North Korea's decision to boost its nuclear capability is a blatant provocation made in defiance of a U.N. Security Council resolution, which prohibits Pyongyang from conducting further nuclear tests or ballistic missile launches.

The Russian bear is set to supply more weapons to the Chinese dragon, and this trend, observers say, will continue going forward even though suspicions remain between both sides.

Well, it was the first time a pope had resigned in more than 600 years. So it was only fitting that it would also be the first time a pope would come from other than Europe in more than 1,300 years.

“The rise of the south” was what the United Nations Development Program flagged as a selling point for its human development report (HDR) this year.

The Nation/Asia News Network

The results of the 13th general election (GE) aside, it is already several things to many people.

Prompted by Japan's recent announcement it would join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks, various large-scale, free trade agreement initiatives have begun materializing one after another.

The U.N. Human Rights Council recently unanimously adopted a resolution on establishing a panel to investigate human rights abuse in North Korea.

I couldn't help humming an old, 1980s campus song — the drizzle comes just in time — when I watched on television the international debut of Peng Liyuan in Moscow last week as China's first lady. Like a drizzle, she came just in time after a prolonged drought of 60 years. Most if not all her predecessors were “dour-looking,” as aptly depicted by the New York Times. Well, even that sounds like an understatement. The contrast between now and then couldn't have been more striking.

It is the job of the South Korean unification minister to improve relations with North Korea, aiming at an eventual Korean reunification. Still, it was nothing less than inappropriate for a new unification minister to put an emphasis on the resumption of inter-Korean dialogue at a time when Pyongyang was threatening to turn South Korea into a “nuclear sea of fire” and launch a “second Korean War.”