Financial Times (April 23)
North Korea is “a dangerously unpredictable state.” Signs of this arose again with a plot to assassinate a North Korean defector and suspicions over North Korea’s involvement in the sinking of South Korea’s Cheonan warship. The problem: “the world is clueless about how to deal with a regime that responds to neither sticks nor carrots.” The Financial Times warns, however, that we can’t ignore North Korea: otherwise we will wake up one day “to find that a desperate, volatile state can fit a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead.”
North Korea is “a dangerously unpredictable state.” Signs of this arose again with a plot to assassinate a North Korean defector and suspicions over North Korea’s involvement in the sinking of South Korea’s Cheonan warship. The problem: “the world is clueless about how to deal with a regime that responds to neither sticks nor carrots.” The Financial Times warns, however, that we can’t ignore North Korea: otherwise we will wake up one day “to find that a desperate, volatile state can fit a ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead.”
Tags: Cheonan, North Korea, Nuclear, South Korea
The Times (April 22)
Flights have resumed across Europe. Some are now complaining the weeklong flight ban was unnecessary. Airlines are even demanding cash for ash. The Times, however, says the authorities made the right decision. It would have been insane to “allow airliners to merrily fly in until one or more of them fell abruptly from the sky.” Too little is known about the limits of safety. Aircraft aren’t currently equipped for ash detection. Pilots don’t have experience flying through ash. The flight ban was the right thing to do.
