LOS ANGELES — It is true that there is not much that Lee Myung Bak could reasonably do, one way or the other, in response to the sinking of a South Korean naval patrol vessel in the Korean seas. But what little the president of that country has done, he has done near perfectly. This needs to be noted.

A penchant for caution around the Korean Peninsula is no little blessing. North Korea is a miserable economy of a country, but it is nonetheless a military force with which to be reckoned. It is one that includes, everyone assumes, some small speck of nuclear weaponry.

Was the ship named Cheonan attacked by the North Korean navy as it bobbed around the unofficial line on the high sea dividing Northern from Southern coastal waters? Or did the 1,200-ton, corvette-style, antisubmarine patrol ship stumble on a Korean War-era mine? Or perhaps faulty maintenance problems aboard the ship were responsible for the blast and the South Korean navy may be covering up?