This sux big time.

Are we headed for another freakin´ war?????

[link to www.iht.com]
Epithets increase tension over Korea

By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune

TUESDAY, MAY 31, 2005


SEOUL Tensions between the United States and North Korea increased Monday as both sides turned up the rhetoric after a decision in Washington to dispatch 15 Nighthawk stealth fighters to the Korean Peninsula.

Vice President Dick Cheney of the United States described Kim Jong Il, the North Korean head of state, as an "irresponsible leader."

North Korea, in turn, called the deployment of U.S. aircraft a prelude to war. On Monday, the state-run Pyongyang Radio, using a vulgar epithet, compared Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of the United States to a dog "that has no fear of a tiger and barks at it."

Washington´s harsh comments and its dispatching of aircraft to South Korea, which followed a brief period of calm and conciliatory gestures, suggested to some analysts in Seoul that the United States may be preparing to take a far tougher position toward the North Korean government.

At the same time, some analysts in Seoul have begun to recognize that both North Korea and China, its principal ally, may have interests in prolonging the crisis over North Korea´s nuclear weapons program rather than settling it.

These perceptions contributed to a growing sense of pessimism in South Korea on the potential for a settlement of the current crisis.

"What we see right now is a tug of war, a war of nerves, between the United States and North Korea," said Kim Tae Hyo, a political scientist at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul. "Even if talks begin, we should be prepared for a drawn-out negotiation."