Liz Cheney: N Korea Is Bush's Fault, Flashback: Bush Isn't the Only Former Pres That Had Issues With N Korea

While Obama and most of the other prominent Democrats have blamed everything that is wrong in this country on Dubya, Republicans have not join in the chorus. However, with the flare up in tensions on the Korean Peninsula, some have started to put some blame on the former Republican president:

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday" this weekend, former State Department official Liz Cheney joined that chorus when she said,

"I do think what we have seen [in North Korea] is an example of how provocative American weakness can be. And I think that unfortunately it is policy of weakness that has expanded back into the Bush administration -- into the last years of the Bush administration. . . . We have seen time and time again North Korea -- if they test a nuclear weapon, there are no consequences. . . . And what they have learned is that their belligerence, in fact, oftentimes yields from us capitulation and concessions."

Putting some blame on Bush is valid, but only mentioning Bush's mistakes isn't entirely fair. Bill Clinton, also, had his mistakes, when it came to handling N Korea's mentally unstable "Dear Leader".

Biden's Mettle Challenge Has Another Taker: N. Korea

Reports: NKorea military detains US journalists
Mar 19, 12:27 AM EDT

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korean guards detained an American journalist near the country's western border with China, a newspaper report said Thursday. However, another report said two U.S. reporters were taken into custody in the far northeast while trying to shoot footage of the communist country. The Munwha Ilbo newspaper in Seoul said North Korean soldiers detained a female reporter Tuesday in the border region along the Yalu River dividing China and North Korea. The report cited unnamed diplomatic sources in Seoul.

The paper identified her as a reporter named "Ming" working for a U.S. television station.

The South Korean network YTN later reported that two journalists, both Korean Americans, were arrested in Chinese territory near the Tumen River, some 500 miles (700 kilometers) to the northeast. The network did not cite its source.

YTN said North Korean guards ordered the women to stop shooting footage of the country from China, and then crossed into China to arrest them when they continued to film. Both were working for online media, and one was identifed as a Californian with the surname Park.

The U.S. Embassy in Seoul and the South Korean Foreign Ministry said they had no information about the reported incident.

Both the Tumen and Yalu rivers are frequent crossing points for North Koreans seeking to defect to China.

© 2009 The Associated Press.

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My Thoughts

Just another test of Pres. Obama's mettle. This is like when China held 24 crew members of a downed spy plane that crashed on Hainan Island. N. Korea has been busy since Obama took office. They've threatened war with S. Korea and been testing new long range missles that could attack the US.