Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com North Korea’s youthful leader Kim Jong-Un is taking another risky step to win much-needed foreign currency by allowing certain capitalist practices in the world’s last Stalinist nation. Workers at state-run shops in the capital city of Pyongyang have begun wearing name cards instead of badges displaying Kim’s grandfather [...]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Judging by the rhetoric of the official Chinese media and military commentators, the Chinese Communist Party authorities seem to be readying a small-scale naval skirmish to “teach the Philippines a lesson.” Yet at the same time, Beijing is brandishing non-military solutions, such as joint development of oil and [...]
Special to WorldTribune.com Compiled by Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com Vladimir Putin was sworn in Monday to be Russian president for a six-year term following a controversial election. The first thing Putin wanted was a guarantee from the U.S. that its missile defense system would not be used against Russia. That puts the Obama administration in a [...]
Special to WorldTribune.com Compiled by Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com Week-long Chinese-Russian naval exercises in the Yellow Sea ended April 27 with much official hype but little convincing enthusiasm. That’s because throughout the exercises China desperately tried to convince the world that a solid Sino-Russian military alliance was in the works. The Chinese Defense Ministry called the [...]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com SEOUL — North Korea’s new ruler Kim Jong-Un has invented his own military group dedicated to conducting blitzkrieg-style offensives against South Korea, an approach that is far more assertive than his late father’s military reconnaissance office. The “Special Operation Action Group” has been created under the North’s Korean [...]
By Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. As we mark the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death, President Obama deserves credit for making the right choice on taking out Public Enemy No. 1. But his administration never would have had the opportunity to do the right thing had it not been for some extraordinary work during the [...]
Special to WorldTribune.com Compiled by Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com In a sign of the Kremlin’s increasing hostility toward NATO’s missile defense system, Moscow has begun deploying its most advanced surface-to-air missiles, the SA-21 Growler or S-400 Triumph, at its Baltic Fleet base in Kaliningrad, near Poland and Lithuania. SA-21 Growler is a highly sophisticated, long- to [...]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com A series of naval exercises involving troops from China, Russia, South Korea, the U.S. and the Philippines are likely to significantly raise tensions in the Asia-Pacific. The largest China-Russian naval war game since 2005 is scheduled to start next week in waters very close to South Korea and [...]
Special to WorldTribune.com Compiled by Miles Yu, Geostrategy-Direct.com Viktor Bout, known as Russia’s merchant of death, was handed a 25-year jail sentence in New York. Moscow was offended, and called it “absolutely unacceptable” and a “politically motivated” miscarriage of justice. “It’s even more outrageous that this is not the first politically motivated sentence lacking a [...]
Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com That Bo Xilai’s political life was finished was apparent even before this week’s announcement that his membership in the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee and Politburo has been suspended. What is not as well known is that the charismatic Chongqing Party secretary’s downfall has dealt a body blow [...]
