No good choices for Obama on North Korea
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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama faces precious few appealing choices in handling North Korea’s latest armed attack on the South.
“This is the land of lousy options... You can choose between bad, worse and the worst,” former diplomat Victor Cha told a group of fellow analysts.
After this week’s deadly artillery attack on a South Korean island, the United States faces three options: Resume negotiations with North Korea, which would be seen as rewarding its latest provocation; ease up on the tone of the response and perhaps risk a new shocker from Pyongyang; or toughen its stance and face the prospect of an armed escalation on the Korean peninsula.
Obama was briefed several times Wednesday on the developing situation in the Korean peninsula and his administration is working around the clock on the issue, the White House told AFP.
During his 2008 election campaign, Obama was more conciliatory than his Republican rival John McCain in vowing a more open policy toward Pyongyang.
A few months after he took office, however, he changed his tune after North Korea tested a missile and broke off six-party talks with China, Japan, Russia, the United States and South Korea..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101127com3.html
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