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China-Japan-Koreas | |||
Gates sees no threat of N. Korea's military action from U.N. sanctions | |||
2009-06-12 | |||
WASHINGTON, June 11 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has shown no military response to discussions at the U.N. Security Council of further sanctions for the North's nuclear test last month, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Thursday. "I don't think that there has been a commensurate change in the posture of the North Korean military that would suggest an intent to undertake operations," Gates said upon arriving in Brussels for a NATO defense ministers' meeting, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon "Intelligence does not indicate warlike changes in the North Korean military dispositions." Gates added, "Military operations are pretty routine at this point, so that's a source of some comfort. Intelligence information indicates that North Korea is not mobilizing troops or moving troops and equipment." "They are so unpredictable you can't completely discount them," he said. "It's a very unpredictable regime, so it is probably not wise just to dismiss out-of-hand the rhetoric." China Tuesday approved the draft resolution as the U.S. and its allies agreed to a demand by Beijing to change the word "decide" to "call on" in the provisions of the draft in an apparent effort to make them voluntary.
Rice urged North Korea to return to the six-party talks on ending its nuclear ambitions. "The message to North Korea is to halt its nuclear program, halt its ballistic missile program and return without conditions to a process of negotiations, implement the steps it has committed to do already in an irreversible way," she said.
"A central tenet of the Obama administration's foreign policy approach to date has been a willingness to engage in dialogue with those with which we have had differences, sometimes very serious differences," he said. Bosworth reiterated the Obama administration "will not accept North Korea as a nuclear weapons state," but added, "The U.S. has no hostile intent towards the people of North Korea. Nor are we threatening to change the North Korean regime through force." On the allegations that Washington will relist North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism after the North's recent nuclear and missile tests, he said, "I would note that a redesignation of North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism would not result in any new material penalty to the North Koreans since many of the activities that we are talking about are covered under other sanctions applied to North Korea under other provisions of U.S. law." | |||
Posted by:Steve White |
#5 If ya wanna keep yer job ya gotta stay on the reservation...i.e. James Jones |
Posted by: Art ofWar 2009-06-12 12:52 |
#4 Is it not the unseen threats which are the most damaging? One would believe relaxation is not now the proper course, but heightened vigilance is required. |
Posted by: Lagom 2009-06-12 12:49 |
#3 Gates added, "Military operations are pretty routine at this point, so that's a source of some comfort. Intelligence information indicates that North Korea is not mobilizing troops or moving troops and equipment." Things can change quickly in NK. Latest word is several missiles have suddenly disappeared from sites the Geospatial satellites at the DoD have been monitoring. |
Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091 2009-06-12 10:34 |
#2 Hmmmm, since when have the Norks been a 'rational' player? |
Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-06-12 08:07 |
#1 Gates Fixed |
Posted by: M. Murcek 2009-06-12 00:25 |