We should be concerned about a looming crisis on the Korean peninsula, given the current crises for the Bush administration. Drudge has a link to an AFP story posted last night with a rather disturbing headline:
North Korea says standoff with US at "brink of nuclear war"
North Korea said Friday the standoff over its atomic ambitions was on the brink of nuclear war as US Vice President Dick Cheney headed to the region for talks with key Asian allies.
The Stalinist state's official news agency accused Washington of "driving the military situation on the Korean peninsula to the brink of a nuclear war" with plans for a pre-emptive strike on North Korea.
SNIP
In the commentary the North Korean news agency said Pyongyang had no choice but to boost its nuclear weapons drive in the face of US intransigence and its "moves to put the strategy of pre-emptive nuclear attack into practice."
There is an on-going effort by a total of six nations - US, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia, and China - to resolve the issue of North Korean nuclear ambitions, but these talks have stalled.
The US and N. Korea are at odds. Again from
the AFP story:
North Korea described six-party talks held in Beijing in February as "fruitless," their harshest assessment so far of the meeting that brought together the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States.
"The US demand that the DPRK (North Korea) scrap its nuclear programme first is the main obstacle in the way of solving the nuclear issue between the DPRK and the US," the Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary.
"It is a well-known fact that the second round of the six-way talks held in Beijing last February proved fruitless due to the US demand that the DPRK dismantle its nuclear program first."
From Reuters, a less allarming headline: U.S. wants North Korea working group talks in April
U.S., Japanese and South Korean officials regularly meet to discuss how to handle the nuclear issue with North Korea, which has so far refused to abandon its nuclear ambitions, and their latest talks took place on Wednesday and Thursday.
"They concluded that the six-party working group should be convened as soon as possible and ideally by the end of the month," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said, saying broader six-way talks should be held by the end of June.
So, with everything happening in Iraq and in Washington, is the US government on top of this issue? I understand that there is likely a lot of posturing on both sides of the DMZ, but when we are discussing real WMDs that can wipe out cities, I would hope this administration has competent people focused on this issue.