US hesitant in condemning North Korean launch

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By BRADLEY KLAPPER

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration is drawing no "red line" for North Korea after a successful long-range rocket test, tempering the public condemnation to avoid raising tensions or possibly rewarding the reclusive communist nation with too much time in the global spotlight.

The U.S. has told the world that it won't tolerate Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons or Syria's use of chemical stockpiles on rebels. North Korea, in some ways, is a trickier case.

The U.S. wants to forcefully condemn what it believes is a "highly provocative act," and that was the first public reaction from the White House late Tuesday. But it also is mindful of the turmoil on the Korean peninsula and treading carefully, offering no threat of military action or unspecified "consequences" associated with other hot spots.

Just two years ago, the North allegedly torpedoed a South Korean warship and shelled a South Korean island. Some 50 South Koreans died in the attacks that brought the peninsula to the brink of war.

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20121213/DA34JIA00.html

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A screen at the General Satellite Control and Command Center shows the moment North Korea's Unha-3 rocket is launched in Pyongyang, North Korea, Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2012. North Korea successfully fired a long-range rocket on Wednesday, defying international warnings as the regime of Kim Jong Un took a big step forward in its quest to develop a nuclear missile. (AP Photo)

[Purveyor]

1. Like a gentleman said tonight on Newshour, more sanctions? What is there left to sanction. They

haven't worked and they won't work with NK.

Really nothing left in our 'quiver' other than military and SK would be made 'mince-meat' if that were to happen.

Tough 'nuclear armed' situation...indeed.

[dballance]

2. What? We're holding back on being totally hypocritical?

Well that's a change. I'm sure it won't last.

[doc03]

3. I haven't heard anything from McInsane, surely he thinks

we should nuke em.

[Nihil]

4. Bullies don't like it when someone might push back.

Syria, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and all of the other
"petty nations" who the US has bullied bloodily over the years are not
in a position to cause anything like as much harm in reply as NK is.

(Mind you, seeing how swimmingly the various campaigns in some of the
above have gone for US forces, maybe the line should have been drawn
at an even smaller nation?)

[biohazard9550]

5. good point

[Selatius]

6. I believe the United States is wondering how far away the DPRK is from building accurate missiles.

It takes a tremendous level of accuracy to fire a missile on one continent and score a hit on a city on another continent.

If North Korea ever achieved that level of accuracy with their missile, that could be used by the DPRK as a negotiating chip at the bargaining table. Even if it can't be used as a bargaining chip--that's a fair chance it won't--it'll, at the very least, act as a deterrent against any nation threatening to attack.

I believe they're still years away from building ICBMs that are accurate enough to hit a particular city. Even then, they'd be limited to using only biochemical weapons. It'll likely be years beyond that point that they'd be able to build nuclear warheads small enough to fit on top of those.