KOREAN TENSIONS GROW – AT 8:23 A.M. ET:  While Americans are thinking ahead to the Memorial Day weekend, a crisis brews on the Korean peninsula.  Question:  How far will we be pushed this time?  From AP: 

SEOUL, South Korea - Tensions on the Korean peninsula soared Tuesday as North Korea's leader reportedly ordered troops ready for combat and the South resumed propaganda broadcasts into the North in retaliation for the deadly sinking of a warship.

A North Korean monitoring group said Tuesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il last week ordered his 1.2 million-member military to get ready for combat, shortly after South Korea officially blamed his regime for the March 26 sinking of its warship Cheonan.

The South's restarting of psychological warfare operations was among measures it announced Monday, along with slashing trade, to punish Pyongyang for the March torpedo strike that sank a navy warship and killed 46 sailors.

The U.S. has thrown its full support behind South Korea's moves to retaliate, which also include bringing North Korea before the U.N. Security Council. China — North Korea's main ally and aid provider and a veto-wielding member of the Security Council — has so far done little but urge calm on all sides.

COMMENT:  We will now see what "full support" means.  This is Obama we're talking about.  He knows there's plenty of room under that bus should he decide to throw another ally there. 

This story is growing.  The North Koreans engaged in a naked act of war.  My guess is that the Chinese will not agree to anything substantial, and that we will back down from "full support" to support of a tut-tutting resolution in the U.N.  And then we'll "move on."

May 25, 2010