Powell repeated the U.S. position that it had no intention of invading North Korea and had no plans to impose fresh economic sanctions on the impoverished communist nation.
While we support diplomacy to explain our plans to Russian officials and to assure them that such defenses reflect no intention whatever to threaten Russia or Russian interests, we have compelling incentives to deploy such defenses based on the growing missile threat from rogue nations.
The suspicion is that the army has no intention of surrendering real power to an Islamist-dominated parliament, and may be hatching plans to tilt the presidential election to its advantage.