Cumings, Bruce

One of Kim Il Sung's many monumental birthday presents to himself, the Arch of Triumph was completed in 1982, for his 70th birthday. The structure commemorates the homecoming of Kim Il Sung after he ‘liberated Korea from Japan’. Photo: Kok Leng Yeo from Singapore (cc by 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Bruce Cumings: The US holds these [military] exercises every year, because South Korea, under [president] Park [Geun-hye]’s leadership, is a welcoming country for these war games involving,…