The news from the Korean peninsula is bad: NK shot SK and a couple of soldiers were killed!
It's always hard to understand why NK does what NK does!
Ed Morrissey has a theory:
"More than likely, Kim Jong-Il has three goals in mind:
•Attention – The six-party talks have stalled for a while.
With their recent disclosure of a new uranium-enrichment facility, this is probably sword-rattling to focus attention on Pyongyang and to get its enemies to cough up more concessions.
•Test – Kim has tested the mettle of every American President to determine how committed each is to South Korea’s security.
Last year’s provocative missile launches showed that Barack Obama wasn’t committed at all to missile defense, and the sinking of a South Korean ship a few months ago didn’t prompt much more than finger-wagging from Washington. Nor did we do much after seizing a ship exporting banned arms to Burma.
•Succession – Kim is very ill, and he needs to secure the succession to the third generation of his family. It will be difficult for any opponents in the military to suppress his son while he has them busy in a Great Patriotic War.
It will be especially difficult if this attack nets the DPRK tangible concessions in negotiations with the US and Japan."
Ed-M makes a lot of sense, specially the part about "succession" and all of the internal struggles going on around a dying leader.
Furthermore, I think that Pres BO needs to make a statement and stand by South Korea, our ally and important business partner.
Stay tuned.
I have a question: How much longer will China put up with stuff like this from NK? I don't see one single benefit for China in having NK create this kind of uncertainty in the Asian markets!
