A South Korean intelligence official told the United States that a North Korean cargo ship appears to be headed toward Myanmar caring banned weapons. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitive nature of the information but it leaves us with a dilemma, do we provoke a crazy dictator without evidence? Kim Jong Il has declared that boarding the ship would be considered an act of war.
The current sanctions require U.N. member states to inspect vessels believed to be caring banned goods but North Korea is unlikely to allow any inspections. The USS John S. McCain is currently following the North Korean vessel but with no orders to intercept or board it.
With the current unrest in Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan we certainly do not need another incident but that does not mean we can avoid it…. We have 28,500 reasons to proceed with caution, stationed in South Korea. North Korea has threatened launching a ballistic missile in the general direction of Hawaii on July 4th, but they have not tested the long range missile that can reach a target 4500 miles away.
Japan’s Coast Guard has received a notice from North Korea’s Maritime Authority banning all ships from the coast of northern North Korea and southeastern Russia between June 25 through July 10 "for military exercises." Japan does not seem to be threatened with this action.
Hopefully this will fizzle out, and perhaps I should heed the advice from the president when he told CBS “I don’t want to speculate on hypotheticals.”
Do you call a crazy man’s bluff or do what we have to do and deal with the consequences?
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I agree with the comments but I am a little apprehensive when it comes to dealing with a madman with suicidal tendencies…. He did launch this test missiles after a stern warning from their strongest ally, China. I still think we have 28,500 reasons to proceed with caution.
June 24, 2009 at 10:26 a.m."Kim Jong Il has declared that boarding the ship would be considered an act of war"
Kim had a massive stroke some time ago and underground reports from NK are that he remains paralyzed and illucid.
A week or two ago it was revealed that he previously declared his successor to be his youngest son (apparently in a living will) and there was significant internal turmoil over the announcement.
Point being, Kim didn't say anything, somebody else did and put his name on it. There is potential for a violent power struggle amongst the three brothers. The country is starving and the infrastructure has crumbled. As such, there is virtually no potential retribution they can dole out.
June 24, 2009 at 10:21 a.m.I agree with Hicktoria (weird, eh?) on this one. North Korea seems to have a penchant for declaring anything, at any given moment, an "act of war." Like the boy crying wolf, eventually nobody will take it seriously. I say send a VBSS team aboard to verify whether or not any contraband is present, and report back to the UN Security Council post haste. While North Korea may consider it an offense, I doubt any of the UN countries will feel any differently about them shipping weapons to Myanmar.
June 24, 2009 at 9:49 a.m.Considering Japan's viewpoint on this issue, I would definitely call this man's bluff. Why deal with consequences if we do not have to? I really do not think North Korea would want a war with us. That would be like them falling on the sword. IMO I think we should board the vessel just for a little CYA and show them we will uphold what the UN has mandated.
June 24, 2009 at 9:26 a.m.