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Russia Expects N.Korea to Collapse by 2020 The Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), Russia's foremost national policy think tank, takes the imminent collapse of the North Korean regime as a given in a special report published recently. IMEMO concludes that Korean reunification led by South Korea coincides with Russia's national interests. IMEMO spent years to prepare the report, which is part of the Russian government's 20-year master plan and was published in September. â—† The End of North Korea The 480-page special report obtained by the Chosun Ilbo has five pages referring to the Korean Peninsula. It...

Could US policy abandon Taiwan? By John Copper / Wed, May 11, 2011 - Page 8 Recently there has been an unprecedented volume of talk, some of it serious, to the effect that the US will, and even should, end its responsibility of defending Taiwan. Foreign Affairs, the influential journal sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations, not long ago published an article whose author suggested that Taiwan assume the role of Finland during the Cold War (ie, become a client or protectorate of China). A more recent article said the US should, given the rise of China, dump Taiwan....

A unified Korea would be closely allied to the US. That's why China won't support it By Praveen Swami “Like lips and teeth,” Mao Zedong said, in response to a question about his country’s relationship with North Korea. Yesterday morning, the Guardian revealed that the Wikileaks cables said China was “ready to abandon North Korea.” In a separate report, the newspaper quoted Chinese diplomats as backing the revelation, saying they wanted an “independent and peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula.” It’s an odd claim, because the cable doesn’t say anything of the kind. The text of the cable – a...

In a SPIEGEL interview, former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discusses America's fight for German reunification, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's woes at the time, Chancellor Helmut Kohl's merits and the later mistakes of his successor, Gerhard Schröder.

Contemplating Korean Reunification The North could collapse more quickly than we think. By PETER M. BECK North Korea's nuclear program has preoccupied foreign policy makers for years, but it's not the only problem on the Korean Peninsula. Kim Jong Il's regime looks increasingly unstable and could collapse. That could lead to North Korea's reunification with the South and could present foreign leaders with the expensive task of modernizing the North's economy. There are three plausible scenarios for a Korean reunification. One would be sudden and bloodless like what Germany experienced. The worst would be a reunification marked by the kind...

US eases Taiwan’s fears over China TAIPEI, Nov 24 — The United States has moved quickly to reassure Taiwan, less than a week after President Barack Obama’s visit to China, by sending a senior diplomat to Taipei to allay fears that the island’s interests have been compromised.Raymond Burghardt, chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, the de facto US embassy here, flew into Taipei on Sunday, just five days after Obama met Chinese President Hu Jintao last Tuesday. “President Obama did not in any way change our long-standing position on Taiwan,” Burghardt told reporters after meeting Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng...

e-mail this to a friend printable version » 11/09/2009 17:38VATICANAn ‘Ordinariate’ for Anglican priests, even married, and faithful who become Catholic, Pope saysBenedict XVI’s apostolic constitution ‘Anglicanorum coetibus’ is published today. It will provide for full communion and preservation of Anglican rites and traditions. In no way does the apostolic constitution contradict the “ecumenical an endeavour of the Catholic Church, Fr Federico Lombardi says. Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Anglican priests, even if they are married, as well as the faithful, individually and as communities, can retain, under certain conditions, their rites and traditions if they decide to enter into...

SEOUL -- A united South and North Korea could boast an economy larger than France, Germany and possibly Japan by the middle of the century, according to a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. study that challenges conventional wisdom about unification. Since the reunification of West and East Germany 20 years ago, South Korean leaders and economists have convinced many people here that reuniting with North Korea would be costly and disruptive. In the latest gloomy forecast, a government think tank last month said the tax-burden ratio, or proportion of tax revenue to gross domestic product, would need to rise by two...

"We know that reunification with China is inevitable," a Taiwanese friend told me recently. "The economy in Taiwan is not so good and many of our jobs are being transferred to China," he explained. "Taiwan will have to cooperate with the mainland in order to maintain a healthy economy." My friend told me these things with little conviction in his voice. While the Chinese government has consistently claimed that most Taiwanese people are in favor of reunification with the mainland, my friend, like many others I have talked to around the world, has stated that the vast majority of Taiwanese...

Twenty years ago today Ronald Reagan stood in front of the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate and gave the speech heard 'round the world. Our friend Peter Robinson was the man who wrote the speech. He tells the story behind the speech in his terrific book How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life. Peter has kindly condensed his account for Power Line readers today: In April 1987, when I was assigned to write the Brandenburg Gate address, I spent a day in Berlin with the White House advance team, the logistical experts, Secret Service agents, and press officials who went...

As the Senate is mulling the details of a compromise immigration bill hammered together by the odd couple of Sens. Edward Kennedy and Jon Kyl, and as members of Congress hear from their constituents over the Memorial Day recess, it may be worthwhile to put the issue in historical context. For most of our history, the United States had no restrictions on immigration at all. I am told that my Canadian-born grandfather was a "nickel immigrant": He took the five-cent ferry from Windsor, Ontario, north to Detroit roundabout 1896. This situation resulted from America's strong demand for labor, coupled with...

17 May 2007, 10:33 Act of Canonical Communion signed in Moscow (updated) Moscow, May 17, Interfax - The Act of Canonical Communion between the Russian Orthodox Church in Russia and abroad was signed at Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral on Thursday morning. The historic document was signed by Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia and by First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia Metropolitan Laurus. The ceremony is being attended by President Vladimir Putin, several thousands Orthodox believers, including believers who have arrived from abroad, and about 500 journalists. The Christ the Savior Cathedral is...

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his aides at the Kremlin say they feel surrounded, and they're not going to take it anymore. Russian corporations are being foiled abroad; the Russian state is being unfairly blamed for volatility in global energy markets; and suggestions that the state is eliminating its critics are just preposterous. Why all the bad press? Because of "Russophobia" — an unreasoning Western hostility toward Russia — according to the Kremlin. "I see a campaign here," Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said in a TV interview last week. Amid all the allegations that the Kremlin — in a...

Russia's Defense Minister Unveils Plans to Overhaul Military By Lisa McAdams Moscow 08 February 2007 Russia has unveiled plans to replace nearly half the army's hardware by 2015. Welcomed by some as a long-overdue necessity, others question whether the plan can really be carried out. VOA's Lisa McAdams in Moscow reports. Sergei Ivanov (file photo) Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told lawmakers Wednesday the government planned to spend nearly $200 billion on the military upgrade. He said it would allow Russia to maintain its nuclear deterrent, while developing its conventional forces. Ivanov told lawmakers the plan calls for the purchase of...

08 February 2007, 11:26 Virgin Mary said to appear to an American lover of foul language and bless opposition to ROCOR’s unity with the Church in Russia New York, February 8, Interfax - The anonymous creator of the ROCORNEWS website has stated that the Virgin Mary with a host of saints appeared to him during his night walk with his dog in the Central Park in New York. ‘The vision’ is now given all kinds of interpretation by irreconcilable opponents of unity between the Russian Church Abroad and the Moscow Patriarchate, who see in this statement a sign of heavenly...

Proposed Doctrine for the Network. Can it be improved? YES, very much so. The Common Cause Partners of the Anglican Communion Network are being asked to adopt the doctrinal statement printed below at its meeting at the beginning of August 2006. “Proposed Theological Statement of the Common Cause Partners We, the representatives of the Common Cause Partners, do declare we believe the following affirmations and commentary to contain the chief elements of Anglican Reformed Catholicism, and to be essential for membership. 1) We receive the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testaments of the Holy Scripture as the inspired...

NEW DELHI, April 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ruled out Wednesday any unification with Pakistan on the lines of the merger of East and West Germany. "The partition of India (in August 1947) is a settled fact. It cannot be undone and should not be undone," Manmohan Singh said in Chandigarh city 250 km north of New Delhi. The prime minister was responding to a query about the demand from peaceniks that the present bonhomie between the two countries be worked towards their unification. Pakistan was carved out of India when it got freedom from the British...

What Surprise? The Nuclear Core of North Korea's Strategy By Nicholas Eberstadt Tuesday, March 1, 2005; Page A15 North Korea's declaration that it possesses nuclear weapons and intends to hold on to its nuclear arsenal "under any circumstances" was greeted with shock and astonishment in much of the world. In fact, the most astonishing part of this momentous development was the fact that North Korea's bold move has come as a surprise, both in Washington and abroad. The North Korean government did not suddenly claim to join the world's nuclear weapons club on a bizarre and inexplicable whim. The announcement...

It must have killed John Kerry to be up there on the stage, so close but yet so far. Nancy Pelosi showed up only because she had to, all the while the talking heads were spewing forth terms such as unification and reconciliation. My question is, do we really want Bush to patch things up with the likes of Kerry and Pelosi? It is a fact that our country is divided, and I for one like it that way. I have no problem with Nancy and her flunkies preaching hate against the free market economy, and all whe benefits from...

Powell Speaks of China, Taiwan 'Reunification' Oct 25, 6:34 PM (ET) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday spoke of the eventual "reunification" of China and Taiwan, a comment likely to annoy Taiwanese officials who regard the island as an independent nation.On a tour of Asia, Powell also said Taiwan does not enjoy "sovereignty as a nation" -- a long-standing but quietly held U.S. view whose blunt expression may irk independence-minded Taiwanese officials."We want to see both sides not take unilateral action that would prejudice an eventual outcome, a reunification that all parties are seeking," Powell told...