Interesting times on Asia's south-east seas

LOS ANGELES — The Obama administration is raising the U.S. profile in the South China Sea and in the newly troubled seas around the Korean Peninsula. Its decisions are sound enough, and they have been put forth carefully and with proportionality, but they do entail risks and may test the China-U.S. relationship.

Let's take a look at the two main aspects of this development.

The first involves South and North Korean waters, where U.S. and South Korean warships were bobbing last week in a military display. This was for the benefit of North Korea, whose navy apparently was the culprit that sank a South Korean vessel in March, killing 46 seamen. The aim is to deter the communist regime in the north from further foolishness.