- The Strategist - https://www.aspistrategist.org.au -
Basketball diplomacy with North Korea
Posted By Hayley Channer on March 21, 2013 @ 13:00
It’s uncommon for the US Defense Department to be moved by North Korean rhetoric and war-mongering, but the recent escalation of threats has succeeded in eliciting a response from the Pentagon.
The US announced over the weekend that it is bolstering its nuclear missile defences in Alaska and Japan in response to the threat from North Korea. The Defense Department plans to increase missile defence systems in Alaska, adding 14 interceptor missiles. The US will also be installing a second X-band radar system in Japan to improve its early warning capabilities.
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[1] Image: http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Barack_Obama_playing_basketball-1.jpg
[2] bolstering its nuclear missile defences: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/15/us-strengthen-missile-defence-north-korea
[3] second X-band radar system: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-24/an-us2c-japan-plan-radar-system-to-boost-defence/4536770
[4] still years away from developing a genuine inter-continental ballistic missile: http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/north-korea-might-have-icbm-5-7-years-former-us-general-says/
[5] declaring null the 1953 armistice: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/11/north-korea-declares-end-armistice
[6] did the same in 2009: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/north-korea-no-longer-bound-by-armistice-1691347.html
[7] torpedoed a South Korean naval vessel and ordered the artillery shelling of a South Korean island: http://www.cfr.org/north-korea/cheonan-yeonpyeong-northeast-asian-response-north-koreas-provocations/p25876
[8] threatened ‘a pre-emptive nuclear attack’: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3711743.htm
[9] As my colleague Tanya Ogilvie-White: http://www.aspistrategist.org.au/lets-not-succumb-to-nuclear-defeatism/
[10] it has been under some form of sanction, on and off, for the last seven decades: http://www.aeaweb.org/annual_mtg_papers/2007/0106_0800_2104.pdf
[11] Dennis Rodman, an ex-professional basketball player, who visited North Korea in February: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/02/rodman-worms-his-way-into-kim-jong-un-meeting/
[12] ping-pong diplomacy between the US and China: http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/sports2.html
[13] he wants President Obama to do one thing – call him: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/03/dennis-rodman-kim-jong-un-wants-president-obama-to-call-him/
[14] sometimes player: http://www.usatoday.com/story/gameon/2012/11/06/barack-obama-scottie-pippen-election-day-pickup/1686751/
[15] Wikimedia Commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barack_Obama_playing_basketball.jpg