A vacation in a hell of a state
North Korea Journal by Michael Palin reviewed
North korea
Monday
Wednesday
Ignore the scorn, Trump has been proved right on North Korea
One year on, the Singapore summit is still a diplomatic success
Wednesday
Gene editing tech is a gamble with our future
Crunch time for CRISPR
Tuesday
How I learned to start worrying and fear the bomb
Tensions between Russia and the US were on open display at ‘#NUKEFEST’
Wednesday
The Trump-Kim summit: what we know and what’s useless prattle
Almost everything you can hear, and several things you won ’ t
Tuesday
Could Trump’s trade war with China cost him in North Korea?
For the last few years, Kim has been very clear about setting his agenda for the coming year in the most public of ways
Tuesday
It’s time to tell the truth on North Korea
We are nowhere near a deal to denuclearize North Korea
Sunday
North Korea can host the Hunger Games
The modern Olympics give fool’s gold to despots and dictators
Saturday
Has Kim Jong-un finally grown up?
Given the mutual bluster, threats and sabre-rattling we got used to from Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, it may be hard to credit the air of sweet reasonableness that has spread over the Korean peninsula in recent weeks leading to the weekend announcement of an end to weapons testing by the North. The potential for a reversion to confrontation is all too evident. Pyongyang has a long record of reneging on agreements and its announcement contained no mention of a reduction in its arsenal that includes missiles which can hit Japan and South Korea even if it stops development of ICBMs aimed at the USA. But, for the moment at
Wednesday
Donald Trump is desperate for a North Korea deal
Uh-oh. President Trump is wading into diplomatic waters in North Korea that he may have trouble navigating. Yesterday, he proudly revealed that talks with North Korea have been taking place at the “highest levels.” He also gave his blessing to the prospect of a peace treaty between the two Koreas, which currently only enjoy an … Read more
Monday
Is Donald Trump an ‘isolationist’? Or a ‘radical imperialist’? He can’t be both
For two years we’ve been hearing that Donald Trump is an ‘isolationist’, whatever that word is supposed to mean. Only now two op-ed writers in the New York Times have discovered that he isn’t — instead, Thomas Meaney and Stephen Wertheim write, ‘Let’s call Mr. Trump’s vision what it is: radical American imperialism.’ Let’s not, … Read more
Friday
At last, an American president grasps the North Korean nettle
Donald Trump’s acceptance of Kim Jong-un’s invitation to meet is a master stroke. It’s exactly the kind of thing Ronald Reagan liked to do. Reagan, you may recall, announced his pursuit of a missile defence system in March 1983 on national television without alerting his advisors beforehand. Liberals went crazy. Then he decided to end the Cold War by reaching out to Mikhail Gorbachev. Conservatives went bonkers. Reagan, we were told, had become a useful idiot. Today he is hailed as a visionary by all and sundry. Whether Trump’s move will work depends in part on how eager the North Korean regime is to escape the increasingly draconian sanctions that have
Wednesday
Rolling tanks, plastic flowers and madness on parade: A visit to North Korea
As Kim Jong-un might blow up the world next year, if not this, and people are forever trying to work out what is going on in his country, perhaps it is worth describing a military parade I attended in Pyongyang a few years back. The occasion was the centenary of the birth of the current Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the founder of the Marxist monarchy who, despite his death more than two decades ago, remains Eternal Leader of the nation. Other attendees included some flotsam and jetsam of the Cold War, a reunion of the Axis of Evil and representatives from various other rogue states and immiserated nations. Presuming it
Thursday
If China backs Trump on North Korea he won’t like the quid pro quo
The first election day since Donald Trump was elected president a year ago brought a funereal mood to Washington that you could feel on the streets. The swamp, apparently, remains undrained. Elections for governor in Virginia and New Jersey and for mayor in New York City cheered the locals a bit, producing the expected victories for Democrats. Virginia was the most consequential of these. It seemed a harbinger of the next presidential race. The moderate, decidedly un-Trumpian Republican Ed Gillespie was accused of making ‘ugly racial appeals’ — this for expressing the opinion that the statues of Virginia’s Civil War heroes should not be razed in a frenzy of revisionism.
