Eastern Asia

It goes without saying that territorial disputes have always been a major cause of aggravation in bilateral relations between nations, but in the last couple decades this topic has become even more acute.

On November 12 the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) concluded, after studying satellite data and other publicly-available data on North Korea’s missile program, that there were 13 hidden military bases or facilities in North Korea whose existence was hitherto unknown, and which could be used to build missiles or develop missile technology.

Reports that Japan and North Korea are holding secret talks concerning a possible meeting between Shinzo Abe and Kim Jong-un appear in the media fairly often. According to one of the latest reports, the summit is to take place in November 2018. And although the month is almost over, this is a good opportunity for us to look at the various attempts Tokyo has made to build up a relationship with Pyongyang in recent months.

It is worth noting at this point that the entire world order is at a crossroads nowadays, including its chief “architects” as is, unquestionably, Japan with its third largest economy in the world. Or fourth, if we view the European Union as a single player in Europe.

Five years into China’s ambitious One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative sees analysts and political circles around the globe taking stock of Beijing’s progress.

The New Eastern Outlook has been covering the current shape and transformation of Sino-American relations on a regular basis. This is quite understandable as the discussion involves one of the aspects of the global political game that impacts the development of the situation in not only the Indo-Pacific, but the entire world.

It is strange that when you come from the south, near to the DMZ (De-militarized zone, which divides Korea into two parts), you will see many flags and sentimental ‘peace’ slogans, but nothing that would represent the points of view of the North Korean people. All the flags are those of ROC (Republic of Korea, otherwise known as South Korea).