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Up until the end of the Bush Administration, there was indifference to the North Korean suffering under Kim Jong-Il.

Environmental disaster is the gravest threat to China's continued development. That's according to me, but it is not some wacko view.

Very large scale disasters, especially those that have occurred in the developing world, have very long recovery periods.

During bad circumstances, which is the human inheritance, you must decide not to be reduced. You have your humanity, and you must not allow anything to reduce that. We are obliged to know we are global citizens. Disasters remind us we are world citizens, whether we like it or not.

To me, the idea that any kind of disaster helps create a nation seems a ridiculous one. There was no family in the house on the land next to me, and there might have been.

The biggest stories in 2005 were the national disasters.

Sometimes it takes a natural disaster to reveal a social disaster.

By the mid-1990s, nearly everything in North Korea was worn out, broken, malfunctioning. The country had seen better days.

What we ought not do is play politics with those who've been afflicted by disasters. This should not be controversial. Stop playing politics, do the right thing for the country and let's make sure we're not making politics with disaster relief.

So South Korean ability is very much limited to handle North Korean, you know, difficulties. So we don't want to see an immediate collapse of the North Korea regime.