US President Barack Obama has described his country as "fully prepared", should North Korea carry out a missile trial over the Pacific Ocean. Obama's comments were made during a CBS interview, and followed recent reports that North Korea was contemplating aiming a missile in Hawaii's direction.

The Obama/CBS interview was due to be televised on Monday June 22nd, but a transcript of some of it was issued to journalists pre-broadcast. In it, the US President asserted: "This administration - and our military - is fully prepared for any contingencies." Quizzed on whether this referred to military action, he replied in the negative, explaining: "I don't want to speculate on hypotheticals.

"But I do want to give assurances to the American people that the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted."

North Korean Missile Testing

May 2009 saw the latest wave of North Korean missile testing take place. The country performed a subterranean nuclear assessment, and also test-launched several missiles - events that led to additional sanctions being imposed on it by the UN Security Council.

The state of North Korea's nuclear programme has been a long-term concern for the international community.

On the same day as Obama's latest comments on North Korea were scheduled for full release, the main newspaper read across North Korea, Rodong Sinmun, described ideas of the nation threatening the United States as "nonsense", adding that it would react militarily if antagonised. "As long as our country has become a proud nuclear power, the U.S. should take a correct look at whom it is dealing with", Rodong Sinmun wrote. "It would be a grave mistake for the U.S. to think it can remain unhurt if it ignites the fuse of war on the Korean peninsula."

Kang Nam Cargo Ship

On June 21st, meanwhile, YTN - a news organisation active in South Korea - stated that a United States Navy warship was in hot pursuit of a North Korean cargo boat, on the (perceived) basis it was ferrying banned weapons into Burma. Speaking to AP (the Associated Press) two days earlier, an unnamed representative of the US armed forces had confirmed that the warship in question, the USS John S. McCain, was positioned fairly near to North Korea's Kang Nam cargo ship, adding, however, that it was not tasked with intercepting it, nor had it asked for permission to do this.

Armed Forces International understands that the monitoring of the Kang Nam stands as the first such act of its kind, and forms part of the new wave of UN sanctions on North Korea.

"One of the things that we have been very clear about is that North Korea has a path toward rejoining the international community", Obama stressed to CBS. "We hope they take that path. What we're not going to do is to reward belligerence and provocation in the way that's been done in the past."