Kim Jong-Un’s Sister Issues North Korea’s Latest Round of Threats
We begin with a new round of threats from North Korea against the South but this time coming from Kim Jong-un’s younger sister Kim Yo Jong who ordered the blowing up of the equivalent of an embassy on the DMZ and threatened more saying “I feel it is high time to surely break with the South Korean authorities. We soon take a next action.” Charles Armstrong, a professor of History and the Director of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University and the author of Tyranny of the Weak: North Korea and the World 1950 -1990 joins us to discuss how as Kim Jong Un becomes less visible, his sister is becoming more visible, leading to speculation her brother has health problems and that she is being groomed as a possible successor. And while the North Korean regime claims it is taking these aggressive actions because of the South Korean government’s failure to stop pamphlets being flown across the border from the South in balloons launched by North Korean defectors, this latest tantrum is probably meant to catch the American president’s attention because Kim Jong-un feels jilted since his bromance with Trump yielded nothing but love letters. So maybe it’s time for Kim to let off another nuclear test or fire a new salvo of missiles.
Chinese Soldiers Club 20 Indian Soldiers to Death on Disputed Border
Then with India revising the death toll of the number of its soldiers killed in clashes with the People’s Liberation Army in Kashmir from 3 to 20, we speak with Joshua Fitt, a Research Assistant for the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security where he co-authored an article “Imbalance of Power: India’s Military Choices in an Era of Strategic Competition with China”. Since the Chinese soldiers beat the Indian soldiers to death with clubs and rocks, we will discuss why weapons were not used by either side and what are the motives behind Xi Jinping’s escalation of tensions with India as he moves to extinguish democracy in Hong Kong and threatens Taiwan.
The Supreme Court’s Ruling Protecting LGBT Americans From Being Fired Because of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
Then finally we look into the Supreme Court’s 6 to 3 decision that gay and transgender Americans are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act barring employers from discriminating against them on the basis of sex. Tobias Wolff, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School who has participated in some of the highest profile gay rights cases of the last several years, joins us to discuss why the Religious Right is freaked out by this majority ruling written by Trump’s appointee Justice Gorsuch who they now consider a traitor.
