corrente

Of course, any deployment that makes the front pages of the Times isn't all that stealthy:

The deployment last week of 15 stealth fighters to South Korea, along with the severing of the American military's only official interaction with North Korea, appears to be part of a new push by the Bush administration to further isolate North Korea despite China's hesitation to join the effort.

Although senior Pentagon officials say the F-117 stealth fighters are part of preparation for a long-planned training exercise, the show of force comes at a delicate moment both militarily and politically. China, South Korea and some experts in the United States have urged the administration to make a more specific offer to North Korea, laying out what it would get in return for giving up its nuclear arms program. Administration officials, however, have suggested in recent interviews that they are headed toward taking a hard line, cracking down on the North's exports of missiles, drugs and counterfeit currency.

The United States warned its allies this month that the North might be preparing to test a nuclear weapon. Now senior officials say American intelligence agencies are still monitoring several locations in North Korea where a nuclear test might be held, though they readily concede the evidence that the North will proceed with a test is "partial."

In a change that reflects a failure of the present policy, some officials say they will no longer rely heavily on China to sway the North Koreans. Ms. Rice met with China's leaders in Beijing in March specifically to ask them to pressure North Korea. That pressure has continued. But senior officials say they now realize that China may never be willing to use its leverage over North Korea, which relies on China for much of its food, energy and other resources.
(via that Okrent-hating-good-for-fishwrap not the London Times)

Well, great. Of course, I'm sure this intelligence is trustworthy.

I mean, Bush wouldn't fix the intelligence and facts around the policy twice, would he?

NOTE Before Iraq, I thought North Korea was the greater priority. But now... Who knows what these guys are willing to fake, or how bad the clusterfuck will be when they "git tough"? Of course, it couldn't possibly be worse than Iraq, right?