NK Bombs SK

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It seems that North Korea is "daring" other countries to declare war on them by firing an artillery barrage at South Korea. South Korea responded by firing 80 shells in retaliation, and scrambling fighter jets. Many countries are urging peace on the peninsula, while South Korea's president says that "We will act sternly against any more provocation. North Korea should take the responsibility for this." The United States and the European Union have condemned the attack, calling it "outrageous", and Russia and China are trying to smooth things out by negotiations. The U.S. will stand "shoulder-to-shoulder" with South Korea over the incident, said White House Press Secretary Bill Burton. U.S. Navy has already sent a whole fleet of an aircraft carrier and destroyers to prevent future attacks. Apparently this was one of the worst skirmishes between the two Koreas since the Korean War.

Wall Street Journal Article

New York Times Article

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This fits right in with their recent "revalation" of a Uranium enrichment factility (no, the US government was not surprised). North Korea has a long history of bad behavior, for which they expect the world to reward them with food and monetary aid in return for promises to not do it any more. It's been on about a two-year repeating cycle and North Korea has learned very well how to use that process for it's benefit.

The rest of the dummies on the other side of the table, the US and UN included, have learned nothing and keep repeating the same scenario over and over, hoping for a better result on the next cycle through the charade. No doubt this time the "diplomats" will have blithely optimistic expectations that the successor waiting in the wings, newly minted General Kim Jong Un, will be easier to deal with than the "Il" member of the family. Of course he won't be, or he wouldn't have been named heir-apparent in the first place.

Sanctions are demanded, which become so watered down as to be totally useless before they are deemed acceptable by the UN. Then NK is coerced to the negotiating table where they extract all sorts of concessions in return for promises that they will no longer be what they've always been.

Only one nation exerts any real influence over NK - China. China prefers to have NK keep the pot stirred because it quite dependably consumes a significant portion of US intelligence assets, military assets and attention. NK is to China, almost what Lebanon is to Iran - perhaps not quite so tightly controlled, but along the same lines.

John