I wrote some very niche US-DPRK history (with a lot of help from scholars more senior) about a lost moment for potential reconciliation in 2013. Once more it seems that unsubtle displays of military might trump all other tools of diplomacy: on the Korean Peninsula, … Continue readingKing, Wu, B-52: A Tense Moment In US-DPRK History
Tongsin | 통신 examines the DPRK state media relating to China. This month the state news focused on the US-ROK war games, painting a narrative of a sincere and cooperative North Korea and a belligerent South Korea. … Continue readingTongsin | 통신 no. 03: The War Games Continue
As expected, the annual joint exercises Key Resolve/Foal Eagle will take place as planned despite outcry from North Korea. Both exercises will commence on February 24. … Continue readingUS-ROK Announce Dates forKey Resolve/Foal Eagle
The second installation of Tongsin | 통신 focuses in on the DPRK rhetoric surrounding the upcoming Key Resolve/Foal Eagle exercises and China’s place in the reunification narrative. … Continue readingTongsin | 통신 no. 02: Military Exercises and Reunification
South Korea declared yesterday that it is expanding its Air Defense Identification Zone to include the submerged Ieodo rock, overlapping China’s ADIZ, to take effect on 2013-12-15. The South Korean announcement comes as a reaction and condemnation of China’s ADIZ, announced last month. Beijing has expressed regret. … Continue readingNorth-East Asian ADIZs
The possibility for nuclear war was at an all-time high in 1983, rivaling the 1963 Cuban Missile Crisis: the Soviets had just shot down the civilian Korean flight KAL-007, and Reagan gave his manichean “evil empire” speech. Able Archer 83, the 1983 NATO command post exercise … Continue readingNewly Declassified Able Archer 83 Documents
The USS George Washington is an American nuclear-powered supercarrier with the capacity to accommodate up to 80 aircraft. Its flight deck is 4.5 acres, its anchors weigh 3 tonnes each, and it’s generally considered to be a floating military base. The ship moored at South … Continue readingUS-ROK-Japan Trilateral Naval Exercises