North Korea: Obama's First FP Crisis Looming?

[Tech_Esq]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korean and U.S. troops raised their alert Thursday to the highest level since 2006 after North Korea renounced its truce with the allied forces and threatened to strike any ships trying to intercept its vessels.

The move was a sign of heightened tensions on the peninsula following the North's underground nuclear test and its firing of a series of short-range missiles earlier this week.

In response, Seoul decided to join more than 90 nations that have agreed to stop and inspect vessels suspected of transporting banned weapons.

North Korea says South Korea's participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative is a prelude to a naval blockade and raises the prospect of a naval skirmish in its western waters.

South Korea, US Troops Raise Alert Level

 

[elvis]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korean and U.S. troops raised their alert Thursday to the highest level since 2006 after North Korea renounced its truce with the allied forces and threatened to strike any ships trying to intercept its vessels.

The move was a sign of heightened tensions on the peninsula following the North's underground nuclear test and its firing of a series of short-range missiles earlier this week.

In response, Seoul decided to join more than 90 nations that have agreed to stop and inspect vessels suspected of transporting banned weapons.

North Korea says South Korea's participation in the U.S.-led Proliferation Security Initiative is a prelude to a naval blockade and raises the prospect of a naval skirmish in its western waters.

South Korea, US Troops Raise Alert Level

He'll come out smelling like a rose. He always does.

 

[Tech_Esq]

North Korea has renounced the 1953 Cease fire ending hostilities in the Korean War and is spoiling for a fight.

Will Obama begin inspecting NK ships on the high seas to enforce non-proliferation?

Or, will Kim Jong Il raise the stakes to a point where Obama will have to back down?

 

[elvis]

North Korea has renounced the 1953 Cease fire ending hostilities in the Korean War and is spoiling for a fight.

Will Obama begin inspecting NK ships on the high seas to enforce non-proliferation?

Or, will Kim Jong Il raise the stakes to a point where Obama will have to back down?

I would think Kim will push until Obama pushes back.

 

[Tech_Esq]

North Korea has renounced the 1953 Cease fire ending hostilities in the Korean War and is spoiling for a fight.

Will Obama begin inspecting NK ships on the high seas to enforce non-proliferation?

Or, will Kim Jong Il raise the stakes to a point where Obama will have to back down?

I would think Kim will push until Obama pushes back.

How will he push back though?

Unfortunately for Obama, he comes to this issue after a long history of verified abuses by North Korea. The Bush Admin patently showed that North Korea had bent over Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in their 1993 deal with North Korea and was collecting the benefits while not abiding by the deal.

Bush, then got the 6 party talks going. Those occasionally appeared to be working, a little. Basically, that's par for the course with North Korea. You never get too far too fast and there is a hell of a lot of back-sliding.

So, Obama really has to do more than get another resolution from the UN. I think if he does that he'll be seen as doing nothing. Kim Jong Il has already thumbed his nose at that possibility.

South Korea has a hard line administration for the first time in a while. So, it's hard to know whether they will drag us into something with NK. If they stop an NK ship for instance or react strongly when NK challenges their ships.

This is a huge powder keg. I know Obama wants to run from it, but I think his leg is tied to these crazy MF'rs

 

[elvis]

North Korea has renounced the 1953 Cease fire ending hostilities in the Korean War and is spoiling for a fight.

Will Obama begin inspecting NK ships on the high seas to enforce non-proliferation?

Or, will Kim Jong Il raise the stakes to a point where Obama will have to back down?

I would think Kim will push until Obama pushes back.

How will he push back though?

Unfortunately for Obama, he comes to this issue after a long history of verified abuses by North Korea. The Bush Admin patently showed that North Korea had bent over Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in their 1993 deal with North Korea and was collecting the benefits while not abiding by the deal.

Bush, then got the 6 party talks going. Those occasionally appeared to be working, a little. Basically, that's par for the course with North Korea. You never get too far too fast and there is a hell of a lot of back-sliding.

So, Obama really has to do more than get another resolution from the UN. I think if he does that he'll be seen as doing nothing. Kim Jong Il has already thumbed his nose at that possibility.

South Korea has a hard line administration for the first time in a while. So, it's hard to know whether they will drag us into something with NK. If they stop an NK ship for instance or react strongly when NK challenges their ships.

This is a huge powder keg. I know Obama wants to run from it, but I think his leg is tied to these crazy MF'rs

China might get NK to back down. They support NK, but don't want a war, given that they hold a trillion dollars of US debt.

 

[elvis]

What happens if Obama doesn't push back?

 

[Fraulein Hilda]

Then it's up to the six way talks to save the day.

Or is that the five way chili?

 

[Sweet Willy]

I have an idea. Let's attack Iraq.

 

[Fraulein Hilda]

I have a better idea. Let's elect a Democrat majority in Congress who will vow to defund the Iraq war.

 

[elvis]

I have an idea. Let's attack Iraq.

Are you quoting Joe Biden or Rahm Emanuel?

 

[Tech_Esq]

Then it's up to the six way talks to save the day.

Or is that the five way chili?

That's the point. I don't think he can just do 6 way talks again. It would be too Bush-ish and it's already led to nothing.

He's better off with the 5 way chili

 

[Tech_Esq]

What happens if Obama doesn't push back?

Good question.

South Korea might on their own. Then we would get dragged into it.

North Korea, will, if left to their own devices, push until they have to stop. That means, besides missile and bomb tests, asserting their position that the border in the sea drawn by the UN in 1953 needs to be farther south. They have been known to attack shipping in these disputed waters in the past.

In 1968, they captured the USS Pueblo and held it and the crew for a good long time.

I'm not sure how interested China is in easing tensions. Their calculus might be that Obama isn't going to go to war in Korea no matter what. If push came to shove, Obama is just as likely to withdraw US troops from SK as he is to fight. So maybe they want some indication of which way he would go.

Why? Taiwan. If the US won't fight over SK, then they damn sure won't over Taiwan.

 

[Indiana Oracle]

The Prophet's stated and implemented approach to foreign policy invites international bad actors to misbehave and test him. Korea knows we could turn the whole country into an ash heap. It just does not believe we will. Right now they are probably right. In fact I wonder what The Prophet would do if they actually did bomb SF.

 

[Tech_Esq]

The Prophet's stated and implemented approach to foreign policy invites international bad actors to misbehave and test him. Korea knows we could turn the whole country into an ash heap. It just does not believe we will. Right now they are probably right. In fact I wonder what The Prophet would do if they actually did bomb SF.

Don't be silly. He would apologize for the US putting them in a situation where they felt they needed to bomb SF to get their point across.

 

[tigerbob]

At least one political commentator sees humor in North Korea's saber-rattling.

There is something comforting about North Korea’s nuclear weapons | The Spectator