Bruce Klingner specializes in Korean and Japanese affairs as the senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at The Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center. Read his research
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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hit the ball out of the park during his trip to America, but stumbled while rounding third base. Whether one… Read More
InternationalCommentary
The interim Iranian nuclear framework is a vague accord with significant shortcomings. Moreover, the ink had barely dried before Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei disputed… Read More
SecurityCommentary
The recent cyberattack on Sony was a direct assault on free speech in America. Dictators or terrorist groups must be made to realize that attempts… Read More
InternationalCommentary
President Obama issued a new executive order to impose addition punitive measures on North Korea. Although the cyberattack on Sony Pictures and subsequent threats of… Read More
InternationalCommentary
North Korea’s cyber attack on Sony has generated debate as to whether it was an “act of war” or “cyber-vandalism.” The answer lies in between… Read More
InternationalCommentary
Myth 1. The U.S. and other nations face a policy choice between sanctions or engagement All instruments of national power should be used simultaneously in… Read More
InternationalSecurityCommentary
The FBI declared on December 9 that there is “no attribution to North Korea at this point” of the massive cyber attack on Sony Pictures… Read More
SecurityCommentary
Mentioning “1 percenters” conjures up images of protest and class warfare. But there is another 1 percent who are beyond politics: the men and women… Read More
InternationalCommentary
North Korea unexpectedly released the final two American citizens it had been holding on trumped-up charges of espionage. Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller were freed… Read More
InternationalCommentary
North Korea now has the ability to produce a miniaturized nuclear warhead that can be mounted atop a ballistic missile. That is the assessment of… Read More
InternationalCommentary
Washington and Seoul wisely decided during senior-level military talks on October 23 to abandon a 2007 plan to dissolve the existing allied military command structure… Read More
InternationalCommentary
Pyongyang has unexpectedly released Jeffrey Fowle, one of three American citizens being held for alleged crimes against North Korea. Fowle, a 56-year-old American tourist, was… Read More
InternationalCommentary
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has waddled back onto the world stage ending, or at least reducing, widespread speculation of coups or assassinations in Pyongyang…. Read More
InternationalCommentary
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has not been seen in public for more than a month, generating speculation that his absence is due to… Read More
InternationalCommentary
North Korea is a land of “signals” where every action, good or bad, seems some sort of clever harbinger of change. The regime fires a… Read More
InternationalCommentary
Upon graduating from medical school, physicians typically take the Hippocratic Oath. Though the oath doesn’t actually contain the phrase “first do no harm” that is… Read More
InternationalCommentary
After years of delays, Japan finally made welcome (if minimal) progress on constructing a planned U.S. Marine Corps airfield on Okinawa. Workers installed buoys and… Read More
InternationalCommentary
During an interview Sunday with Meet the Press, Secretary of State John Kerry claimed credit for North Korea being more “quiet” than last year. Kerry,… Read More
SecurityCommentary
As long suggested by the U.S., there are indications that Japan and South Korea may cooperate on resurrecting a planned military information sharing agreement that… Read More
During his trip to Japan, President Obama publicly affirmed long-standing U.S. policy that the bilateral security treaty applies to the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands. China claims… Read More
Reassurance. Out of necessity, it’s become a prevalent theme of President Obama’s foreign policy, including his trip to Asia that he embarks on today. After… Read More
SecurityNews
The U.S. Marine Corps is questioning whether it can implement the Obama Administration’s much-vaunted strategic shift to the Asia-Pacific. “We are on our way…to a… Read More
North Korea threatened on March 30 to carry out a “new form of nuclear test for bolstering up our nuclear deterrence.” The regime declared it… Read More
Just when relations between South Korea and Japan appeared unalterably on the road to perdition, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe proffered an off-ramp. Abe defied… Read More
Pyongyang announced the trial and execution of Jang Song-taek, former vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission and uncle to North Korean leader Kim… Read More
On Sunday, December 8th, Pyongyang officially acknowledged the ouster of Jang Song-taek, vice chairman of the important National Defense Commission. Despite being Kim Jong-un’s uncle… Read More
North Korea released a video of Merrill Newman, an 85-year-old American citizen, reading a coerced confession for committing “hostile acts” against the regime. Newman was… Read More
SecurityNews
FUBAR is military jargon for “fouled up beyond all recognition.” Kabar is the knife Marines carry. As things stand with sequestration, servicemen and women who… Read More
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the initiation of Six-Party Talks to get North Korea to abandon the nuclear weapons it previously promised never to… Read More
Sixty years ago today, the armistice was signed to end the brutal three-year war that had devastated the Korean Peninsula. North Korea’s invasion in June… Read More
