Promoted by Steven D
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Drowning out all the “good” news about Obama’s State of the Union.
Northe Korea defies neighbour China in a third underground nuclear test
Hong Kong (CNN) — North Korea said Tuesday that it had conducted a new, more powerful underground nuclear test using more sophisticated technology, jolting the already fragile security situation in Northeast Asia and drawing condemnation from around the globe.
“The test was carried out as part of practical measures of counteraction to defend the country’s security and sovereignty in the face of the ferocious hostile act of the U.S.,” the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, referring to new U.S.-led sanctions on Pyongyang in the wake of a recent long-range rocket launch.
The nuclear test, which follows previous detonations by the North in 2006 and 2009, had greater explosive force and involved the use of a smaller, lighter device, KCNA reported.
In a White House statement, President Obama calls the test “highly provocative”, calls for “swift” international action.
UN Security Council to meet on North Korean test
(St. Louis Today) – The U.N. Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on North Korea’s nuclear test on Tuesday morning.
South Korea’s U.N. Mission informed reporters early Tuesday that the closed-door meeting will begin at 9 a.m. (1400 GMT). South Korea joined the Security Council in January for a 2-year term and currently holds the council’s rotating presidency.
South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan is in New York to preside over a council meeting scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. (1500 GMT) on the protection of civilians in armed conflicts.
I thought I lost me diary. Thanks Steven!
It often feels lonely on the International diaries front on the right side of the blog.
Frankly, North Korea scares the crap out of me. Starving people and a dynastic dictatorship bent on developing nukes to extort – what?
I wonder what the Chinese government really thinks about their aggressive little madhouse buffer zone.
Well, another reason for Graham to put a hold on Hagel until he knows exactly what Obama was doing when NK was holding this test. And heaven forbid if Obama was in the john.
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It seems that Darwinian pressure and partial embargoes (which are what sanctions are) on countries have this result: the target country develops more efficient weapons, making it harder to attack should that necessity occur. Heckuvajob, US policymakers.
It also seems that the regime (Kim is less in charge than Bashar is in Syria) wants to keep high tensions with South Korea for domestic political reasons. I am sure that this tributary of China informed Beijing what it was doing. It is unclear whether China seeks for US presence to leave the region or wants to pin down substantial US assets in Korea (as stabilizing presence in the Japan-China-Russia three-way power conflict). A nuclear North Korea would tend to pin down the US in the absence of some very creative diplomacy.
So is the toothless UN Security Council (sure to draw a veto from China and possibly Russa) going to send Pyongyang another sternly worded letter? Is the US going to provoke additional tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Someone (likely in Pyongyang) definitely does not want to see a South Korean Sunshine Policy.
Time to breathe deeply and not fall for the madman actor Nixon policy that North Korea has played since its inception. Going cowboy plays to their strategy.
I really hesitate to say this, but I think it is time for this mad dog to be put down. B-2 nuclear attacks on all known nuclear and missile facilities and a drone attack on “Dear Leader”. I’m talking preemptive war and it sounds like blasphemy to me too, but I think it will save many innocent lives. If these maniacs ever do nuke the USA even with a suitcase bomb, millions of innocents will die in the US spasm retaliation and there will be massive retaliation. The American public will demand it. The Soviets understood that but not these fanatic assholes. They persist in playing with fire. They are mentally unbalanced purists with a nuclear AR-15. Kill them before they kill the innocent school children, ours and theirs.
Oh yes, somebody really good at diplomacy has to convince China of this first, then launch the B-2’s.
Oh yes, somebody really good at diplomacy has to convince China of this first, then launch the B-2’s.
That’s quite a tall order. We’re going to need a Secretary of State who is one smooth talker.
(looks)
Oh, &%$#!
It is an interesting time that the coastal waters there are seeing. From the bizarre dispute between Japan and China over the uninhabited islands where the dispute has dangerously escalated to North Korea’s young leader attempting to flex his country’s muscles.
China seems to be strangely close to the middle of many conflicts and it worthwhile to wonder how and where Obama, Kerry & Hagel will engage the US. I almost feel comforted that Obama has already demonstrated a view of bringing a coalition to bear rather than a shock and awe US intervention.
But the area is hot. And after learning to fight Terrorists’ ideology driven pockets of violence, suddenly a State Sponsored, forgive me but, old fashioned country vs country score of war posturing suddenly is clearly on the horizon.
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Sure, what do we need those assets in the Atlantic for?
The 50-50 split, like the ground forces in Europe, is a holdover from the 20th century, when there was a serious threat of a main-force war in Europe. I think it’s pretty safe to say that we don’t need to worry quite as much about escorting convoys to prevent a blockade of Britain anymore.
Atlantic IMO = NATO reponsibilities, which extend into the Mediterranean all the way to Turkey (and coincidentally NATO “partner” Israel). Not sure whether this realignment is going to vacate the Persian Gulf, closing the base in Bahrain. Or the one in Qatar as Afghanistan winds down.
Plus there is still “global commons” responsibility of keeping international waters safe for shipping. The US has been policing this since the days of the Barbary pirates.
The geopolitical game is control over the shipping routes to Japan and South Korea from the Indian Ocean and westward. The shortest route is by Singapore and to the inside of the China Seas. The US and other nations insist that the area is international waters. China seeks to regulate it a territorial waters.
The resource game is conflict among Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, and China for the mineral resources of the uninhabited Spratly islands and shoals that lie closer to Indonesia and the Philippines that the other two countries but are clearly in international waters. And the resources of the Paracel Islands that both Vietnam and China claim. These archipelagos narrow the navigable South China Sea, and the Spratlys mark the outside boundary of Chinese territorial claims.
The possibility of a regional war here in which Japan’s, South Korea’s, and the Philippines’s alliance with the US could be invoked is what is troubling. If Hagel is bringing China into military-to-military conversations with the other countries in the area, that could be stabilizing.
Panetta’s comments are indeed heartening. Taken in the context of the games being played with Hagel’s nomination one of these days the petty is going to compromise any effectiveness we might have.
Speaking of PETTY, this new leverage using nominees fixation continues with Lisa Murkowski holding up Jewel’s nomination so Alaska can get a new road. It’s blackmail plain and simple.