In keeping with my philosophy of what makes a lede story, here is my pseudo-front page for this evening:
- BP Attempts ‘Top Kill’ Method to Seal Oil Well in Gulf (NYT) — Lots of fingers being crossed at this point. And wings and fins, too, no doubt.
- US demands world response over Korea warship sinking (BBC) — Something I’ve wondered, but haven’t seen it addressed: Now that we’ve pledged “unequivocal” military backing to South Korea, what if China does the same for its pals in the North? A 1914 scenario.
- Dow Slides Below 10000 (WSJ) — The first close that low since early February, as the Euro tumbles…
- Jamaica shoot-out death toll ‘rises to 44’ (BBC) — You may also be interested in this step-back story from NPR, “Drug Violence Tarnishes Jamaica’s Paradise Image.”
- Facebook Redesigns Privacy Controls (WSJ) — I don’t know about you, but putting “Facebook” and “privacy” in the same sentence seems a tad oxymoronic to me.
- The Continuing Nikki Haley Mess (various) — With Nikki leading the GOP polls, this remains significant, unfortunately. Yet another slow news day in SC. There’s not even anything NEW on this…
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My question about the Korean situation is this: SHOULD we be pledging our “unequivocal” military support to the South Koreans.
China’s relationship with North Korea is considerably more complicated than can be described by the word “pals.” They may prefer a buffer between them and the powerful capitalist democracy that is South Korea, and to maintain a kind of status quo, but nations don’t usually vote for UN Security Council sanctions resolutions against their “pals.” This is not the China of 1950, not even the China of 1989. As China’s prominence as a world player grows economically/diplomatically, I don’t see China letting Kim Jong-Il draw it into a global military showdown with the US due to his own wackiness (or perhaps the internal power struggles that this possibly not-authorized-from-the-top attack on South Korea brings to light).
China may be helpful, and it may choose not to be particularly helpful. But the biggest threat militarily comes from North Korea itself. Council on Foreign Relations has a good article from 2009 on China/NK relations:
http://www.cfr.org/publication/11097/