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NORTH KOREA FILLS THE AIR WITH THREATS

Donald Kirk

Asia Times, March 7, 2009

WASHINGTON - North Korea may be off the United States State Department's list of nations sponsoring terrorism, but its warning to South Korea about the safety of flights through its air space has escalated fears of a surprise North Korean strike to new levels.

Inconceivable though it may sound for North Korea to fire on a flight carrying passengers to South Korea, the North's threat is drawing demands for the State Department to put North Korea's name back on the list from which former president George W Bush ordered its removal last June.

Officials at the State Department, National Security Council and Pentagon seem to agree, however, that such a strong response to North Korean rhetoric would be premature. The State Department in particular is falling back on a word that's come up a number of times lately to describe North Koreas's conduct - "unhelpful".

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during her swing through Northeast Asia last month, described North Korean rhetoric as "unhelpful", to which a State Department spokesman added "distinctly" as a sign of increasing worries that North Korea may try to pull off a violent surprise in the near future.

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