KOREA TENSIONS - AT 8:33 A.M. ET:  From Financial Times:

North Korea on Monday cut its military hotline to Seoul and put its million-man army at battle stations, ratcheting up tensions as South Korean and US troops began war games that Pyongyang warned could spark open conflict.

UN forces last week tried to counter North Korean claims that the exercises were a smokescreen for an invasion by promising to keep the hotline open, giving Pyongyang advance warning of anything that could cause a misunderstanding.

North Korea’s official KCNA news agency quoted an army spokesman as saying: “It is nonsensical to maintain the normal channels of communication when the South Korean puppets are in a frenzy about these military exercises, levelling their guns at fellow countrymen in league with foreign forces.”

COMMENT:  Repeat after me:  "This is a misunderstanding.  There is no need for missile defense.  No need at all.  When Ms. Hillary returns to the region, all will be made okay.  This is just some tension left over from BUSH (!!).

March 10, 2009