North Korea Warns Diplomats It Can't Guarantee Their Safety in War, Missiles Moved East, Missile Defenses to Guam, People of Seoul Still Largely Unconcerned
White House says it wouldn't be surprising if North Korea conducted another test missile launch
North Korea has told the foreign ministries of both Russia and the United Kingdom that it can no longer guarantee the safety of diplomats stationed in Pyongyang, part of a battery of war rhetoric coming from the totalitarian country in the last several weeks. Nevertheless, neither Russia nor the UK have any immediate plans to evacuate their embassies, although David Cameron, the British prime minister, said yesterday he was "very concerned" by North Korean missiles, which he suggested could make it to the United States or Europe, based apparently on what the North Korean government says.
South Korea says the North is moving medium-range missiles to the Pacific shore of the country, and the United States announced plans to send a missile defense system to Guam. The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, said today it would not be a surprise if North Korea were to conduct new missile tests. The Obama Administration may even be looking at a strengthening of U.S.-China relations because of the mutual hassle North Korea presents. The BBC, meanwhile, reports that in Seoul, the South Korean capital, residents remain unimpressed by the North Korean threat, citing "security fatigue" and a prevailing opinion that North Korean saber rattling is intended to shore up bargaining chips in future negotiations for food or fuel.
While the West's response has so far been cautiously muted, the non-state actor Anonymous says it's been hacking the North Korean government's social networks (it has several), and in fact posted the picture to the right to the government's official flickr account. No response as yet from the regime to those actions.