By LARA JAKES, Associated Press Writer Lara Jakes, Associated Press Writer – 11 mins ago
SINGAPORE – U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned North Korea on Saturday that the United States would respond quickly if moves by the communist government threaten America or its Asian allies.

"We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in the region — or on us," Gates told an annual international meeting of defense and security officials from Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Gates called North Korea's nuclear program a "harbinger of a dark future" but said he does not consider it a direct military threat to the United States "at this point."

He also compared North Korea's nuclear program to Iran's, but noted that North Korea's program is farther along. Gates called for "genuinely tough sanctions" against both countries "that bring home real pain for their failure to adhere to international norms."

Gates offered no specifics on how the U.S. might respond to North Korea, militarily or otherwise, and has said there are no current plans to deploy more U.S. forces to the region.

At the conference, concern over the nuclear threat served to unify the region's sometimes diplomatic adversaries.

Chinese Lt. Gen. Ma Xiaotian said Beijing is "resolutely opposed to nuclear proliferation" and called for nations to "remain cool-headed and take measure to address the problem." South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang Hee called the tests "a serious challenge to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty and has made a solution of the North Korean nuclear problem more difficult."

Gates' speech delivered his harshest words to date to North Korea since Pyongyang detonated an underground nuclear device Monday, followed by several short-range missile launches over the last few days.

The Pentagon chief focused most of his comments on U.S. priorities like high-seas piracy and the war in Afghanistan. Despite his warning, he appeared to take care in the half-hour speech to avoid ratcheting up the rhetoric in the weeklong war of words between North Korea and nations alarmed by its show of weaponry.

The U.N. Security Council is considering tough sanctions to punish North Korea for its nuclear test. In turn, North Korean leaders said they would respond in "self-defense" to the as-of-yet unspecified sanctions but did not say how.

Western security experts suggest that Washington's best strategy may be to resist getting egged into action by North Korea's talk.

"North Korea is talking war but planning how to best avoid it while maintaining the maximum international turmoil," David Fulghum, senior military editor of Aviation Week, said in a statement. "The rationale, believe U.S. analysts and military officials, is that constant provocation of the West is the only road to relevance."

Gates' also spoke broadly about bolstering diplomatic relations with China and cited common challenges the two sometimes-adversaries face: counterterrorism, piracy, energy security and disaster relief. "It is essential for the United States and China to find opportunities to cooperate wherever possible," he said.

He praised South Korea and Japan for becoming "economic powerhouses" that need little U.S. military assistance. Gates was to meet later Saturday with the two nations' top defense officials in talks likely to focus on North Korea.

And Gates urged nations to remain involved in the war in Afghanistan, saying that extremists nestled in the rocky Afghanistan-Pakistan border are probably to blame for much of the terror threats throughout the rest of Asia.

"I know some in Asia have concluded that Afghanistan does not represent a strategic threat for their countries," he said. "But the threat from failed or failing states is international in scope. ... Failure in a place like Afghanistan would have international reverberations — and, undoubtedly, many of them would be felt in this part of the world."

In talking about the Obama administration's commitment to the region, Gates appeared to voice a veiled general apology for previous U.S. military decisions, but he avoided detailing them.

"In our efforts to protect our own freedom — and that of others — we have from time to time made mistakes, including at times being arrogant in dealing with others," he said. "But we always correct course. Our willingness to do so is one of our enduring strengths."

there are other countries that can do something...so why are we getting involved in what could be yet another war?

because the u s is taking over the world

I think I have more of a chance of taking over the world

I wish the other countries would handle this one. I'm tired of war

how many powerful nations can exist on one planet?......before one of these powerful greedy demanding nations actually blows us all up.


anyhow...we arent exactly stopping N. Korea....are we????

the world knows are woes......

maybe we should just lift sanctions to N korea and give them food, supplies, and free coupons to wally world.......

maybe then they wont want to blow anybody up.-

60 years since a world war.

We're due for one.

Because history repeats and little is learned.

Just like when this whole thing started (the Korean War). It was a 'U.N. operation'... but the U.S. was the only country to really put any forces in under mandate despite the dire situation in the South and the pleas of the country to the U.N..

Once again (many times over), N. Korea does what it wants knowing the U.N. or any country other than the U.S., just doesn't matter. The U.N. member-states will do no more than talk and not follow through with anything as usual. And even if sanctions are actually passed? China doesn't care and is more than happy to help N. Korea by-pass them (at some profit to China).

So the deal: The U.S. will still be left holding any burden alone; as it has since the Korean War started. The U.S. has 3 choices - 1. Go on the offensive to overthrow the N. Korean regime... 2. Maintain the current stand-still of the war... 3. Withdraw and let S. Korea perish.

The problem is, the second choice will go away once N. Korea is nuclear armed. And since the first and third choice equal wide-scale death and carnage anyway they haven't been pursued up until this point. That's why we'll keep on seeing N. Korea raising the stakes until they get what they want: long-range nuclear capability. Once that happens choices one and three are also completely gone - replaced by threat of nuclear war. Once that happens, the U.S. is out of the picture as the U.S. has no options left other than using nuclear force first. S. Korea will fall violently once the U.S. is out of the picture.

Crappy situation...

[Just my opinion - take with a grain of salt. =P]

What if, we are being fed BS by the media and there is no real nuclear peril in N.K.?

The media tells us who will be president and who our enimies are.

Perhaps, if South Korea and the World would let up a bit on the sanctions and send some of the stuff N.K. needs, that would open up a desire to compromise..

That plan however, wouldn't be to the advantage of the UN. N.K. seems like it wants to remain a soverign Nation and that wouldn't look good if one Nation held out and didn't want to join in the plan of a one-world Nation.

So, the best way to get people to comply is to bring them to starvation. Could be, N.K. would rather die than be governed by outsiders.

BEIJING, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Some 8.7 million North Koreans, or about 40 percent of the population, will urgently need food assistance in the next few months as the country cannot produce enough itself, two United Nations bodies said on Monday.

The prospects for next year are bleak, with a substantial deficit of basic foods that will only partly be covered by commercial imports and anticipated food aid.

Flooding over the past few years and the South's decision to suspend fertiliser aid in response to Pyongyang failing to live up to the terms a of nuclear disarmament deal have also pushed down domestic production.

the U.S. isn't the only one taking the North Koreans serious

Japan has been debating in their parliment (the Diet? I think?) over whether to amend their constitution to allow the rebuilding of their military as a response to the Korean threat. Including adopting nuclear weapons

and a militarized Japan is Korea's worst nightmare. It wasn't but about 60 years ago that Japan walked all over the Korean penninsula and they haven't forgot

How does any country in the world trust that the US wouldn't one day loose it's mind and use nuclear weapons on them. It only seems reasonable that other countries would want the same capablilities to be on an even ground with others.

The leader of NK is a wacko to be sure and he obviously scares the crap out of his own people, thought it's hard to understand how that many people in a country would want to be lead by a maniac.

Have the people of NK ever wanted to be free or what? Do they even have a clue how other people in the world live?

Not sure what the hell I am asking here, it just blows me away that in this age, we still have this crap to deal with.

I'm no fan of the media - but you'd have to be crazily naive not to believe N. Korea wants nothing more than to take over the rest of the country. We've been at war with N. Korea since the 50's to stop just that from happening. As well as the fact that N. Korea is quite vocal regarding their plans and desire to finish taking the rest of the populace.

Oh and N. Korea was never a sovereign nation. S. Korea is the original government that was recognized by the world... it is just incapable of even holding onto the southern part of the country without U.N. (U.S.) help considering how large of a military state N. Korea is.

Also, pay attention to the news - the U.S. and the rest of the world gives concessions to N. Korea all the time to keep the populace from starving and to try and make deals with N. Korea. But it doesn't matter, N. Korea uses all its resources to maintain one of the worlds largest standing armies despite its small size.

Again, it's just a crappy situation.

what we need here is a sniper team

just a thought

but hey

what do i know