North Korea Threatens Armed Strike Against South Korea; Says Will No Longer Abide by 1953 Armistice

Damozel | While Bush was thinking about oil and Iraq, Kim Jong II in North Korea was busy, busy, busy building up its "nuclear deterrent."  And now NK claims it's ready to rrrrrrrrumble if anyone even thinks of trying to interfere -- with "anyone" meaning "anyone, but especially South Korea."

Yesterday, I commented on the options for dealing with N. Korea as including authority under a UN Security Council Resolution to "halt and inspect shipping into and out of North Korea for contraband missile parts or nuclear materials." (New York Times)  The drawback to enforcing this authority was, according to the NYT's Sanger "escalation of hostilities with....the poorest and least predictable state in Northeast Asia." (NYT).  N. Korea is particularly incensed that S. Korea is getting involved in a US-led program to seize weapons of mass destruction..  So much, then, for the 1953 armistice?

“The Korean People’s Army will not be bound to the Armistice Agreement any longer,” the official Korean Central News Agency said in a statement today. Any attempt to inspect North Korean vessels will be countered with “prompt and strong military strikes.” South Korea’s military said it will “deal sternly with any provocation” from the North. (Bloomberg)

President Lee Myung Bak of South Korea says his government would take "calm" preparations against the threat. (Bloomberg) 

South Korea yesterday agreed to join the Proliferation Security Initiative, or PSI, set up to locate and seize shipments of equipment and materials used to make weapons of mass destruction.

President Lee had resisted joining the PSI until the nuclear test, even after North Korea fired a ballistic missile on April 5. His predecessor, Roh Moo Hyun, had said that joining the initiative would be too provocative.

North Korea has also fired five short-range missiles in two days in a further display of military defiance. The United Nations Security Council agreed in an emergency session on May 25 to condemn the nuclear test and missile launches. (Bloomberg)  

Japan's Chief Cabinet secretary has warned North Korea not to do anything to worsen tension in the area. (Bloomberg) 

North Korea apparently launched an additional short-range missile from its east coast on Tuesday. (Yonhap News Agency)   Thus we see yet another looming disaster willed to us by the failed policies of the Bush administration. 

RELATED BUCK NAKED POLITICS POSTING

North Korea Throws Down the Gauntlet with Nuclear Test as Powerful as Hiroshima, Outraging Entire World (News Round-Up)

OTHER RECENT BUCK NAKED POLITICS POSTINGS

TPMtv's "The Day in 100 Seconds" (May 26, 2009 Video): Obama Names Sonia Sotomayor as Choice for Supreme

Gay Marriage Ban Upheld in California

Bill Maher vs. Sean Hannity (Video)

CNN: Americans Have More Favorable View of Colin Powell than of Cheney and Limbaugh

TPMtv's "The Day in 100 Seconds" (Memorial Day, 2009 Video)

SOWF: Taking Care of Fallen Soldiers' Families

Mile-Long Memorial: a Most Impressive Tribute to our Fallen Soldiers

Maine's Education Department to Settle Justice Department Suit for $1.5 Million

Desperate GOP Geniuses Make Moronic Misstep: Comparing Pelosi to Bond Character "Pussy Galore"

Comments

[flowerplough]

President Lee Myung Bak of South Korea says... and Japan's Chief Cabinet secretary has warned North Korea... and Bammy says the world must "stand up to" Pyongyang and demand that it honor a promise to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

But old Joe Biden said, not too long ago, that "(i)t will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America.

"Watch. We're going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.

"And he's going to need help . . ."