"A defiant North Korea test-fires more missiles; UN officials discuss ways to rein in regime" by Jack Kim, Reuters | May 27, 2009
SEOUL - South Korea said it would join a US-led initiative to intercept ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction, something Pyongyang has warned it would consider a declaration of war....
Would we stand for such things, Amurkn? Then why should the Korean?
The nuclear test raised concern about North Korea spreading its weapons to other countries and groups. The United States has accused it of trying to sell nuclear know-how to Syria and others.
Yeah, except: Israel Planted Soil Samples Against Syria
"Another risk is that the North Koreans might peddle some plutonium, or peddle some technology to terrorist groups, that would also be very, very serious," Hans Blix, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the BBC.
Why would they do that when they know it could easily be traced back to themselves?
Obama assured South Korean President Lee Myung-bak of Washington's unequivocal commitment to defend the divided peninsula, where 2 million troops face off....
War is closer than you think.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said North Korea would "pay a price" if it did not reverse its course but said the door was still open for it to resume long-running six-party talks meant to draw the reclusive state out of its isolation.
I am ALWAYS for TALKING over FIGHTING!!!!
A US Treasury Department official said on condition of anonymity that Washington was "reviewing our options" for further financial sanctions.
How much more can they take, and would it matter?
There is little more Washington can do to deter the North, which has been punished for years by international sanctions and is so poor that it relies on aid to feed its 23 million people.
Gee, I think they are ALREADY SUFFERING!
Here is an IDEA: Instead of the THREATS, send them some FOOD!!!!!
Btw, how can such an EMACIATED POPULATION of a country SO SMALL really be a threat?
The nuke? When he knows we will wipe him off the face of the planet if he even dares fire it?
And what bothers me is North Korea told the truth about the missile launch.
The U.S. didn't.
And you think the Koreans are just going to sit back and take it 9like the U.S. public does)?
"North Korea warns of strikes on US shipping; Says search for weapons violates truce" by Jean H. Lee, Associated Press | May 28, 2009
SEOUL - North Korea yesterday threatened military strikes on US and South Korean ships and renounced a 1953 truce halting the Korean War fighting - an escalation of tensions in the wake of Pyongyang's nuclear test.
The threats, which follow Seoul's decision to join more than 90 nations in stopping and inspecting ships suspected of transporting banned weapons, raised the prospect of a naval clash off Korea's west coast.
I wonder when the agenda-pushing puppet masters will provoke that confrontation that will then fill our TV screens.
Related: Korean Diversion in the Works?
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton responded by saying North Korea faces consequences for its nuclear and missile tests and denouncing its "provocative and belligerent" threats.
Israel.
She also underscored the firmness of the US treaty commitment to defend South Korea and Japan, which are in easy range of North Korean missiles....
That's how WWI broke out.
South Korea, divided from the North by a heavily fortified border, had responded to the nuclear test by joining the Proliferation Security Initiative, a US-led movement to stop ships from transporting banned nuclear goods. Pyongyang lashed out at both the United States and South Korea, calling Seoul's move to join the initiative tantamount to a declaration of war and a violation of the truce keeping the peace between the two Koreas.
We would think so if it happened against us.
"Full participation in the PSI by a side on the Korean Peninsula where the state of military confrontation is growing acute and there is constant danger of military conflict itself means igniting a war," North Korea's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement carried on state media. The regime warned that it would "deal a decisive and merciless retaliatory blow" to anyone trying to inspect its vessels....
Clinton said North Korea has chosen to violate UN Security Council resolutions, ignore international warnings, and abrogate commitments made during nuclear disarmament talks. "There are consequences to such actions," she said, referring to discussions in the United Nations about punishing North Korea for its nuclear and missile tests.
Yeah, UNLESS you are ISRAEL!!!!!!!
She did not provide specifics, saying only that the intent of diplomats was to "try to rein in the North Koreans" and get them to fulfill commitments made in the nuclear talks. Clinton said she was pleased by a unified international condemnation of North Korea that included Russia and China, North Korea's closest major all....
--more--""US officials: North Korea may launch new missiles" by Eric Talmadge and Anne Gearan, Associated Press Writers | May 29, 2009
SEOUL, South Korea -- With tensions rising, the communist nation punctuated its barrage of rhetoric with yet another short-range missile launch on Friday -- the sixth this week....
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because methods of gathering information about North Korea are sensitive. South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the latest test launch Friday was a surface-to-air missile designed to defend against aircraft or other missile attacks. It said the missile was believed to be a modified version of the Russian SA-5.
The nuclear test and flurry of missile launches, coupled with the rhetoric from Pyongyang that it won't honor a 1953 truce ending the fighting in the Korean War, have raised tensions in the region and heightened concerns that the North may provoke a skirmish along the border or off its western coast -- the site of deadly clashes in 1999 and 2002.
Well, they are keeping their fingers crossed anyway!
But officials said the heavily fortified border remains calm and the U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Washington does not see the situation as a crisis warranting any more troops to augment the 28,000 U.S. forces already in South Korea.
He'll be singing a different tune tomorrow.
North Korea remained strident. "There is a limit to our patience," its Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried on the North's official Korean Central News Agency....
Yeah, THEY are the strident ones! Pffft!
North Korea said it conducted the test in self-defense. It has asserted the United States is planning a pre-emptive strike to oust the regime of leader Kim Jong Il and warned it would not accept sanctions or other punitive measures being discussed by the Security Council.
"If the U.N. Security Council makes a further provocation, it will be inevitable for us to take further self-defense measures," the Foreign Ministry said. It reiterated that it no longer sees the truce as valid, but it has made that claim several times in the past....
North and South Korea technically remain at war because they signed a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953. North Korea disputes the U.N.-drawn maritime border off its west coast and has positioned artillery guns along the west coast on its side of the border, Yonhap said.
From the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, about a dozen Chinese ships could be seen pulling out of a North Korean port and heading elsewhere, possibly to avoid any skirmishes....
South Korean and U.S. troops facing North Korea raised their surveillance.... A squadron of F-22 stealth fighters -- the most advanced in the U.S. Air Force -- were due to arrive Saturday on the southern Japan island of Okinawa, and Friday's missile launch may have been the North's attempt to show it has the means to shoot them down, or at least make any incursion into its airspace risky....
But THAT is NOT PROVOCATIVE!
--more--"
SINGAPORE - Drawing the most explicit US line yet on North Korea, Defense Secretary Robert Gates vowed today that the Obama administration would hold North Korea "fully accountable" if it sold or transferred any nuclear material outside its borders.
Gates sketched the framework of a new administration policy by saying that though a nuclear-armed North Korea is unacceptable, any step it takes to spread the technology would invite the swiftest and most forceful US response.
"The transfer of nuclear weapons or material by North Korea to states or nonstate entities would be considered a grave threat to the United States and our allies," Gates told officials gathered at an Asian defense summit. "And we would hold North Korea fully accountable for the consequences of such action."
Until Gates's speech, the Obama administration's policy on the North Korean nuclear threat was unclear....
Not now.
Gates, in his address in Singapore today, did not specify the potential consequences, but his language hinted at a military reaction by echoing post-Sept. 11 Bush administration warnings that those who harbor terrorists would be "held accountable."
So much has changed, 'eh, Amurkns?
Gates's speech also may serve as a message to countries and militant groups that are potential buyers of North Korean weaponry. Past customers are believed to include Iran, Syria, Libya, the militant Lebanese group Hezbollah and others....
Pfffft!
Is it going to be something like this, to be blamed on them?
And here is a strange set of circumstances.
The brief in my Sunday paper reads:
"Defense secretary warns on missiles
PANMUNJOM -- Satellites saw signs that North Korea may be preparing to move another long-range missile to a test launch site, South Korea said yesterday, as Secretary of Defense Robert gates issued his harshest warning since the North's recent nuclear test. "We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia, or upon us," Gates said in Singapore (AP)."
The Globe's web version says:
"N. Korea may face military buildup
US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates raised the idea of a tougher approach toward North Korea's recent nuclear test with Asian allies yesterday, including the prospect of building up US military forces in the region should diplomatic talks with North Korea fail, American defense officials said.
This after what he said above?
Gates raised "the notion that we should think about this as we are pursuing the six-party talks," said a senior defense official. But another defense official cautioned that talk of any buildup was premature and that it was merely a "prudent option." (New York Times)."
Yup -- and no decisions have been made yet on Iraq we were told.
