South Korea

I think the steps taken by the Obama administration are prudent and the minimum necessary to send a message to [North Korea] and our allies that we are prepared to defend them.

I hope that when the exercise winds down in a few weeks, they [the North Koreans] will wind down the rhetoric and we will be in a better place than we are now.

The danger here is that South Korea, with U.S. moral support, retaliates and then North Korea feels that it needs to counter-retaliate; China doesn’t control it and so it’s a vicious circle.