As North Korea reverts to type Washington is hoping to be ready for anything in the Pyongyang-Seoul showdown by adhering to Theodore Roosevelt’s favourite African maxim: speak softly and carry a big stick. While the North retreated deeper into its shell, the State Department merely expressed mild surprise while the Pentagon finalised details for joint naval exercises intended as a show of deterrence.
Asked about Pyongyang’s decision to cut all cross-border links the Assistant Secretary of State, Philip Crowley, said: “I think it’s odd. South Korea is one of the most dynamic economies in the world. North Korea is unable to care for its citizens. I can’t imagine a step that is less in the long-term interest of the North Korean people than cutting off further ties with South Korea.”
The South Korean Ambassador to Washington, Han Duk Soo, was more determined to keep attention on the offence that triggered this response.
Will it come to war? Experts doubt it but the mood in Washington is not complacent. The alert status of the 28,000 US troops permanently stationed in South Korea has not been changed but only because they are at “a constant state of readiness”, a Pentagon spokesman said.
Yesterday the Japanese Defence Minister, Toshimi Kitazawa, spent half an hour in the Pentagon with Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, for talks onabout the threat of war.
The US is about to send 12 of its latest F22 stealth fighters to the region, and the Pentagon was in the process of deciding which ships and submarines should take part in exercises with the South Korean Navy.
“US support for South Korea’s defence is unequivocal,” Mr Obama’s spokesman said. His hope is that by pledging his support clearly, it will not be put to the test.
