I feel confident that President Obama will courageously defend North Korea from its blatant oppressors in the south

Tomorrow's Wall Street Journal will report that the head of South Korea's military has confirmed that a torpedo likely sank one of its patrol boats last month.

The finding puts South Korea and its ally the U.S. in a bind in confronting the nuclear-armed totalitarian state. Seoul faces several constraints in penalizing Pyongyang, starting with the prospect that a military response could escalate into a war that very few here want...

...A military response looks unlikely at this point. South Korea has stopped short of matching previous acts of aggression, from the 1987 explosion of a Korean Air jet near Myanmar to the July 2008 killing of a South Korean tourist at a North Korean resort by a North Korean soldier. Though the public favors punishing the North, there is little appetite for warlike action that would disrupt the South Korean economy or destabilize the North enough to require the South to take it over...

...Privately, U.S. officials acknowledged the findings will have major ramifications for U.S. policy in Asia. They worry that further escalations by the North could complicate an American foreign policy agenda dominated by the war in Afghanistan and international efforts to contain Iran's nuclear program...

...There remains a chance the explosion was caused by a mine that South Korea or the U.S. planted along the countries' shared maritime border 40 years ago, when a nearby island was used as a radar station. Defense officials believe such mines were cleared long ago...

...The March 26 sinking occurred in the same boundary waters where South Korea's navy severely damaged a North Korean vessel in November, perhaps killing some of its sailors. In February, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il visited the navy base where the damaged ship returned, raising speculation in the South that he ordered an attack in retribution.

In another line of speculation, some analysts say Mr. Kim may have wanted to show strength inside the country to help the potential succession of his son, Kim Jong Un.

It's also reassuring that our country remains a financial powerhouse capable of weathering a new national security challenge. Sound investments like cash-for-clunkers, mortgage giveaways and weather-stripping programs have only strengthened our once-troubled economy.


Headline idea: WSJ Commenter Terry Kimble.