HONOLULU -- "It's all South Korea's fault!" In a refreshing change from its natural tendency to blame Washington for all the world's troubles, Pyongyang has recently announced that it cannot proceed with the six-party talks over its clandestine nuclear-weapons programs since "the foundation for ...
SEOUL -- "The odds of any progress regarding the North Korean nuclear issue appear slim to nonexistent between now and the U.S. November presidential elections." This is the conventional wisdom, as publicly proclaimed by South Korean officials. I have also heard this view echoed ...
WASHINGTON -- "Some good, some bad, some ugly!" That was the way a senior Bush administration official summed up the just-completed third plenary session of the six-party talks in Beijing, aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. While other participants were reporting "substantial ...
HONOLULU -- This week marks the fourth anniversary of the historic June 13-15, 2000, Pyongyang meeting between then-South Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korea's current "Dear Leader," Kim Jong Il. It was a meeting that forever changed the geopolitics of the Korean ...
KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi is proving to be a kinder, gentler, but no less candid, thoughtful and thought-provoking version of his mercurial predecessor. The soft-spoken devout Muslim leader has surprised critics and supporters alike by taking an exceptionally firm stand against ...
TAIPEI -- Chen Shui-bian clearly heard the warnings issued by Washington and, less subtly, by Beijing before his inauguration for a second term as the democratically elected president of Taiwan. Beijing warned that it would "crush their schemes thoroughly at any cost" if Taiwan's ...
HONOLULU -- North Korea has agreed to participate in a six-party working group meeting Wednesday in Beijing to help lay the groundwork for the third session of the more senior-level Six-Party Talks (North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia, and the United States) expected ...
HONOLULU -- Winston Churchill once said "democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried." Recent elections in South Korea and Taiwan have already demonstrated that irony. This year contains a number of presidential and parliamentary elections ...
HONOLULU -- South Korea's political landscape has changed dramatically, and one must assume irreversibly, as a result of the April 15 National Assembly elections. It is clear that the torch has indeed been passed to a new generation. What is less clear is what ...
TOKYO -- U.S. Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, is wise to ignore the tempest in the teapot caused by his revelation (gasp! surprise! surprise!) that there are leaders who would prefer that President George W. Bush not be re-elected. However, he needs ...
