Analysis: N. Korea angling for Obama's attention

By JEAN H. LEE – 1 day ago

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Sharpening its rhetoric, North Korea is trumpeting its refusal to honor accords designed to keep the peace with South Korea — particularly along a disputed maritime border that has long been a flashpoint.

Seoul has scrambled troops to land and sea borders amid signs the communist regime in Pyongyang may be setting the stage for another naval skirmish in the Yellow Sea. But the real focus of North Korea's warning Friday may well be Washington.

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An impatient Pyongyang seems to be trying to move itself to the top of Washington's foreign policy agenda by warning that the two Koreas are at the brink of war because of the hard-line stance of South Korea's pro-U.S. president.

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After eight years of chilly relations with the Bush administration, North Korea appeared intrigued by Obama's willingness to talk to Pyongyang and even meet with Kim.

However, his new secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, has voiced her support for the multilateral process to disarming the North, suggesting the Obama administration won't be a pushover for Pyongyang.

The State Department, which called the North's latest threat "distinctly not helpful," says a review of its North Korea policy is under way.

The worry is that Pyongyang won't wait — and will take dramatic action to get Washington's attention.