Saturday, April 26, 2014

Slow Saturday Special: Korean Coverage No Ferry

Not even one word of consolation:

"Obama says N. Korea not easily solved" by Chico Harlan | Washington Post   April 26, 2014

SEOUL, South Korea — With North Korea making potential preparations for another underground nuclear test, President Obama said Friday that he saw no ‘‘magic bullet’’ to influence an already isolated nation whose advancing weapons program poses a ‘‘direct threat’’ to the United States.

A very odd turn of phrase.

A new nuclear test would provide the North with a key measuring post as it tries to create a reliable, miniaturized atomic weapon — one small enough to mount on a long-range missile that could strike the United States. The detonation would also highlight the dilemma facing the Obama administration, which has devoted relatively little political capital to addressing Pyongyang’s weapons program after years of failed diplomacy.

My dilemma is why I am still doing this?

‘‘North Korea is already the most isolated country in the world — by far,’’ Obama said in a joint news conference with South Korean President Park Geun-hye at the presidential palace in Seoul. ‘‘Its people suffer terribly because of the decisions its leaders have made. And we are not going to find a magic bullet that solves this problem overnight.’’

That's 21st-century AmeriKa for you.

Obama’s arrival in Seoul coincided with a flourish of activity at North Korea’s mountainous nuclear test site, potential preparations for a fourth underground blast. Officials in Seoul cautioned that the apparent work — picked up by commercial satellites — could be a bluff or an attempt to stoke anxiety in the region.

Why would they do anything now when tensions had more or less cooled and they just send condolences for the ferry disaster?

Park said Friday that the North is ‘‘fully ready’’ to carry out the test technologically and could do so whenever it makes the political decision. Another test would ‘‘fundamentally change’’ the security situation in the region, she said. Park also speculated that other Asian countries could join in a ‘‘nuclear arms race’’ as North Korea’s capabilities expand.

Under leader Kim Jong Un, the North has vowed to never relinquish its weapons, even altering its constitution to say it was a ‘‘nuclear-armed state.’’

Analysts say the United States has based its ‘‘strategic patience’’ policy on the hope that North Korea, facing isolation and sanctions, would rethink its combativeness.

That is when I decided to scroll up and see who wrote this slop.

Instead, Pyongyang has managed key advancements in its weapons program despite sanctions designed to cut off funding for such development. And it has repeatedly tested ballistic missiles and atomic weapons in the face of international warnings.

Washington and Pyongyang have gone more than two years without dialogue, and the six-party talks — a multi-nation process designed to coax Pyongyang’s denuclearization — have been dormant since 2008. The Pentagon said this year in a report to Congress that Pyongyang’s weapons tests were a way of ‘‘gaining international recognition and de facto acceptance as a nuclear state.’’

‘‘The door has essentially been left open to [North Korea] by the ineffectiveness of previous diplomatic efforts,’’ said Evans Revere, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former diplomat who negotiated with the North. ‘‘And they’re taking full advantage of that.’’

Obama said Friday that the United States and its allies could respond to additional provocations by imposing sanctions that have ‘‘even more bite’’ and by highlighting the North’s horrific rights violations.

Yeah, the U.N. came out with a chop-shop report and it basically faded seeing as the biggest war criminals on the planet are the leaders of the EUSraeli empire. 

What is stunning is the entire article for this leg of Obummer's trip is exclusively about the North Korean nuclear threat.

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And today's contribution of the second half of AmeriKa's war media?

"US tourist detained in North Korea" New York Times   April 26, 2014

SEOUL — A US tourist who said he was seeking shelter in North Korea has been detained there for more than two weeks and is being held on charges of a “gross violation of its legal order,” the country’s official Korean Central News Agency reported Friday.

It is not Dennis Rodman, is it?

The news agency said the American, Miller Matthew Todd, 24, was being held for his “rash behavior” while passing through customs after his arrival in North Korea on April 10. According to the report, the American tore his tourist visa, shouting that he had entered the North “after choosing it as a shelter.”

“Our related agencies consider his behavior a serious matter and an investigation is underway,” the agency said.

If confirmed, the detention could complicate Washington’s efforts to handle North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. 

Yeah, almost as if this CIA a**hole meant to make a scene, cui bono??!!

North Korea is still holding Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American missionary arrested in November 2012 and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor on accusations of trying to use religion to undermine the regime.

Time to say bae-bae to this post.

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You will not see anything regarding the missing Malaysian airliner, either.