Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates looked north yesterday from the DMZ. (Mark Wilson/ Getty Images)
And further in the distance behind them, China and Iran.
See: Korean Cover For Iran Attack
That's why all the military hardware is in the region based on the false-flag sinking of the South Korean ship.
"US to widen sanctions against North Korea; Clinton, Gates tour DMZ with South officials" by Mark Landler and Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times | July 22, 2010
SEOUL — The Obama administration announced yesterday that it would impose further economic sanctions against North Korea, throwing legal weight behind a choreographed show of pressure that included an unusual joint visit to the demilitarized zone by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.
Against people who are already sick and starving -- and moving to a market economy?
WTF more do they want, huh?
The measures, announced here by Clinton after talks with South Korean officials, focus on counterfeiting, money laundering, and other dealings that she said the North Korean government used to generate hard currency to pay off cronies and cling to power.
Yeah, now North Korea is responsible for all the worlds ills.
I would be checking some other mob if I were them.
While the United States already places heavy sanctions on North Korea, officials insisted that the new measures would further tighten the financial vise around North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Il, who, according to regional intelligence, is in declining health.
Also see: Kicking North Korea
The unilateral US action follows by two months a South Korean-led investigation found North Korea responsible for the March sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean warship, which killed 46 sailors. The North’s bellicose behavior, analysts say, reflects a deepening power struggle inside the country. But the United States has struggled to build consensus about how harshly to confront the Kim government.
Because the rest of the world knows the investigation was BS!
While the UN Security Council voted to condemn the sinking of the warship, it did not name North Korea as the culprit because of resistance from China, the North’s neighbor and most important ally.
Clinton demanded that the North take responsibility for the attack, saying it will continue to be a pariah until it does.
How about demanding the same of a real pariah state: Israel
She ruled out any negotiations with the North Korean government until it agrees to relinquish its nuclear weapons. And she said that the United States will expand and stiffen its sanctions to “target their leadership, target their assets.’’
Israel.
“These measures are not directed at the people of North Korea, who have suffered for too long due to the misguided and maligned priorities of their government,’’ Clinton said at a news conference, flanked by Gates and South Korea’s defense and foreign ministers. “They are directed at the destabilizing, illicit, and provocative policies pursued by that government.’’
Of course, they are the ones that suffer.
Btw, you REALIZE SHE is TALKING about HER OWN COUNTRY, right?
Her announcement punctuated a visit rich in symbols of US diplomacy and military might, organized to mark the 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War. On Tuesday, the United States and South Korea confirmed that they will stage large-scale military exercises in the seas off Japan and the Korean Peninsula, as a show of deterrence against the North.
And China is pretty peeved about it.
Yesterday, Gates and Clinton traveled to Panmunjom, in the demilitarized zone, where they clambered up an observation post in a gloomy drizzle to peer into the North. Later, as the pair toured a small building that straddles the military demarcation line, a North Korean soldier stared at them through a window.
Neither acknowledged the soldier. Afterward, the two stood before a phalanx of cameras, under the gaze of guards from the North Korean side, to proclaim solidarity with South Korea.
“It is stunning how little has changed up there and yet how much South Korea continues to grow and prosper,’’ Gates said, noting that this was his third visit to the demilitarized zone — the first being in the early 1990s when he was director of central intelligence.
And we even had an election!!!
It was Clinton’s first visit. “Although it may be a thin line,’’ she said, referring to the narrow strip of land separating the two sides, “these two places are worlds apart.’’
And ONCE AGAIN a NYT REWRITE!!!Some of what was excised from the printed paper I am staring at on my desk:
The administration's show of solidarity with South Korea has complicated ties with China. In addition to its balkiness at the United Nations, Beijing has objected to the joint naval exercises, which have frayed an already-tense relationship between the militaries of China and the United States....
"We are obviously concerned by some of the things China has said, some of the things China is doing in the military arena; they are worrying," Gates said....
He is SOMETHING ELSE, isn't he?
Clinton said the United States would put new focus on North Korean officials who use diplomatic privilege to cloak their dealings....
As opposed to what, the CIA SHOP she calls a State Department?
"Jeffrey Castelli, identified as the former head of the CIA in Rome.... enjoys immunity because he was an accredited diplomat at the US Embassy in Rome"
She has been drinking again, hasn't she?
--more--"
Yeah, I can see why the NYT would want to cut all that.
