Barrel Strength

First it was the Russians, and now it is North Koreas who are taking steps after taking measure of President Obama.  Russia dropped their plans to deploy missiles near the Polish border, after Obama negated the plans to deploy missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.  A press report states:

An unnamed official in the Russian military’s general staff said: “The implementation of these plans has been halted in connection with the fact that the new US administration is not rushing through plans to deploy” elements of its missile defence shield in eastern Europe, according to the Interfax news agency.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, had warned that the US shield – which the Bush White House said was necessary to defend against potential attacks from the Middle East – would be interpreted by Moscow as a direct provocation.

Now North Korea is changing tack as well.

North Korea said it is scrapping all military and political agreements with South Korea, accusing the government in Seoul of pushing inter-Korean relations to “the brink of war.”

“All the agreed points concerning the issue of putting an end to the political and military confrontation between the north and south will be nullified,” the reunification committee in Pyongyang said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency today.