Peter Sylvestre's blog

RUSSIA, China, the United States and North Korea are all key players in South Korean President Moon's grand plan to "connect" a newly-burgeoning economic region of Northeast Asia, a "community of peace and prosperity". Again, the key is Pyongyang. Can it be counted on as a consistent, willing partner? Or will its traditional recalcitrance to 'reform' again dash all hopes . . .

KIM JONG-UN may now be ruing the ‘success’ of his propaganda department in depicting the destruction of Washington DC. There are real risks for both sides in the pending Summit . . .

EVEN China has become an ‘enemy state’ in the shrill rhetoric being spouted by a belligerent North Korea. But is it a symptom of fear felt by the young leadership as China, and to a lesser extent, Russia, join in world isolation of the Hermit Kingdom . . .

ARE the three great regional powers, the US, China and Russia, being bested and manipulated by Pyongyang’s Kim Jong-eun . . .

THE MERS outbreak has hurt, but the real concern should perhaps be on Seoul’s slowing economy . . . 

LINGERING malaise in South Korea is beginning to remind observers of Japan in the early 1990s as that country embarked on two decades of stagnation . . .

THE much-touted Free Trade Agreement between China and South Korea is not all it seems – but it serves other purposes for both countries . . .

THE disappearance of North Korea’s Kim Dynasty is likely to result in an overwhelming sense of intellectual and cognitive dislocation and politico-cultural alienation for North Koreans as their entire existing world view vaporises in a swirl of disbelief . . .

SEOUL — Since the meltdown of their already highly-tarnished international standing, Kim Jong-eun and his advisors have been undertaking measures to normalise the DPRK's international position and to give the appearance, if not the reality, that North Korea is modernising under the wise leadership of its young Marshal.

DOES Pyongyang’s bellicosity represent the politics of mass distraction – reflecting an ongoing shake-up in the upper circles of North Korea’s military establishment . . .