PrintJune 27, 2009
North Korea's March to War
North Korea has been busy, busy, busy since the election of our weak President. This week, they have sharply increased their war rhetoric. On Wednesday they issued this threat: "If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will ... wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all." And on Thursday they promised a "fire shower of nuclear retaliation" if the U.S. attacked them. The media is pretending that it isn't happening, whistling in the dark, but how can anyone avoid noticing that since Obama's failed policies have been introduced, the evil forces of the world have been unleashed?
The Pentagon snickered at the North Koreans' latest threats. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell, when asked about the North Korean threat to wipe the U.S. off the map, sniffed: "I don't even know how to respond to that. It's silliness. For what and with what?"
However, I do not find these threats to be a bit funny. They bode ill, most ill, for the US's preventative effect on the malevolent advancement of the axis of evil.
George W. Bush called it in his speech after 9/11: the axis of evil, Iraq, Iran and North Korea. We deftly removed the brutal dictator Saddam Hussein, but the leftists and the international forces of evil managed after that to bench the Bush doctrine, to the horrible detriment of free men. We have seen the terrible course of events in Iran, and we pray for those Iranians who are yearning and dying to be free.
And meanwhile, North Korea is on its own evil tear and it must be said Bush opened the door. In a stunning capitulation to the left and the "realists" at State, it was Bush who removed North Korea from the State Sponsors of Terror list. What more has to happen to show how terrible a policy appeasement is? Nuclear tests, multiple long-range missile launches, and now North Korea is augmenting its ability to wage guerrilla warfare - developing roadside bombs. General Walter Sharp said that these North Korean IEDs "could be used against civilians as well as US and South Korean forces if a fully-fledged conflict broke out on the Korean Peninsula."
North Korea is also conducting military exercises near Japan. Yonhap, the South Korean news agency, reported Tuesday that, according to South Korean Defence Ministry Spokesman Won Tae-jae, "the North has informed Japan's coast guard authorities of its 25 June-10 July ban for a drill" off the North Korean city of Wonsan. This drill will involve "live-fire missile exercises" and is, said Yonhap, "the first time North Korea has specified a reason for imposing a coastal ban." Wonsan is about 62 miles north of the border between North Korea and South Korea.
And then there is the North Korean ship that is allegedly carrying fissile material. To that challenge Obama is taking his signature weak approach. The US navy is tracking the ship, but China has warned us to back off. According to Japan's Kyodo news agency, "China has stressed that any interception and inspection of North Korean vessels on the high seas should be based on ‘sufficient evidence' and called on all parties to refrain from any action that could intensify an already tense situation." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang, according to Kyodo, "was responding to media reports the US Navy is preparing for a possible intercept of a North Korean ship suspected of carrying missile and nuclear-related items after it leaves the coastal area of China." And in accord with China's wishes, there has been no interception of the ship. The US reportedly will not use force to inspect the North Korean ship.
That ship is carrying something, and a confidential source tells me it is likely planning to launch a warhead from a location closer to its intended target for test purposes. The warhead is unlikely to contain any fissile material; however, it is a test for not only Obama, Japan and South Korea, but also for how far China and Russia are willing to go.
It is also a technology test -- that is, a test of American monitoring technology. The North Koreans want to test our technology, and they know that we couldn't monitor their last big launch last April. Again, we can thank Obama for that.
From the looks of North Korea's words and actions, it appears as if they are taking lessons from their good buds over in Iran. And yet despite all this North Korean belligerence, Obama still remains firm on the missile shield cut.
It's hard to know how desperately we will ultimately suffer under this terrible presidency but one thing is painfully clear: the world's policeman has walked off the job.
Pamela Geller is the editor and publisher of the Atlas Shrugs website and former associate publisher of the New York Observer.
