US will not use force to inspect NKorean ship - Yahoo! News

US will not use force to inspect NKorean ship - Yahoo! News

Here is no big surprise. Obama is not going to do anything about North Korea gaining strength and delivering nuclear weapons through out the world to terrorists as they have said that they would.



So much for strongly-worded memos. The US has signaled that it will not enforce a UN resolution allowing the interdiction of North Korea’s shipping when suspected of illegal arms traffic. Instead, the US will ask permission to inspect, and retreat when refused:

The United States will not use force to inspect a North Korean ship suspected of carrying banned goods, an American official was quoted as saying Friday.

An American destroyer has been shadowing the North Korean freighter sailing off China’s coast, possibly on its way to Myanmar.

Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy met with South Korean officials in Seoul on Friday as the U.S. sought international support for aggressively enforcing a U.N. sanctions resolution aimed at punishing Pyongyang for its second nuclear test last month. The North Korean-flagged ship, Kang Nam 1, is the first to be tracked under the U.N. resolution.

North Korea has in response escalated threats of war, with a slew of harsh rhetoric including warnings that it would unleash a “fire shower of nuclear retaliation” and “wipe out the (U.S.) aggressors” in the event of a conflict.

Let’s get this straight. The Obama administration insists on pursuing the UN path to resolving the dispute with North Korea. It demands — and gets — stronger sanctions to keep North Korea from profiting off of its arms manufacturing, which funds its nuclear program while North Koreans starve. Instead of acting on the resolution, the Obama administration backs away after Kim Jong-Il threatens war over the enforcement of sanctions.

So why did we bother to get the resolution in the first place? If the Obama administration didn’t see that threat coming from miles away, then they are even more clueless than I’d imagined. Instead of Obama looking tough, Kim has shown the world that he can bully the US into retreat at any time. He exposed Obama as a paper tiger.

Kim now knows he can do whatever he wants in the Pacific Rim and suffer no consequences at all. He can sell missiles, proliferate nukes, and the worst that will happen will be the US Navy asking, “Mother, may I?” when it comes to inspections. This, Obama wants us to believe, is “smart power”; in reality, it’s neither. It’s Jimmy Carter-style weakness, and our enemies will derive the obvious lessons from it.

Joe Biden warned that dictators would test Obama early in his presidency to test his mettle. He also warned that Obama’s response would look bad. Biden’s smarter than I thought.

From Yahoo.

SEOUL, South Korea – The United States will not use force to inspect a North Korean ship suspected of carrying banned goods, an American official was quoted as saying Friday.

An American destroyer has been shadowing the North Korean freighter sailing off China's coast, possibly on its way to Myanmar.

Defense Undersecretary Michele Flournoy met with South Korean officials in Seoul on Friday as the U.S. sought international support for aggressively enforcing a U.N. sanctions resolution aimed at punishing Pyongyang for its second nuclear test last month. The North Korean-flagged ship, Kang Nam 1, is the first to be tracked under the U.N. resolution.

North Korea has in response escalated threats of war, with a slew of harsh rhetoric including warnings that it would unleash a "fire shower of nuclear retaliation" and "wipe out the (U.S.) aggressors" in the event of a conflict.

On Thursday, the communist regime organized a massive anti-American rally in Pyongyang where some 100,000 participants vowed to "crush" the U.S. One senior speaker told the crowd that the North will respond to any sanctions or U.S. provocations with "an annihilating blow."

That was seen as a pointed threat in response to the American destroyer.

Flournoy said Friday that Washington has ruled the use military force to inspect the North Korean freighter.

"The U.N. resolution lays out a regime that has a very clear set of steps," Flournoy said, according to the Yonhap news agency. "I want to be very clear ... This is not a resolution that sponsors, that authorizes use of force for interdiction."

Flournoy said the U.S. still has "incentives and disincentives that will get North Korea to change course."

"Everything remains on the table, but we're focused on implementing the resolution fully, responsibly and with our international partners," she said.

Flournoy's trip came as the U.S. sought international support for aggressively enforcing the U.N. sanctions.

It is not clear what was on board the North Korean freighter, but officials have mentioned artillery and other conventional weaponry. One intelligence expert suspected missiles.

The U.S. and its allies have made no decision on whether to request inspection of the ship, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Wednesday in Washington, but North Korea has said it would consider any interception an act of war.

If permission for inspection is refused, the ship must dock at a port of its choosing, so local authorities can check its cargo. Vessels suspected of carrying banned goods must not be offered bunkering services at port, such as fuel, the resolution says.

A senior U.S. defense official said the ship had cleared the Taiwan Strait. He said he didn't know whether or when the Kang Nam may need to stop in some port to refuel, but that the ship has in the past stopped in Hong Kong's port.

Another U.S. defense official said he tended to doubt reports that the Kang Nam was carrying nuclear-related equipment, saying information seems to indicate the cargo is banned conventional munitions. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity in order to talk about intelligence.

North Korea is suspected to have transported banned goods to Myanmar before on the Kang Nam, said Bertil Lintner, a Bangkok-based North Korea expert who has written a book about leader Kim Jong Il.

South Korea, meanwhile, plans to use high-tech surveillance and weapons systems to counter North Korea's missile and nuclear programs, Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said in a Friday briefing.

South Korea plans to employ unmanned reconnaissance planes and add "bunker-buster" bombs to its arsenal in case of signs that the North planned to launch an attack toward the South, Lee said.