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There was a time in the Truman administration, in 1951, when the White House seemingly joined to help its enemies. The two-term limit amendment was ratified in 1951 and made an exception for Truman who was president when the ball started rolling for its passage. Truman had intermediaries in the field, looking at New Hampshire et al. All the while, seemingly blissfully unaware, the White House was committing one terrible goof-up after another.

http://blog.tomroeser.com/2010/05/personal-aside-am-i-crazy-or-is-obama.html





SEOUL, May 24 (Reuters) - North Korea threatened on Monday to fire at South Korean equipment if it is set up at their heavily armed border to broadcast anti-Pyongyang messages, and vowed to take stronger measures if Seoul escalated tensions.



The warnings came in a statement from a military commander carried by the North's KCNA news agency.



South Korea said on Monday it would resume loudspeaker broadcasts at the border that had been suspended for six years, as part of its punishment toward the North for the sinking of one of its navy ships.[IDnTOE64N00Y] (Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Jonathan Hopfner)

Source; http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE64N04U?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r1:c0.203983:b34271482:z0

Reuters - President Barack Obama has directed the U.S. military to coordinate with South Korea to "ensure readiness" and deter future aggression from North Korea, the White House said on Monday.

Politics | South Korea | North Korea | Barack Obama

The United States gave strong backing to plans by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak to punish North Korea for sinking one of its naval ships, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement.

The White House urged North Korea to apologize and change its behavior, he said.

"We endorse President Lee's demand that North Korea immediately apologize and punish those responsible for the attack, and, most importantly, stop its belligerent and threatening behavior," Gibbs said.

"U.S. support for South Korea's defense is unequivocal, and the president has directed his military commanders to coordinate closely with their Republic of Korea counterparts to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression," he said.

Obama and Lee have agreed to meet at the G20 summit in Canada next month, he said.

Late last week, a team of international investigators accused North Korea of torpedoing the Cheonan corvette in March, killing 46 sailors in one of the deadliest clashes between the two since the 1950-53 Korean War.

Lee said on Monday South Korea would bring the issue before the U.N., whose past sanctions have damaged the already ruined North Korean economy.

The United States still has about 28,000 troops in South Korea to provide military support.

The two Koreas, still technically at war, have more than 1 million troops near their border.

"We will build on an already strong foundation of excellent cooperation between our militaries and explore further enhancements to our joint posture on the Peninsula as part of our ongoing dialogue," Gibbs said.

Gibbs said the United States supported Lee's plans to bring the issue to the United Nations Security Council and would work with allies to "reduce the threat that North Korea poses to regional stability."

Obama had also directed U.S. agencies to evaluate existing policies toward North Korea.

"This review is aimed at ensuring that we have adequate measures in place and to identify areas where adjustments would be appropriate," he said.

(Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Source;http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64N0ZT20100524

Tensions have escalated sharply on the Korean Peninsular, where the sinking of a South Korean warship has created a "highly precarious" situation, increasing the risk of a flare-up in the 60-year old conflict, Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, warned on Monday.

Her remarks came hours after South Korea announced it was cutting off all trade with the North in retaliation for the deliberate sinking of the Cheonan in March and vowed "immediate" retaliation if North Korean attempted further provocations.



"We are working hard to avoid an escalation of belligerence and provocation," Mrs Clinton said while on a two-day visit to China. "This is a highly precarious situation that the North Koreans have caused in the region."

In Washington, President Barack Obama threw his full support behind the Seoul's decision and ordered his military commanders to work closely with their South Korean counterparts to "ensure readiness and deter aggression".



In Beijing, Mrs Clinton engaged in "very intensive consultations" with the Chinese government in a bid to win international support for punitive measures against Pyongyang.



As tensions in the region rose, the US was reported to be forward-deploying a unit of its state-of-the-art F-22 Raptor ground-attack aircraft to Japan before the end of the month, which could be over North Korea within minutes in the event of conflict.



It is also understood that Japan was persuaded to change its mind over the closure of a controversial US air base in Okinawa in part because of Washington's arguments that the base was essential for deploying US marines to North Korea's nuclear facilities in the event of the regime's collapse.



Less than a week after an international inquiry found North Korea responsible for torpedoing the ship with loss of 46 lives, South Korea's president Lee Myung-bak, announced a package of reprisals in a sombre televised address from the country's war memorial.



"From now on, (South) Korea will not tolerate any provocative act by the North and will maintain the principle of proactive deterrence," Mr Lee said in a nationally televised speech delivered from the country's war memorial.



"If our territorial waters, airspace or territory are violated, we will immediately exercise our right of self-defence."



Mr Lee, who last week said the sinking was a breach of the 1953 armistice that ended the Korean War, confirmed that Seoul will now refer the matter to the United Nations.



North Korea's near-bankrupt economy is already reeling from the impact of UN sanctions imposed last year after the illegal testing of a ballistic missile and a second nuclear device, with defectors reporting rising food shortages and growing discontent among the population.



Analysts said that Mr Lee's response – which exempted the joint Kaesong industrial complex and aid for North Korean children – appeared to be carefully calibrated, avoiding direct mention of Kim Jong-il himself.



However, Mr Lee said the South was no longer prepared to turn the other cheek in the face of North Korean provocations, as it had in the past after a 1983 bombing in Myanmar aimed at Seoul's then-president and the downing of a South Korean airliner in 1987, which killed 115 people.



"Now things are different. North Korea will pay a price corresponding to its provocative acts," said President Lee. He added: "North Korea's goal is to instigate division and conflict. It is now time for the North Korean regime to change."



The South's capital and stock markets dipped slightly on the news, with the won falling more than two per cent to an eight-month low in early trading, though later recovered a little, as traders appeared to signal that the situation was not yet sufficiently grave to trigger capital flight.

Source;http://refreshingnews9.blogspot.com/2010/05/tensions-rise-in-korea-as-obama.html