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Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks Print Featured Topics: Barack Obama  Play Video ABC News  – Clinton: 'Broke My Elbow, Not My Larynx'
Play Video Video:Hillary Clinton: North Korea Is Acting Out ABC News  Reuters – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a news conference at the Association of Southeast …



Thu Jul 23, 10:19 pm ET
And Hillary Clinton thought she was having a bad day when she broke her elbow ...

Today, a meeting of Asian leaders in Thailand turned into the set of "Mean Girls": North Korea called the Secretary of State a "funny lady" who "looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping." Ouch. To be fair, Clinton stirred it up earlier this week when she compared North Korea to "unruly teenagers."

For the Secretary of State, this latest scrap must feel like the cherry on top of a big fat banana peel of a month.

This is Clinton's first trip abroad since she fell and broke her elbow in the White House basement last month. (Does the White House offer workman's comp?) Clinton's duties, naturally, were curtailed somewhat during her recuperation, but political pundits quickly jumped on the fact that while she was laid up, President Obama was gallivanting around the globe sans his Secretary of State.

Fox News asked whether it was a broken elbow or "sinister forces at work" to sideline the Secretary of State. Tina Brown at The Daily Beast blogged that it was "time for Barack Obama to let Hillary Clinton take off her burqa," while the New York Daily News dubbed her plight "The curious case of the steadily shrinking Hillary Clinton." Foreign Policy website noted that Obama has been to several countries without her.

So while Clinton was recuperating from surgery on her broken elbow and handling her job as best as she could from home, she has also had to defend her boss and reassure everyone that, yes, she is, in fact, happy with her job.

Clinton responded to the rumors, speculation and analysis with a quippy "I broke my elbow, not my larynx," and White House spokesman Robert Gibbs reiterated the president's support:


"They enjoy a very close relationship. I think the Secretary of State is somebody who the president relies on greatly ... The notion that there's some rift or disagreement is nothing more than silly Washington games."

In an interview with Thai television this week, Clinton recounted how surprised she was when the president offered her the job, and how it's been "everything she could have hoped for." From Reuters:


"He [Obama] gave me an enormous amount of authority as secretary of state, and really everything I asked for so that I could do the job that he wanted me to do ... He said, 'Look, I really need you, and I believe that we can have a great relationship', and we do," she said. "It's been everything I could have hoped for."

When Clinton was asked if her future career plans still included becoming president of the United States, she replied, "I'm saying no because I have a very committed attitude to the job I have. And so that's not at all on my radar screen."

But even though it's been a bumpy and unexpected road for the former first lady, ex-New York senator and now Secretary of State, history has proven that it's never wise to count a Clinton out.


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키팅 미 태평양사령관 “북한 불확실한 권력승계 대비한 계획 있다” 밝혀  


키팅 미 태평양사령관 “북한 불확실한 권력승계 대비한 계획 있다” 밝혀


  
관련핫이슈북한 2차 핵실험 그 후

미 태평양사령부 티머시 키팅(사진) 사령관은 22일(현지시간) “북한에서 불확실한 권력승계가 이뤄질 경우 (미국) 대통령이 명령만 하면 실행에 옮길 수 있는 계획들을 갖고 있다”고 말했다. 키팅 사령관은 이날 국방부 브리핑에서 북한 김정일 국방위원장의 건강 이상설 등에 대해 질문을 받고 “그(김정일)가 통치권을 이양하거나 더 이상 통치를 할 능력이 없을 경우 어떤 일이 일어날지에 대해선 모른다”며 이같이 답했다. 이어 “구체적 건강상태는 모르지만, 그가 건강의 변화로 고생하고 있는 것은 명확하다. 겉보기엔 신체적으로 1년 전에 비해 요즘 다른 것 같다”고 평가했다.

앞서 미 국방부 마이클 나트 세계전략문제 담당 차관보는 15일 하원 군사위원회 대량살상무기(WMD) 관련 청문회에서 “북한의 미래 상황에 관한 시나리오를 개발하고 있다”고 밝힌 바 있다.

키팅 사령관은 “국무부, 국방부, 정보기관 및 동맹국과 긴밀한 협의 속에 연구 중인 여러 옵션을 갖고 있다”면서 “우리는 한국과 이 지역 국가들과 미국 주도의 협의 하에 광범위한 옵션을 수행할 준비를 하고 있다”고 덧붙였다. 이어 “김정일이 (권력을) 떠나는 게 반드시 미국의 안보위기를 의미하는 것은 아니고, 우리도 그러지 않기를 희망한다”면서 “하지만 우리는 만일 그렇게 될 경우에 대비하고 있다”고 말했다.

한편 미 상원은 이날 “북한이 인접국에 위협이 되고 있는 만큼 북한을 테러지원국으로 재지정할지를 검토하라”고 오바마 행정부에 공식 요구하는 수정안을 통과시켰다.

워싱턴=중앙일보 최상연 특파원