Hagel at DMZ: NKorea watching Syria developments

Standing just steps from the heavily armed border with North Korea, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said today that Pyongyang is closely watching the international response to Syria's use of chemical weapons against its own people.
And, with North Korean soldiers eyeing his every move, Hagel told reporters traveling with him that the US has no plans to reduce its military presence in South Korea, despite the ongoing budget crisis.
Hagel's visit is timed to the 60th anniversary of the signing of the mutual defense treaty between the US and South Korea, and to reinforce America's commitment to the security of the peninsula and the Asia-Pacific region.

"There is no margin for error up here," Hagel said after a stop in one of the three small blue conference houses that sit on the border of North and South Korea. "This is probably the only place in the world that we have always a risk of confrontation. Where the two sides are looking clearly and directly at each other all the time."
Inside the house, Hagel stepped briefly onto the North Korean side. And when he moved back outside to speak to a crowd of reporters, North Korean soldiers stepped up to the border just alongside the building and watched from about 40 feet away.

Hagel said it's been pretty clear that North Korea, which also has a large stockpile of chemical weapons, has been monitoring the unfolding international effort to destroy Syria's chemical arsenal.

And while he's not sure what message the North may take from the latest Syrian developments, US officials suggest that the unanimous UN resolution could send a warning shot to Pyongyang.
China, which has been North Korea's only major ally, and Russia both backed the UN resolution on Syria. And China has struck a more critical tone regarding North Korea in the past year, cooperating with the US on tightening UN sanctions following Pyongyang's underground nuclear test in February.

Other experts, however, caution that America's failure to follow through on its threats earlier this year to launch airstrikes into Syria to stop further use of chemical weapons there, could be interpreted by the North as a sign of weakness.
"If we had used force, I would guess that from North Korea's point of view that would be seen as potentially more threatening, because it would demonstrate a real willingness for the US to use force," said Bonnie Glaser, an Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
There is the potential, she said, for other nations to conclude that, at the end of the day, "the United States is just not as strong as it used to be.