Few news items over the past year had more entertainment value than one concerning the Onion and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. It was funny enough that the faux-news website named the double-chinned Kim the sexiest man of 2012. More entertaining still was that the People’s Daily, the stern mouthpiece of China’s Communist Party, fell for it. Read Here […]
China urges caution and opposes moves that increase tension. The United States and its allies may boost their military presence in the Asia-Pacific region, citing Pyongyang’s nuclear test, analysts said. The comments came as China engaged in a flurry of diplomacy on Wednesday to ease regional tension. “More drills by the US and its allies […]
A few months ago, the eminent Chinese scholar Wang Jisi noted that China had achieved “first class power status” and “should be treated as such.” The current situation with North Korea suggests two responses: There is scarcely a more opportune moment for Beijing to step up to the plate; and be careful what you wish for. Read […]
NOT long ago North Korea-watchers were speculating that the new leader, Kim Jong Un, might prove a moderniser. The path-breaking boy-dictator let himself be seen with his fashionable wife. He actually spoke in public, whereas his late father’s speeches were as rare as a well-stocked Pyongyang supermarket. Lately, though, Mr Kim has reverted to type […]
China voted in favor of a new sanctions resolution in the U.N. Security Council that condemned North Korea’s December 12 ballistic missile test and strengthened existing sanctions on the “Hermit Kingdom.” The vote is an important sign that the new People Republic of China(PRC) leadership is willing to use sticks to prod Pyongyang towards compliance with international non-proliferation norms. […]
One year ago, the chubby and blubbering soon-to-be leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was seen walking alongside the hearse that carried his dead father, Kim Jong Il. Kim Jong Un was young, inexperienced, unqualified, and bereft of any of the larger-than-life myths that had sustained his father’s and grandfather’s rules. And yet, […]
Many years ago, Pakistan analyst Khaled Ahmed identified some nations as not having a foreign policy. Export-oriented economies, according to his thesis, chose not to have a clearly defined foreign policy. On issues of controversy, they lay low rather than commit to a side. Ahmed named Singapore and South Korea as his examples. For them, […]
Officials in Tokyo have known for some time that Japan’s regional foreign policy needs to be revamped. The economic crisis has brought Japan’s export giants to their knees and forced the country’s economy to look at different ways of conducting business. Moreover, the nuclear crisis in Fukushima last spring further intensified Japan’s already acute energy […]
As we have pointed out previously, in the principal divided-country scenarios of the second half of the 20th century — North and South Vietnam, East and West Germany, North and South Yemen — reunification was thought of for decades as only a remote possibility, before it suddenly occurred in a tumultuous, fast-moving fashion, in a way few of […]
“Potemkin villages,” I scribble onto a scrap of paper for the interpreter, Mr. Kim. “What does that mean?” he asks. “It means that you are just showing us facades here to feign growth and progress, just as the Russian Prince Potemkin once did,” I reply. “You should google it. “That, though, is not an option […]
looking beyond borders 