NORTH KOREA MYSTERY - AT 7:41 A.M. ET:   From AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials said Tuesday that a North Korean ship has turned around and is headed back toward the north where it came from, after being tracked for more than a week by American Navy vessels on suspicion of carrying illegal weapons.

The move keeps the U.S. and the rest of the international community guessing: Where is the Kang Nam going? Does its cargo include materials banned by a new U.N. anti-proliferation resolution?

The ship left a North Korean port of Nampo on June 17 and is the first vessel monitored under U.N. sanctions that ban the regime from selling arms and nuclear-related material.

COMMENT:  Some liberal commentators are already billing this as a great victory for Obama, and even for the U.N.  Some caution is required.  As the article notes, we don't know where the ship is going.  Also, there are no permanent victories against North Korea, as the last ten years have proved. 

Other sources are reporting that the North Koreans, who'd been expected to launch a new missile over our July 4th weekend, don't seem ready to do so.  Again, it's a grain of salt moment.  They will eventually launch, when they're ready.  They always do, and have been especially defiant since our own Dear Leader took office.

July 1, 2009