The soaring hopes generated by the recent Inter-Korean Summit are now supplanted by uncertainty, due to North Korea’s suspension of a planned meeting with the South.
Author: gregoryelich
Gregory Elich is on the Board of Directors of the Jasenovac Research Institute and the Advisory Board of the Korea Policy Institute.
He is a member of the Solidarity Committee for Democracy and Peace in Korea, and a columnist for the South Korean news site, Voice of the People. He is the author of Strange Liberators: Militarism, Mayhem, and the Pursuit of Profit, and has two chapters in the anthology Killing Democracy: CIA and Pentagon Operations in the Post-Soviet Period, published in the Russian language.
Elich was on the advisory board of the U.S. branch of the Korean Truth Commission, and he is a member of the Solidarity Committee for Democracy and Peace in Korea.
In 1999, he was a member of a team that visited Yugoslavia to investigate NATO war crimes.
DPRK Suspends South Korea Meeting After US Drills
Gregory Elich interviewed by Eugene Puryear and Sean Blackmon
North Korea suspends its meeting with South Korea following provocations from U.S./South Korean military drills, Washington’s inability to compromise with Pyongyang and the effect this may have on the Korean unification process
A Strong Antidote to Western Propaganda on Korea
Patriots, Traitors and Empires: The Story of Korea’s Struggle for Freedom, by Stephen Gowans. Montreal: Baraka Books, 2018. Paper, $24.95, pp 270
The release of Stephen Gowans’s superb new book could not be better timed. With the Korean Peninsula on the potential brink of major change, looking to Western mainstream media for reasoned analysis is a fool’s errand. Gowans provides a valuable service in filling that gap by situating Korea in its historical context, while making no compromise with received opinion or resorting to lazy formulations.
North and South Korea Historic Meeting: The Politics Behind the Summit
Interview with Tim Beal and Gregory Elich
In one of the most important diplomatic breakthroughs in a generation, the leaders of North and South Korea met and pledged to denuclearize the peninsula and to formally end the Korean War. Even the most optimistic observers were surprised at the scope of the meeting, which took place on the South Korean side of the border at Panmunjom. President Trump later issued a statement saying that he was looking forward to meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the coming weeks or months.
War or Peace? Trump Accepts DPRK’s Invitation to Meet…Maybe?
Interview with Christine Hong and Gregory Elich
Trump yesterday agreed to talks with Democratic People’s Republic of Korea leader Kim Jong-Un. This comes quickly after DPRK announced early this week that they’re willing to freeze their nuclear program for talks with the US.
RT Interview: The Future of U.S.-North Korean Relations Hinges on Washington’s Attitude
Koreans Talk Peace?
The games have begun. The younger sister of North Korea’s ruler Kim Jong-un has captured the attention of the media, while US Vice President Mike Pence was mocked as a dud, even undiplomatic. The two Koreas are engaging each other. This makes the Washington foreign policy swamp fume.
Interview with Brian Becker, Gregory Elich, and Myung-Koo Kang
As Inter-Korean Relations Warm, Will the U.S. and Japan Play Spoilers?
Gregory Elich interviewed by Eugene Puryear and Sean Blackmon
The ongoing diplomatic efforts between North and South Korea against the backdrop of the 2018 Winter Olympics; if Japan and the US will play spoilers in Korean reunification efforts; Mike Pence’s undiplomatic efforts at the Olympic opening ceremony; and the history of politics at the Olympics.
South and North Korea Talks: A Thaw in Relations?
Gregory Elich interviewed by Eugene Puryear and Sean Blackmon
The recent talks between North and South Korea, what if any progress was made in thawing relations between the two countries, what to expect politically from the Winter Olympics being held in South Korea, and why South Korean President Moon continues to desire close relations with the Trump Administration.
The WannaCry Cyberattack: What the Evidence Says and Why the Trump Administration Blames North Korea
On December 19, in a Wall Street Journal editorial that drew much attention, Homeland Security Advisor Tom Bossert asserted that North Korea was “directly responsible” for the WannaCry cyberattack that struck more than 300,000 computers worldwide. The virus encrypted files on infected computers and demanded payment in return for supposedly providing a decryption key to allow users to regain access to locked files. Bossert charged that North Korea was “using cyberattacks to fund its reckless behavior and cause disruption across the world.”
At a press conference on the same day, Bossert announced that the attribution was made “with evidence,” and that WannaCry “was directed by the government of North Korea,” and carried out by “actors on their behalf, intermediaries.” The evidence that led the U.S. to that conclusion? Bossert was not saying, perhaps recalling the ridicule that greeted the FBI and Department of Homeland Security’s misbegotten report on the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.
