For Josh Smith's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Perhaps none of the communist legacies shared by Vietnam and North Korea highlighted during Kim Jong Un's "goodwill visit" to Hanoi is stranger than the embalmed leaders on display in their capitals — and the secretive team of Russian technicians who keep the bodies ...
The failure of U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to secure even a limited deal at their second nuclear summit means any breakthrough now depends on working-level talks that have made little progress since last year. The sudden collapse of ...
It's the stuff of an Indiana Jones movie: supernatural kings, ancient tombs, and government-backed archaeologists striving to harness the power of legend for a greater cause. On a divided Korean Peninsula, tales of King Dangun — the mythical founder of the first Korean kingdom more ...
Shutting down North Korea's nuclear test site is trickier than it might seem. A botched tunnel collapse could spread radioactive debris. Nuclear material might be buried, but accessible enough to be dug up and reused in a weapon. And even if all the testing tunnels ...
Absent from the recent summit between the leaders of North and South Korea was Pyongyang's human rights record, and the issue appears to have faded from U.S. President Donald Trump's public agenda as he prepares for his own meeting with Kim Jong Un. Rights activists ...
State media calls North Korea's nuclear weapons a "treasured sword of justice." Pyongyang has released commemorative stamps and built monuments in honor of its ballistic missile tests, while nuclear and rocket scientists have been named national heroes. For Kim Jong Un, fully giving up nuclear weapons ...
South Korea's self-styled "Peace Games" have been a sporting success, but public reaction suggests Seoul may have failed its bigger test — to generate the support the president needs to make bold moves to improve ties with old enemy North Korea. President Moon Jae-in has ...
A day of smiles and jokes at the first inter-Korean talks in two years quickly evaporated Tuesday night when the North's chief negotiator threatened to walk out after the South Korean side brought up Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs. "We had started in a good ...
When Kim Jong Un sat down in September to order the sixth and largest of North Korea's nuclear tests, Hwang Pyong So sat by his side, his khaki military uniform conspicuous among the suits at the table, photos released by state media at the ...
By the time U.S. President Donald Trump departed Seoul on Wednesday, the sometimes bellicose leader seemed to have mollified South Koreans, who had been bracing for more confrontational rhetoric over North Korea, trade, and defense spending. Throughout his 24-hour swing through South Korea, Trump, who ...
