President Barack Obama: North Korea 'a serious threat'

[Turborama]

Source: BBC

US President Barack Obama has strongly condemned North Korea's shelling of Yeonpyeong island in South Korea and said the US would defend South Korea. Mr Obama told ABC News that North Korea was "a serious and ongoing threat that needs to be dealt with".

=snip=

President Obama described South Korea as an important ally and "a cornerstone of US security in the Pacific region". He said he would not speculate on military action at this stage, but would consult South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, on the crisis.

He said: "We strongly affirm our commitment to defend South Korea as part of that alliance. We want to make sure all the parties in the region recognise that this is a serious and ongoing threat that needs to be dealt with."

He called on North Korea's ally China to communicate to Pyongyang "that there are a set of international rules they need to abide by".

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11825445

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Video of the interview at the link.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. Can N Korea's missiles reach our shores?

if not let China deal with it.

[Turborama]

4. Can Hitler's missiles reach our shores?

If not, let Britain deal with it.

[Mrdie]

5. Ahem

Hitler had plans for a massive empire involving the extermination of non-"Aryans" and aggression against more than a few states in order to carry this out.

The DPRK wants to reunify Korea under its flag, and the RoK vice-versa. Not comparable at all. Even Hussein would have represented a bigger threat according to your logic.

[Turborama]

6. I was referring to the prevailing attitude to what was going on in Europe leading up to Pearl Harbor

I thought it was obvious.

[proteus_lives]

7. They can reach SK and Japan.

This is very much our problem.

[JVS]

11. Sounds like SK's and Japan's problems.

[smirkymonkey]

12. +100

I'm sick of being the world's policeman. If we leave it alone, it would be interesting to see how things would work out. I think probably better than if we got involved, since we manage to f**k-up everything we get ourselves into.

[proteus_lives]

13. I pity any friend of yours who needs help.

[Rage for Order]

16. Exactly right

Sorry, but we're out of cash. It's time for the rest of the world to pay for their own security. North Korea won't attack the US, and I'm certain that both South Korea and Japan are more than capable of taking care of themselves.

[Posteritatis]

9. There are these things called treaties.

Yes, yes, I know, Bush violated them therefore none of them matter anymore and Obama should behave exactly the same way regarding international obligations, but on levels of thinking a little more mature than that, there are these things called treaties.

[Hardrada]

2. Among these rules are not attacking countries that had no

intention of attacking you and had no military resources to do so in any case.

[flvegan]

3. Please tell me we're not walking into ongoing War #3.

Kim Jong Nutbag aside.

[Posteritatis]

8. That's up to North Korea to decide. (nt)

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

10. I hope not. We'd lose this one.

Our heavy manufacturing base has moved to China. They are not likely to remain a favored trading partner in case of WW3.

:hi:

[Igel]

14. Rather depends, doesn't it?

Is N. Korea being good little lickspittles or are they acting up and China's forced to do what it doesn't want to to save face?

If the latter, China will be very cross and find a nice way of letting its lickspittle get reamed up the backside in a way that makes China look like its done what its honor and self-interest demands.

China does not want instability. Kimistan is creating instability.

China wants to be seen as honorable and dignified. Kimistan is making it look weak and foolish.

At the same time, China very much doesn't want to have to deal with its inferiors in ways that compromise its excellence and glory. So they don't want to have to deal with Kimistan. Let others handle what amounts to a very, very large bubo on its ass. Esp. since it so deeply covets prosperity, sees prosperity as a zero sum game and sees South Korea with a measure of prosperity that China would like. In the spirit of the coming Asian century, "Not only screw them because we got ours, but let's help screw them so we get theirs, too."

As somebody else pointed out on an e-list I'm on, it's good not to obsess about the mote in another's eye because you have a beam in yours. It's another thing entirely to make a virtue out of justifying the beam in another's eye because you have a mote in your own.

Not everybody is an American-style Westerner; we are not all the same, however our Western hubris may flatter us (or shame us, as the case actually is more often than not) by insisting that, really, everybody is just like us. "Culturally appropriate" does not obligatorily involve food, fashion, folklore, and festivals. In fact, the four Fs ignore what is really important in cultural differences, even if it's very difficult for people--typically the most "enlightened" and therefore self-blinded--to recognize it.

Meanwhile, I continue to wonder how it is that so much manufactured tonnage are seen heading down 610 towards the Port of Houston every day if we have no manufacturing base. The fact is, we have sharply reduced our manufacturing, but since we started off with such a hellish amount of manufacturing we still actually manufacture a lot. The problem is that the manufacturing is located in parts of towns and the country that the educated tend to eschew as being inferior, the result of jobs that the educated think are somehow wrong. After all, while a loyal DUer, I have to recall my visceral rejection of Carter's "post-industrial" economy. It struck me as a royally dumbass idea when Carter--and Gore--praised it. Yet the gurus of "post-industrialism"--which is to say, of a post-manufacturing economy--continue to receive absurd levels of praise from those who decry precisely the policies at whose altars they worshipped. Mote, beam.

[Turborama]

15. This post is full of win, apart from this part.

"In the spirit of the coming Asian century, "Not only screw them because we got ours, but let's help screw them so we get theirs, too.""

Can you see how stereotyping a whole geographic region of the world like could be interpreted as at the worst racist and at the best racialist? I advise taking it out. It's unnecessary and ruins an otherwise really good post.

[Rage for Order]

17. Not. Our. Problem.

In fact, we should inform South Korea that we intend to discontinue our defense treaty with them on January 1, 2011, and bring our 28,000 troops home. They were protesting against US troops being in their country anyway, so we'll simply be acceding to the wishes of the local populace by withdrawing our forces.

[christx30]

18. I wonder how they feel

now that the North has actually attacked them?

[The abyss]

19. If North Korea is a serious threat

Then I would think South Korea (US client state) should not be firing off rounds at North Korea (Chinese client state).

Nor should they (South Korea) be running mock invasion drills along border areas.

Interesting timing on this "event"

Does the US think that floating one of their antique, aerial launch platforms in the China sea means anything?

The Chinese government OWNS the future debt of the US in the form of T-bills.

[soryang]

20. China is the threat not N. Korea

China's sphere of influence ends at the DMZ. When you deal with N.Korea you are dealing with China's interests. Everyone needs to cool off. This is not in our interest, nor Japan's, nor S.Korea, nor China.

This is why sending the carrier back into the yellow sea is a bad idea, showing provocation instead of restraint. It's bravado at everyone else's expense and irresponsible. Obama is getting bad military advice.