Eastern Asia
Fukushima Daiichi Radioactive Dumping and the Summer Olympics in Japan In Question
The Future of Korea’s Domestic Policy Following the April 2021 Elections
On April 7, early elections were held in the Republic of Korea for the heads of four administrative units, including the mayors of the country’s two largest cities: Seoul and Busan, as well as 17 deputies of local legislative assemblies. According to the results of the vote count, the opposition Power of the People party bypassed the ruling…
The Olympic Movement at the Present Stage of the Great Game
Apparently, the international Olympic movement is nearing its most serious trials since its reincarnation in the late 19th century, from 393 AD, when this religious-pagan act was prohibited by the Roman Christian emperor Theodosius 1 (“the Great”). This reincarnation itself, apparently, was considered by its initiators as one of the most important projects in the series of those…
Mayoral Elections is Seoul and Busan
On April 7, 2021, early elections were held for the heads of four administrative units, including the mayors of the country’s two largest cities of Seoul and Busan, as well as 17 deputies of local legislative assemblies in the Republic of Korea. Their result is an indicator of public sentiment before the presidential elections of next year, since almost 10 million people out of 52…
Asia’s Problems Must Be Solved by Asian Countries
A series of recent events involving China, Japan and India allows us to revisit the theme of the growing influence of these three leading Asian countries on the nature of developments in the Indo-Pacific region. This fact is of particular importance against the backdrop of the continuing decline of the US role in the world in general and in the region in particular…
On Why Foreign Diplomats Flee Pyongyang
First, on March 18, 2021, NK News reported that there were no foreign UN or international NGO workers left in North Korea. About two dozen citizens of the Czech Republic, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Vietnam, as well as two employees of the World Food Program (WFP), left the country. They left Pyongyang for China. And on April 1…
North Korea’s Missile Launches at the End of March 2021
At the end of March 2021, North Korea launched a series of short-range missiles. Some were quick to describe the move as yet another start to escalation in tensions on the Korean Peninsula. At first, the DPRK test fired anti-ship cruise missiles on March 20 or 21. It was the first projectile launch since April 14, 2020, when North Korea fired missiles from both the ground and fighter jets…
On Russia’s Foreign Minister’s Visit to Seoul
On March 23 – 25, 2021, Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, visited South Korea. This was Lavrov’s first visit to Seoul since 2013, when he accompanied President Vladimir Putin. And before that, Lavrov had visited Seoul in 2009, after a trip to North Korea. This year’s event, devoted to the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relationship between Russia and South…
On the Death of South Korea’s First Female Tank Driver
On March 3, 2021, transgender girl Byun Hee-soo was found dead in her home. Why does much of South Korea and the rest of the world talk about this? Byun’s case received widespread media attention at home and abroad because Staff Sgt. Byun Hee-soo, 22, was the first South Korean soldier to undergo sex reassignment surgery while on active duty (in late 2019…
The So-Called ‘Cold War 2.0’ Isn’t about Nuclear Weapons & Missiles
The so-called ‘Cold War 2.0’ brewing between the US and China/Russia bears little resemblance to the post Second World War scenario. The present scenario is different in two fundamental ways: it does not have roots in two opposing ideologies of communism and capitalism, with one trying to overwhelm the other, and it is least about establishing…
Will South Korea become a QUAD+ Member?
The US government is seeking to include Korea in an expanded version of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD), a strategic forum created in 2007 to contain China. The Quad is made up of Australia, India, Japan and the United States, but the US wants to expand it by inviting South Korea, New Zealand and Vietnam. This project is known as QUAD Plus. So far the QUAD…
Europeans Join the Propaganda Attacks on China due to the Situation in the XUAR
The situation in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is shifting toward the center of the propaganda attacks being waged against it by the United States, along with some of its European allies. At the same time, other national autonomous regions in the PRC (primarily Tibet), Hong Kong, and the issue of Taiwan are anything but forgotten…
