White House plays down threat of imminent North Korea attack
Source: The Guardian
The White House sought to lower the temperature of the North Korea crisis on Monday, pointing out that despite Pyongyang's verbal threats to retaliate with force against the imposition of UN sanctions there were no signs of any troop movements that would suggest imminent military action.
The Obama administration adopted a note of muted concern, in contrast to the increasingly shrill language emanating from both North and South Korea in recent days. At a White House press conference, President Obama's spokesman Jay Carney stressed that though the US was continuing to monitor the situation diligently, "we are not seeing large-scale military mobilisation and repositioning of [North Korean] forces".
Pyongyang's aggressive stance was nothing new, Carney said. "This pattern of bellicose rhetoric is not new. It is familiar, we take it very seriously and we take prudent measures in response to it, but it is consistent with past behaviour."
Carney made clear that the US posture was designed with both Koreas firmly in mind. While Obama wanted to show the North Korean regime that its provocative behaviour "only isolates them further", the administration was also applying pressure on Seoul to dissuade it from taking any unilateral action.
Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/01/white-house-plays-down-north-korea-attack
