Associated Press Featured Article

[Guest guest]

http://topnews360.tmcnet.com/topics/associated-press/articles/2010/12/15/126924-\

ex-us-intel-chief-skorea-may-act-against.htm

Associated Press Featured Article

December 15, 2010Ex-US intel chief: SKorea may act against North

By Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — South Korea is losing patience with North Korea and probably

will take military action, former national intelligence director Dennis Blair

said Sunday.

Blair, who just returned from the Korean peninsula, said he doesn't see a major

war starting, but he believes recent aggression by the North will press South

Korea into some lower level military confrontations.

He said there's support among South Koreans for their military to take a

stronger stance, adding that " a South Korean government who does not react would

not be able to survive there. "

He told CNN's " State of the Union " that the North's recent moves to sink a South

Korean ship and fire artillery rounds on a South Korean island near a disputed

sea border have frayed Seoul's patience. The artillery attack killed four South

Koreans, while 46 sailors died in the sinking of the ship.

Blair said that what is needed is a united Korea under Seoul's influence, but

China would have to exert its influence on the North for that to happen, and

Beijing prefers the two countries to remain divided.

[Guest guest]

Call it what they want, but military retaliation would be war all the same regardless of how big it got. Indeed even a raid or mining a North Korean harbor would push the North to respond and so on it will go.

In a message dated 12/15/2010 1:33:53 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, no_reply writes:

Blair, who just returned from the Korean peninsula, said he doesn't see a major war starting, but he believes recent aggression by the North will press South Korea into some lower level military confrontations.