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Well,Bill Clinton got the journalists released.

North Korean President Kim Jong Il has pardoned and released two U.S. journalists, state-run news agency KCNA said Wednesday.

The announcement came after former U.S. President Clinton met with top North Korean officials in Pyongyang to appeal for their release.

“Clinton expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it,” the news agency reported. “Clinton courteously conveyed to Kim Jong Il an earnest request of the U.S. government to leniently pardon them and send them back home from a humanitarian point of view.

“The meetings had candid and in-depth discussions on the pending issues between the DPRK and the U.S. in a sincere atmosphere and reached a consensus of views on seeking a negotiated settlement of them.”

But, what did it really cost the United States? And, what did Clinton really negotiate?

We will see in time.

Former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton is NOT impressed with former President Bill Clinton meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il.

The Obama administration is rewarding North Korea for its bad behavior by sending ex-president Bill Clinton to Pyongyang to win the release of two US journalists, the former US ambassador to the UN said Tuesday.

John Bolton, an outspoken hardliner in the previous administration of George W. Bush, told AFP that Clinton’s mission to Pyongyang undermines a number of public stands held by his own wife, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“It comes perilously close to negotiating with terrorists,” Bolton told AFP when asked about Bill Clinton’s trip to secure the release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

The pair were sentenced in June to 12 years in a labor camp for an illegal border crossing and an unspecified “grave crime,” after they were detained by North Korean border guards on March 17 while working on a story.

“I think this is a very bad signal because it does exactly what we always try and avoid doing with terrorists, or with rogue states in general, and that’s encouraging their bad behavior,” Bolton said.

In a US television interview here on July 26, Secretary Clinton warned North Korea that even its traditional allies had turned against it and that the communist state’s rogue behavior will no longer “be rewarded.”

Bolton also scoffed the White House’s contention that Bill Clinton’s visit is “solely a private mission” when he said “this is a former president who is married to the secretary of state. There’s nothing private about this.”

Remember this was the same President who sent his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to visit Kim Jong-Il with a Michael Jordan autographed basketball.

Yeah, North Korea actually test fired four short-range missiles with the big ICBM, Taepodong – 2 due to be launched on America’s Independence Day – like two years ago.

North Korea test-fired four short-range missiles on Thursday, further stoking tension in the region that was already high due to Pyongyang’s nuclear test and threats to boost its nuclear arsenal in response to UN sanctions.

The North, which often fires short-range missiles as part of military drills and usually times the launches for periods of diplomatic friction, was hit with UN sanctions following its May 25 nuclear test.

The salvo began with two surface-to-ship missiles fired off North Korea’s east coast between 5:20 p.m and 6 p.m. (0820-0900 GMT) that flew about 100 km (60 miles) and splashed into the sea, a South Korean defence official said.

A third short-range missile was fired around two hours later, the defence ministry said, and South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing officials in Seoul, later said a fourth had been fired.

North Korea last month warned shipping to keep away from a maritime zone extending 110 km off its east coast between June 25 and July 10, saying it was conducting a military drill.

“This activity is not unexpected,” said U.S. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

“North Korea continues to develop and pursue missile technologies and the United States continues to remain concerned about not only their missile activities but their proliferation activities and their nuclear programme.”

A South Korean daily said that the secretive North may also test fire mid-range missiles, viewed by the South, the United States and others as a more serious act, in a matter of days.

In the meantime, the Obama Administration is plodding along with United Nation’s sanctions, if enforced, will be treated as an act of war by the North Koreans.

Stay tuned for more fireworks from Kim Jong-Il.

Kim Jong-Il will probably show up President Obama again on Independence Day. Anyone want to bet?

North Korea may fire a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, a Japanese news report said Thursday, as Russia and China urged the regime to return to international disarmament talks on its rogue nuclear program.

The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles (6,500 kilometers), would be launched from North Korea’s Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, said the Yomiuri daily, Japan’s top-selling newspaper. It cited an analysis by the Japanese Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.

The missile launch could come between July 4 and 8, the paper said.

While the newspaper speculated the Taepodong-2 could fly over Japan and toward Hawaii, it said the missile would not be able to hit Hawaii’s main islands, which are about 4,500 miles (7,200 kilometers) from the Korean peninsula.

So, what will be the latest “WEAK” response from Secretary of Defense Robert Gates?

This time will the United States position Aegis anti-missile ships in the region to ACTUALLY intercept the Taepodong-2?

Or will Obama allow Kim Jong-Il to have all of the 4th of July fireworks?

Wow, this will show Kim Jong-Il that the United States means business.

Concerned by North Korean behavior that she called “very provocative and belligerent,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in an interview aired Sunday that the United States was considering putting North Korea back on its list of state sponsors of terrorism, a clear signal that any slim hopes once held for improved relations had been dashed.

“We’re going to look at it,” Mrs. Clinton said in an interview recorded earlier for the ABC News program “This Week” when asked about returning Pyongyang to the list.

She suggested that international concern over North Korea had clearly sharpened following its recent nuclear and missile tests. She said that both China and Russia, which had balked earlier, seemed more ready now to increase pressure on North Korea. A strong sanctions resolution against the North would most likely emerge from the U.N. Security Council, backed by both countries, she said.

“What is going somewhere is additional sanctions in the United Nations — arms embargo, other measures taken against North Korea with the full support of China and Russia,” she said. “We think we’re going to come out of this with very strong resolution, with teeth, that will have consequences for the North Korean regime.”

How stupid to think the United Nation’s resolutions mean a RAT”S ASS to the North Koreans. In the meantime, President Obama, Hillary’s boss, has already asked for cuts in national missile defense, including the installation of more ground based interceptors in Alaska.

Remember when President Bill Clitnon sent his Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to visit appease Kim Jong-Il with a Michael Jordan autographed basketball?

President Obama should immediatley reinstate the national missile defense budget and start equipping South Korea and Japan for an inevitable conflict.

Weakness in foreign policy  from Obama and Clinton may start a war.

While President Obama is raising campaign cash for Dingy Harry Reid at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas and then runs out to Hollywood for a cool $4 Million, Hillary Clinton is left to North Korea.

Under President Bush, Flap thought North Korea had negotiated away its nuclear weapons program and agreed to stop missile tests.Now, with an apparent disengaged Obama who has cut funds for national missile defense, North Korea pushes up the military alert for South Korea’s military as the North renounces a 50 year old plus armistice.

Obama is in denial.

North Korea is an imminent threat and Hillary’s cackles have NOT been effective.

Mr.President, you will not be able to deal with Kim Jong-Il via teleprompter and popularity in the polls.

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The Day By Day Archive

No, it is not shocking.

Moscow is concerned by Pyongyang’s recent rocket launch, but believes that imposing sanctions against North Korea would be counterproductive, the Russian foreign minister said on Wednesday.

North Korea launched a multistage rocket that it said was carrying a communications satellite on Sunday morning, defying pressure from the United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries, which suspect the launch was a cover for a test of a Taepodong-2 long-range missile.

“We are definitely concerned by the recent rocket launch and believe it does not offer grounds for stabilizing the situation in the region,” Sergei Lavrov said, adding that “we also believe that any threat of sanctions would be counterproductive.”

The 15-member Security Council convened for an emergency meeting late on Sunday at Japan’s request, to discuss sanctions against Pyongyang following the launch, but strong opposition from Russia and China prevented the adoption of even a preliminary statement of condemnation.

The top Russian diplomat said Moscow will not change its stance concerning proposed sanctions against Pyongyang.

“We will not change our stance and our position is reflected in all those consensus decisions, which have been made in recent years concerning ways of resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula,” Lavrov said.

Welcome to the REAL WORLD, President Obama. The Russians may have glad handed you at the recent G-20 economic summit meeting but stab you in the back once they are out of face range.

So, back to where the United States was with North Korea, except now Kim Jong-Il’s missile program has a successful test of an ICBM with all of those Iranian missile negineers observing and collaborating.

Obama’s response = FAIL.