North Korea Fires Artillery at Island in South; Seoul Scrambles Jets

[Airwolf]

There is a palce inside the northern side of the DMZ that is nothing but an empty city run by the North. They built it for propaganda reasons and not one person lives there. It would be a pity if something happened to it and their super humongus North Korean flag that sits there with no one watching over them.

[txradioguy]

There is a palce inside the northern side of the DMZ that is nothing but an empty city run by the North. They built it for propaganda reasons and not one person lives there. It would be a pity if something happened to it and their super humongus North Korean flag that sits there with no one watching over them.

LOL! I know exactly the town you speak of.

[txradioguy]

BBC is reporting now that 16 ROK Marines and three civilians were killed in the shelling.

[JohnnyReb]

BBC is reporting now that 16 ROK Marines and three civilians were killed in the shelling.

Unleash the ROK Marines.....

[txradioguy]

Unleash the ROK Marines.....

I'd rather do that than what the U.N. is proposing...

U.N. Secretary General Eyes New Aid, Better PR Campaign, for North Korea

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/11/24/secretary-general-eyes-new-aid-north-korea/

[DumbAss Tanker]

I'd rather do that than what the U.N. is proposing...

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/11/24/secretary-general-eyes-new-aid-north-korea/

Son of a bitch.  More aid of any kind sends completely the wrong message, it's the frickin' Sudetenland all over again.

[Wretched Excess]

of course, if george bush had done this, candidate obama would have decried it as the "failed policy of saber-rattling", and assured us all that if only he was in the white house, kim il-whack job would abandon his nuclear ambitions and sing kumbaya.

U.S. to Send Carrier for Joint Exercises Off Korea

WASHINGTON — President Obama and South Korea’s president agreed Tuesday night to hold joint military exercises as a first response to North Korea’s deadly shelling of a South Korean military installation, as both countries struggled for the second time this year to keep a North Korean provocation from escalating into war.

The exercise will include sending the aircraft carrier George Washington and a number of accompanying ships into the region, both to deter further attacks by the North and to signal to China that unless it reins in its unruly ally it will see an even larger American presence in the vicinity.

The decision came after Mr. Obama attended the end of an emergency session in the White House Situation Room and then emerged to call President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea to express American solidarity and talk about a coordinated response.

But as a former national security official who dealt frequently with North Korea in the Bush administration, Victor Cha, said just a few hours before the attack began, North Korea is “the land of lousy options.”

More

[thundley4]

The exercise will include sending the aircraft carrier George Washington and a number of accompanying ships into the region, both to deter further attacks by the North and to signal to China that unless it reins in its unruly ally it will see an even larger American presence in the vicinity.

Big deal.  Obama may as well put a fleet of paper mache ships there. It's unlikely he'll use force unless US troops are attacked, and maybe not even then.

[DumbAss Tanker]

Big deal.  Obama may as well put a fleet of paper mache ships there. It's unlikely he'll use force unless US troops are attacked, and maybe not even then.

Exactly.  They'll have to go someplace else in a couple of weeks, then a month or two down the road, the Norks will pull some other provocative bullshit and laugh at Obama because he won't be able to bring himself to authorize anything in cold blood.  I'm not betting the ROKs will stay their hand and wait to see what we want to do next time, though.

[Chris_]

Mullen: North Korean Attack Tied to Leadership Succession

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview on "The View" that Kim is generating these kinds of high-profile and dangerous confrontations to coincide with the ascension of his 27-year-old son to power.

Mullen said the United States is working with its South Korean and Japanese allies and also looking to China to exert its influence. The State Department said Wednesday that the administration wants China to restrain the North from further provocative acts. Spokesman P.J. Crowley, calling China "pivotal," said U.S. diplomats sent the message to Chinese officials in Washington and Beijing that the country has to make clear to Pyongyang that its actions are not acceptable.

Fox News

The View?

[DumbAss Tanker]

Fox News

The View?

Yeah, my thought exactly.  Another brick in my "I'm not so sure about that Mullen guy" wall.

[Ptarmigan]

Fox News

The View?

No reasoning with North Korea. You can't reason with them.

[Wretched Excess]

Fox News

The View?

I doubt that Adm Mullen has much say in the matter;  the view is the preferred media outlet of the obamites. 

[Crazy Horse]

Yeah, my thought exactly.  Another brick in my "I'm not so sure about that Mullen guy" wall.

I got enough of em to build the China wall three times

[txradioguy]

Fox News

The View?

He's all about the repeal of DADT...it's only natural that the Harpies on The View would want him on there.

[gurn]

1. US tries to make Dollar more competitive w/ the RMB via QE2.

2. China wants an artificially-low RMB.

3. North Korea, a vassal state of China, lobs some shells onto a South Korean island.

4. Investors flee to the safety of the Dollar.

5. Dollar moves higher on worldwide currency markets.

And we're back to square #1.

Is all this just a coincidence?

I hate to say it. But I'm becoming a protectionist.

The US is already at war with China. It is a war being fought in the currency markets and in the factories.
North Korea is just a midget stalking pony for China. Its leadership cannot take a piss without approval from Beijing.

These flare-ups will continue because they are win-win proposition for China.
North Korea will not trigger an all-out war, because that would not be in China's interest.

I've been to China quite a lot. IMO, it will lose a currency war. It will lose a trade war with the US.
It was rattled by QE2. First, it screamed bloody murder about the US debasing its currency.
The next week it pulled out all the stops and purchased huge amounts of US Treasuries.

Now...North Korea fires some artillery shells onto an island and the Dollar is up again on world currency markets. 

American politicians are too spineless to fight the war the US is already in. China sees the US as a
cow to be milked and later, slaughtered. But in reality, it is a very weak government built on shifting sands.

[Opfor6]

Mullen: North Korean Attack Tied to Leadership Succession

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview on "The View" that Kim is generating these kinds of high-profile and dangerous confrontations to coincide with the ascension of his 27-year-old son to power.

Doesn't anyone in this administration realize that it is in the best interest of the USA, South Korea, the surrounding area and mostly the n.Korean people themselves that we do everything in our power to screw up this succession?

[DumbAss Tanker]

Doesn't anyone in this administration realize that it is in the best interest of the USA, South Korea, the surrounding area and mostly the n.Korean people themselves that we do everything in our power to screw up this succession?

I don't think the Ominsitration has much of any idea about the current heir, and even less of an idea about what would happen in the Nork power structure if it does get screwed up, so they are opting to just go hands-off on it.  It's entirely possible the Norks will fall to internal fighting entirely on their own without any push from outside, if an ambitious general feels like taking over instead of just using the heir as a cat's-paw.