UPDATED: Why Isn’t Our Secretary Of State Reacting To North Korea? UPDATE: Administration Just Realized That Now North Korea is a threat again
North Korea has launched a short-range missile from its Musudan-ri rocket launch site on the country’s east coast, a South Korean government official said Friday.
“What the North has launched this time appears to be different from what it had launched (previously),” the official said. “It is a new type of a land-to-air missile,” the official said.
North Korea launched the missile, with an estimated range of 160 km, into the East Sea at around 6:12 p.m., according to the official.
The North has been firing a series of missiles since Monday, when it said it successfully conducted its second nuclear test.
UPDATE:
Administration: Now North Korea is a threat again
Sometimes, we need a scorecard to keep up with the Obama administration’s positions on foreign policy and national security. The latest case of whiplash comes from the ping-pong position shifts on North Korea. When Pyongyang tested a long-range missile in April, Barack Obama called the DPRK a “regional threat” to security. Last weekend, he upgraded North Korea to a threat to global peace. Wednesday, though, Obama’s national security adviser James Jones dismissed Kim Jong-Il almost entirely, claiming that he poses no imminent threat to the US.
Today, Defense Secretary William Robert Gates goes back to Square One (via Flopping Aces):
The United States will not accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday at an international conference. …
His comments came amid growing concern across the globe over North Korea’s latest nuclear test and test-firings of short-range missiles.
On Friday, two Defense Department officials said the latest U.S. satellite imagery has spotted “vehicle activity” at a North Korean ballistic missile facility.
“North Korea’s nuclear program and actions constitute a threat to regional peace and security. We unequivocally reaffirm our commitment to the defense of our allies in the region,” Gates said in Singapore.
Gates sounded a lot less concerned on Thursday:
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, en route to an annual security summit in Singapore Friday, signaled as much, saying North Korea’s actions so far do not warrant sending more US troops to the region.
“I don’t think that anybody in the [Obama] administration thinks there is a crisis,” Mr. Gates told reporters aboard his military jet early Friday morning, still Thursday night in Washington.
Speak softly and carry a big teleprompter
May 29, 2009 - 01:40 PM on May 29th, 2009
In answer to the question where is she? I can only make a guess that she doesn’t really want to open that can of worms. I well remember her dear hubby Bill Clinton sending old frogface, ummm, I mean M. Albright over there where Kim makes me il wooed and charmed her and gosh only knows what else. I suspect there were some really good state secrets she shared with him such as how to build a nuke.
Pressing the issue now would only embarrass her.
May 29, 2009 - 10:50 PM on May 29th, 2009
I suppose she is hiding behind the Sec of Defense..
May 30, 2009 - 01:14 AM on May 30th, 2009
I think you’re right BonBon. Mentioning the Klinton name in the same sentence brings to mind the stupid, failed policies of the Klinton admin on North Korea. Where Kim pledged to be nice, took all the freebies we gave him, then gave us the finger. Yet another example of failed Leftist Democrite policy.