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Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Did Kim Blink?

Last week I surmised that President Obama blinked when he pronounced that he would not board the North Korean ship that the USS John McCain had been tailing unless asked. (which wouldn't have happened) Meanwhile, the USS John McCain was continuing to tail the North Korea ship which appeared to be headed for Myanmar. Then, all of a sudden last night, the North Korean ship reversed course and appears headed back home.

A North Korean ship monitored for more than a week by the U.S. Navy has changed course and is heading back the way it came, U.S. officials said, as Pyongyang warned Wednesday it will take military action if anyone attempts to search its vessels.

The Kang Nam 1 — originally believed to be bound for Myanmar with suspicious cargo on board, possibly illicit weapons — turned around and headed back north on Sunday, two U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.

The U.S. officials, speaking in Washington on Tuesday, said they do not know where the ship is going. But it was some 250 miles (400 kilometers) south of Hong Kong on Tuesday and heading north, one official said.


Initially, it looked as though President Obama was blinking in the face of confrontation. At the same time, he quietly kept the USS John McCain tailing this ship and that appears to have finally spooked Kim Jong Il who turned his own ship around.

4 comments:

Jason Gillman said...

Blink? Hardly..

Testing.. merely testing.

Perhaps to see if after a while we tire of it.

Also the extension cord to the Yamaha generator was almost to its end.

Anonymous said...

Once again, it is not our responsibility to rein in North Korea: it is on China to do that because they stand to lose more if things get out of hand.

mike volpe said...

That's wishful thinking. China has its own agenda. It's everyone's responsibility to reign in North Korea because at some point Il will do something that will affect the whole world.

Blacque Jacques Shellacque said...

No, Obama didn't blink. He lucked out. If the NorK ship had kept on going, and then pulled into some port, what would Obama have done then? Authorize a forcible search at that point? I suspect the answer to that would be a no.