Mark Seddon

Este archivo solo abarca los artículos del autor incorporados a este sitio a partir del 1 de septiembre de 2006. Para fechas anteriores realice una búsqueda entrecomillando su nombre.

MundoAméricaEuropaUnión Europea, ,

As Russia flexes its muscles, cutting gas supplies to Ukraine in a dispute that is as much about unpaid bills as it is about settling political scores, a small, disused Warsaw Pact airfield in a remote corner of north-west Poland finds itself at the heart of a new conflict between the US and Russia.

Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union and Poland a Soviet satellite state, but with the fall of communism both have moved into the western camp - and Redzikowo base was selected by the Bush administration to host the "missile defence shield", a system designed to intercept incoming rockets from rogue states such as Iran.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

Deep inside Mount Myohyansan in North Korea, down marble corridors lit by flickering lights and galleries holding bizarre gifts, is a baseball. Next to it is a photograph of the former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright, and next to her is Kim Il Sung, eternal president (deceased) of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Baseball and photograph are held in North Korea's International Friendship Exhibition, and mark the last occasion when relations between North Korea and the US began to thaw.

Back in the mid-90s, Albright and President Bill Clinton believed that the North could be weaned from a nascent nuclear programme if its fuel-starved economy, reeling from the collapse of the Soviet Union, was promised fuel shipments and water-pressured power reactors.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoAsia,

The model city that rose from the ashes of the Korean war is eerily dark at night and strangely quiet during the day. Electricity remains in short supply, while a lack of fuel leaves the roads largely empty. The talk is of a hard winter, with reduced food supplies from China and South Korea plunging some rural areas into desperate hunger.Next week's resumption of six-way talks in Beijing comes at a critical time. North Korea is as isolated now as at any time in its relatively short history. US sanctions aimed at alleged counterfeiting activities have had the unintended effect of freezing much of the country's foreign exchange, legal and illegal.…  Seguir leyendo »