Staying Focused

A lot has happened in the first three months of President Obama’s second term.  Stocks have seen signs of improvement, while unemployment has held steady between 7 and 8 percent.  North Korea has threatened the West and its Asian neighbors.  This past week, President Obama witnessed a failed attempt at gun control in the United States Senate.  He began the week with the bombings at the Boston Marathon.

North Korea Threatens South Korea

Will Rodman Be Called For Traveling…to North Korea?

The following statements were made on Thursday from the US State Department through their deputy spokesman, Patrick Ventrell, regarding former NBA star Dennis Rodman’s visit to North Korea this past week.

–Private individual Americans are welcome to take actions they see fit … we’re not a clearinghouse for American citizen travel to North Korea. There are some Americans who go there. We as a State Department provide our country-specific travel information. That’s the role we take.

–This was an – absolutely a private trip by a private individual. We have done various forms of diplomacy to connect the people of different – of countries with whom we don’t have a good relationship. We have no ill will toward the people of North Korea, just as we have no ill will toward the people of Iran. And so we have had, over time, diplomacy that we’ve done to, quite frankly, connect people in some of these countries. But this was a private [trip] …

–We haven’t been in touch with this party [Rodman’s group] at all…If there are Americans who after traveling in North Korea want to get in touch with us or have something to share with us, we take the phone calls.

Some are saying that Dennis Rodman knows more about the North Korea than any American in or out of government.  US-North Korea relations are non-existent and have been this way since the Korean War in the 1950s.  What was your opinion about Dennis Rodman’s visit to North Korea?