U.S. demand for more money to maintain its troops in Korea and insisting that Korea stays on its military information sharing pact with Japan, it is clear that we do not understand how the U.S sees us, because we try to see it from our perspective, not from the U.S. one. This wishful vision causes an optical illusion t...

Oh Young-jin | 2019-11-22 17:26

Did Korea succumb to US pressure?

US welcomes S. Korea decision to maintain GSOMIA

Oh Young-jin

Don't be little Trump, Gen. Milley

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, is a soldier's soldier. He has had numerous tours of duty in hot spots such as Korea as commander of the 2nd Infantry Division, and in Iraq, Afghanistan and Panama, among others. But remarks by the top U.S. military man since October are raising questions about his image.

Oh Young-jin | 2019-11-15 17:31

Oh Young-jin

Americans just don't get it

I am quite sure that I am not the only Korean who sees a recent visit by a trio of senior American officials as one big sales pitch. It is rather odd, because there was a time when even one senior official from Washington would weigh on Koreans' collective heart as if their existential present and future were at stake. It remains to be seen whether it reflects a real change o...

Oh Young-jin | 2019-11-08 17:29

'Koreans don't get it either'

Oh Young-jin

Why Trump hates Koreans

Why does U.S. President Donald Trump hate Asians? Considering his favorites include odd balls like Russian President Vladimir Putin or North Korea's Kim Jong-un (Kim is more dictatorial than Korean and Asian), being disliked by the U.S. leader whose days in power may be increasingly reduced by the day (Viva Pelosi!) is not exactly a badge of shame.

Oh Young-jin | 2019-11-01 13:48

Trump is no Asian hater; stop 'sour kimchi' on him

Oh Young-jin

Moon Jae-in syndrome

Three leaders are in trouble for by and large a common “sin” - assuming they know better than the people about what they want. Call it an attempt at direct democracy or elected dictatorship (or the beginning of it), but so far the outcome is the political equivalent to a third-degree burn. The three are President Moon Jae-in, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and, of cours...

Oh Young-jin | 2019-10-25 16:36

UK's Johnson seeks Dec. 12 election to break Brexit impasse

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