(North Korea) DPRK is a factor in Syria plans

JoongAng Daily ^ | 09/05/2013 | Sarah Kim

[TexGrill]

Pyongyang weighs heavily on the minds of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other U.S. leaders as Congress debates authorization for a controversial military strike against Syria. Inaction, administration officials say, will set a bad example for other U.S. foes like North Korea and Iran.

In a Senate hearing, Kerry urged lawmakers to back the Obama administration’s plan for a military strike in Syria, whose president, Bashar al-Assad, allegedly used chemical weapons against civilians near Damascus on Aug. 21. Kerry said a failure to respond to that provocation would be an opportunity for U.S. enemies to “misinterpret our intentions.” No government has been proven to have employed chemical weapons since 1988, when Iraq used mustard gas against Kurds in northern Iraq.

“North Korea is hoping that ambivalence carries the day. They are all listening for our silence,” Kerry said. “And if we don’t answer Assad today, we will erode a standard .?.?. that has protected our own troops in war, and we will invite even more dangerous tests down the road.”

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, who also testified at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Washington, supported Kerry by saying a failure to respond would send a dangerous signal to the likes of North Korea and Iran.

“North Korea maintains a massive stockpile of chemical weapons that threatens our treaty ally the Republic of Korea and the 28,000 U.S. troops stationed there,” Hagel said.

The defense secretary recalled a ministerial meeting in Brunei last month, saying he had previously had a “very serious and long conversation” with Kim Kwan-jin, South Korea’s defense minister, about the “real threat” posed by North Korea’s stockpile of chemical weapons.

[TexGrill]

Global business tip

[Williams]

When have we ever shown a willingness to do anything militarily to North Korea?

[DustyMoment]

Inaction, administration officials say, will set a bad example for other U.S. foes like North Korea and Iran.

Seriously!?? The NORKS!!!???? We're concerned about the NORKS??

Oh, my, how the mighty have fallen!

[dfwgator]

But....but.....Dennis Rodman is over there.

[SampleMan]

NK kills hundreds of thousands of their own citizens every year.

One would think that any logical call to action would be against them, not Syria.

When NK is already getting away with killing so many, how is striking Syria going to make any impact on them?

[MeshugeMikey]

Pyongyang weighs heavily on the minds of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry

so THATS whats bee ailing him !!..../s

[familyop]

Political folks in our U.S.A. choose to support trade between N. Korea, Syrian ports and Iran. Maybe the problem is caused by a parasite.

Parasite makes men dumb, women sexy
The Sydney Morning Herald ^ | 12/26/06
"A common parasite can increase a women's attractiveness to the opposite sex but also make men more stupid, an Australian researcher says. About 40 per cent of the world's population is infected with Toxoplasma gondii, including about eight million Australians. Human infection generally occurs when people eat raw or undercooked meat that has cysts containing the parasite, or accidentally ingest some of the parasite's eggs excreted by an infected cat."