http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31007296


Gates: N. Korea should weigh moves carefully
Defense secretary says U.S. will respond quickly if threatened
Image: Robert Gates
U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates at the Asia Security Summit in Singapore on Saturday.






updated 8:27 p.m. PT, Fri., May 29, 2009

SINGAPORE - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned North Korea on Saturday that the United States would respond quickly if moves by the communist government threaten America or its Asian allies.

"We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in the region — or on us," Gates told an annual international meeting of defense and security officials from Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Gates called North Korea's nuclear program a "harbinger of a dark future" but said he does not consider it a direct military threat to the United States "at this point."
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He also compared North Korea's nuclear program to Iran's, but noted that North Korea's program is farther along. Gates called for "genuinely tough sanctions" against both countries "that bring home real pain for their failure to adhere to international norms."

Gates offered no specifics on how the U.S. might respond to North Korea, militarily or otherwise, and has said there are no current plans to deploy more U.S. forces to the region.

Gen. George Casey, the Army chief of staff, said this week that the U.S. would need about 90 days to get more troops to the region if called up.

An estimated 28,000 U.S. troops already are stationed in South Korea, part of about 250,000 soldiers in the U.S. Pacific Command.

Harshest words to date
Gates' speech delivered his harshest words to date to North Korea since Pyongyang detonated an underground nuclear device Monday, followed by several short-range missile launches over the last few days.

"The choice to continue as a destitute, international pariah, or chart a new course, is North Korea's alone to make," Gates said. "The world is waiting."

The Pentagon chief focused most of his comments on U.S. priorities like high-seas piracy and the war in Afghanistan. Despite his warning, he appeared to take care in the half-hour speech to avoid ratcheting up the rhetoric in the weeklong war of words between North Korea and nations alarmed by its show of weaponry.

The U.N. Security Council is considering tough sanctions to punish North Korea for its nuclear test. In turn, North Korean leaders said they would respond in "self-defense" to the as-of-yet unspecified sanctions but did not say how.

Western security experts suggest that Washington's best strategy may be to resist getting egged into action by North Korea's talk.

"North Korea is talking war but planning how to best avoid it while maintaining the maximum international turmoil," David Fulghum, senior military editor of Aviation Week, said in a statement. "The rationale, believe U.S. analysts and military officials, is that constant provocation of the West is the only road to relevance."

Challenges faced by U.S., China
Gates' also spoke broadly about bolstering diplomatic relations with China and cited common challenges the two sometimes-adversaries face: counterterrorism, piracy, energy security and disaster relief. "It is essential for the United States and China to find opportunities to cooperate wherever possible," he said.

He praised South Korea and Japan for becoming "economic powerhouses" that need little U.S. military assistance. Gates was to meet later Saturday with the two nations' top defense officials in talks likely to focus on North Korea.

And Gates urged nations to remain involved in the war in Afghanistan, saying that extremists nestled in the rocky Afghanistan-Pakistan border are probably to blame for much of the terror threats throughout the rest of Asia.

"I know some in Asia have concluded that Afghanistan does not represent a strategic threat for their countries," he said. "But the threat from failed or failing states is international in scope. ... Failure in a place like Afghanistan would have international reverberations — and, undoubtedly, many of them would be felt in this part of the world."

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In talking about the Obama administration's commitment to the region, Gates appeared to voice a veiled general apology for previous U.S. military decisions, but he avoided detailing them.

"In our efforts to protect our own freedom — and that of others — we have from time to time made mistakes, including at times being arrogant in dealing with others," he said. "But we always correct course. Our willingness to do so is one of our enduring strengths."

well i guess this is a silly post, because the world is full of leaders like N Korea has, and the way they conduct business in the old communist style and the ppl are so poor, they once were on the verge of starving, and if not for china would be far worst off, , what i cant understand about the mindset of these leaders, is all they have to do is look to there south, to south korea, how they have a robust economy, or it may be down in the world recession, but that beside the point, they have kia, hyundia, and many companies making money, built a hyundia plant in alabama, and building a kia plant in georgia as we speak, why these leaders cant see the vast improvements in ppls lives in there neighbors way of doing a government, is beyond me, except i guess they have a different agenda, and their ppl suffer..

my article was silly? or your post? LOL I didn't write the article:)

i said my post was silly , but actually i dont really think its silly, it makes sense to me, and i did write my article, lol, urs was fine and not silly at all or i could not have replyed to it, with a written view of events on how N korea runs things,

I don't think yours is silly either LOL
it is a very scary worrisome thought ,I hope not another war.

well i really think N Korea is all mouth about war if sanctions are increased on them, they do have massive amounts of conventional weapons of war aimed at seuel the capital of s korea, which is so close to the dividing line, i have heard this for years, we would have no way to stop it if they unleashed it all toward the capital city,its just so close to them,, but n korea has to know that would be the end of them as we have so much technology to completely destroy them and a treaty to do just that, with south Korea and also to protect japan, we need to watch china now, as they may help, lets hope rumors are true they grow tired of n korea, they suppy oil and food to N korea,,

yes on China helping, and i believe Japan will, plus S Korea. are they able to control N Korea?

well this is a mix of articles i read, one is to make japan nuclear, if Korea does not stop, japan is so smart, and could play catch up easy with our help,but my view on a nuclear japan is maybe we are talking that to kick start china is what thats about or it could be totally legit, . and china could help but may not, by cutting off oil and food, but another article said north Korea is playing its old game, show off and then ask the world for money and things to stop what they are doing, its how they play the game. no way to tell if any of these articles are workable or not, just some i read, it all will play out.but will be fun to see if any of these happen, even Russia has had talks with japan in the last few days about n Korea, and surprising enough is totally against a nuclear Korea, i was surprised russia and japan seem to be on the same page on this..i dont think i posted that article, .

I kind of agree with most of your post, except the fun part~ nothing to do with war or threats of nuclear ,is fun~~I posted one, about Russia,i believe~