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That kind of echoes something I'd heard from a friend who had spent several years in S. Korea and put some effort into understanding the situation. It's been a few years, but he said something about the N. Koreans having a very odd negotiating process, and that there was almost no chance that N. Korea would actually start an armed conflict as it would conflict with their goals. This seems very odd for a nation that pours all of its resources into it's military, but... he also said that the Bush admin showed no signs of understanding or respecting the complex relationship between the U.S. and North Korea, and that diplomatic achievements and understandings made during previous admin's were pretty much erased. This seems like a dangerous situation.
Standby, put someone in there who knows what N. Korea's all about, and defend if necessary. From your account, tw, that last option will not be necessary; my earlier, somewhat unclear point was that if by some crazy chance war does break out, the whole peninsula is screwed. Regardless of what N. Korea's true intentions are, what really matters is how they're going to be interpreted by others in power. Which brings me back to, Pres. Bush just leaving the damned situation alone. I don't know. Maybe I'm not giving him enough credit; maybe he has more savvy advisers than he did six years ago. But if he does pick the insane route, i.e. starting a fight with N. Korea, I'm hoping they let the generals into the war room this time- not that it's going to matter much.
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