North Korea’s threats are still up in the air. No one still really doesn’t know, when or who exactly will be affected if N. Korea’s threats do pull through. Some of the things I noticed while looking through international sources especially the ones from Asia are that the articles are relatively short.
In The Daily Yomiuri, which is a Japan newspaper, you can tell that they take the relationship they have with the U.S very seriously. In the article I read it talks about U.S Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Asia and how well the visit went with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Both Abe and Kerry agreed that their countries would never allow Pyongyang to possess nuclear weapons. Both countries also agreed that they would continue to cooperate against North Korea. Again in this article you see the relationship Japan and the U.S have, but they do not however speak wrong of North Korea, instead they speak of how they can all agree to denuclearization and disarmament of N. Korea.
According to Aljazeera, North Korea has offered the U.S and South Korea a list of conditions on Thursday, which includes disarmament and lifting of UN sanctions. Compared to The Daily Yomiuri, there is no mention of such offer that N. Korea has put down.
Both in Aljazeera and BBC new articles, there is talk about two ballistic missiles that have been moved to N. Korea’s east coast. There is also a similarity in the ongoing threats that have been occurring towards South Korea, Japan and US bases in the region. Another thing in common is the fact that with April 25 could be a possible date for a missile launch due to the fact that it’s the founding anniversary of the North’s military.
BBC news was the one outlet that I found an article about the letter threat that was sent to S. Korea’s minister. In this letter it accused Mr. Kim Kwan-jin of “war-mongering” and “infringing the highest dignity of North Korea.” The letter also mentioned that he would be punished for it. There are thoughts that some one from the North could have sent this, as there is one video in the North that showed army dogs attacking mannequins with Mr. Kim’s face.
Again, the articles written in Asia are short from what I have seen. Central news agency article focuses on an interview done on Taiwan’s security and intelligence chief. Tsai Teh-sheng explains as much as he knows about N. Korea and verifies the fact that N. Korea is very unpredictable.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2013/04/201342144159989996.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22260144
http://global.factiva.com/redir/default.aspx?P=sa&an=YOMSHI0020130415e94g00003&cat=a&ep=ASE
http://global.factiva.com/redir/default.aspx?P=sa&an=CNAENG0020130415e94f0005n&cat=a&ep=ASE
I liked the fact that you mention that the articles are very short, which kind of raises the question of how much influence does the US really have. However, in the first article i noticed that the sources are simply stated as “agencies” perhaps you could have mentioned what your opinion was on that, as well as the very descriptive photos of tanks, which i find very interesting. Great job though on noticing how the short articles relate to the relationship between the US and Japan