JERUSALEM — One of the many strange features of the Sept. 6 event involving Israeli overflights of Syrian airspace is the peculiar route through which the world has gradually discovered what happened — or what might have happened — on that possibly fateful night. Normally, one would expect Israeli reporters, the ones with the best contacts, sources and understanding of Israeli operations, to uncover and report details about such a secretive operation. Not this time. The much-discussed operation, now described by Israeli journalists in half-mocking tone as “The alleged air strike that the IDF did or did not carry out [...]
Last week’s testy public exchange between South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush could foreshadow continued security tensions between Washington and Seoul even as the negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear program move towards a denouement. Bush and Roh held a one-hour private meeting on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney, Australia. Afterwards, they conducted a joint media appearance. Both leaders delivered formal statements to reporters outlining their assessment of the situation on the Korean Peninsula. In his subsequent comments, Roh remarked that he had not heard Bush explicitly affirm [...]
KUMGANG MOUNTAIN, North Korea — Bags packed, hiking boots tightly laced, visors on, cameras in hand, a few dozen South Korean tourists make their way to an unlikely vacation destination. Their journey, a mere four hours from Seoul, will take them through barbed wire checkpoints, and at their destination they will be greeted by machine-gun-toting soldiers. In cooperation with the government of South Korea and the Hyundai Asan Corp., North Korea is dabbling in the art of making money through tourism, offering a peephole into the Hermit Kingdom for visitors from all over the world. Kumgang Mountain first opened in [...]
