No 'reward' for N Korea, US vows

[steven johnson]

Source: BBC

North Korea's recent actions were "extraordinarily provocative" and the US does not mean to "reward" them, President Barack Obama has said.
Mr Obama was referring to North Korea's latest nuclear and missile tests.
"We are going to take a very hard look at how we move forward on these issues," he said.


Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8087060.stm

[Tim01]

1. Uh oh. More very stern language from President Obama.

That can only mean one thing. Even more very stern language.

[Zavulon]

3. You're right, but look at it this way:

If the chimp were still pResident, we'd be at war with NK right now.

Seriously, what would you have Obama do? He's not going to go against the UN, and all the UN is good for is stern language anyway.

[Deja Q]

2. Reward them? With what? Hugs, candy, money, hookers?

One can only hard-look for only so long; NK has been belligerent; openly defying the UN and many nations. How much further shall NK be allowed to get? Insanity, mental illness, or just another petty thuggy bully, does it matter? I don't think it's out of place to do more than looking hard. Not with so much that has happened to date.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7947572.stm

Even China is concerned, and the two countries have been allies for some time.

NK is no joke.

I'd say we should work with China and other countries, who are concerned over NK's recent actions.

[christx30]

4. China is not about to

support us on sanctions. Hopefully there are things happening behind the scenes. What do we have in the way of a carrot-and-stick situation here? Some kind of energy? Who is going to use it? Certainly not the people of North Korea. They live in abject poverty while he lives in opulence. Food? No way any of it will reach the people. Just the military. In fact, I would imagine the last thing that Obama wants to do at this point is give anything to that country. North Korea is gearing up for war against the world. Everything at this point is going to be used against us in any up-and-coming conflict. Either we are going to go in and get our two journalists or we are going to go in to prevent their nukes from being fired off at in Alaska... or Los Angeles.
And though we have a lot of forces in the area, the bulk of our military is otherwise occupied. Which doesn't leave many options other than nukes if things really go to hell.
I'm hoping that cooler heads will prevail. But one wonders what Obama will do if his is being told by intelligence sources that we have good information that North Korea is loading up his Taepodong-2 (which have an estimated range of 2,800 miles)? Will he simply offer more carrots to that murderous regime? Or will we neutralize the threat?