Head Of US Pacific Command: North Korea Crisis Could Escalate 'Pretty Quickly'

US Navy Adm. Samuel Locklear waits to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the US Pacific Command and US Forces Korea in review of the Defense authorization request for fiscal year 2014 in Washington Tuesday. Gary Cameron/Reuters

Top Admiral Worries North Korea Crisis Could Escalate 'Pretty Quickly' -- Christian Science Monitor

In congressional testimony, the head of US Pacific Command said tensions stoked by North Korea mean that one miscalculation could lead to 'significant combat activity from the North.'

North Korea is a “clear and direct threat” to the United States, according to the top US military officer in the region, who adds that – even in a decades-long cyclical relationship of threats followed by cool down periods – he can’t recall “a greater time” of tension with North Korea.

The comment by came in congressional testimony Tuesday by Adm. Samuel Locklear, head of US Pacific Command, with one lawmaker likening the situation to the beginning of World War I. Sen. Angus King (I) of Maine pointed to a greater danger that there could be a “Guns of August” event – a reference to the book by Barbara Tuchman, considered required reading within the US military, that illustrates how Europe “stumbled” into World War I through a series of miscalculations.

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My Comment: The admiral is right, but for the moment the focus in North Korea is this.