In this photo released by South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, sailors of North Korean vessel Dabaksol wave their hands to South Korea's Lynx helicopter in 37 kilometers (23 miles) south of Aden port, in Yemen, Monday, May 4, 2009. A South Korean navy warship has rescued the North Korean freighter by driving away a pirate ship chasing it off Somalia. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday the 4,500-ton-class South Korean warship sent a Lynx helicopter to assist the North Korean vessel after receiving a distress call earlier Monday that it was being chased by the pirate ship. (AP Photo/South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, HO)From The New York Times:
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration signaled Sunday that it was seeking a way to interdict, possibly with China’s help, North Korean sea and air shipments suspected of carrying weapons or nuclear technology.
The administration also said it was examining whether there was a legal basis to reverse former President George W. Bush’s decision last year to remove the North from a list of states that sponsor terrorism.
The reference to interdictions — preferably at ports or airfields in countries like China, but possibly involving riskier confrontations on the high seas — was made by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. She was the administration’s highest-ranking official to talk publicly about such a potentially provocative step as a response to North Korea’s second nuclear test, conducted two weeks ago.
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My Comment: China will not go along. As far as they are concerned .... the North Korean problem is (for the present) a South Korean/U.S./Japan affair. The Chinese will continue to be critical of North Korea, but they will also treat them with a ten foot pole.