[url=http://www.defensenews.com/article/20140115/DEFREG03/301150040/Gates-Says-US-Prevented-South-Korea-Airstrike-North]According to former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates,[/url] the United States prevented a South Korean airstrike against North Korea in 2010. South Korea declined to comment Wednesday on revelations that the United States talked it down from launching a retaliatory airstrike on North Korea in 2010. [quote]The claims were made in the newly published memoir of former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, in which he also describes former South Korean president Roh Moo-Hyun as [b]“probably a little bit crazy.”[/b] The 2010 incident followed the North’s surprise shelling of a South Korean border island in November of that year. The attack triggered what Gates labeled a “very dangerous crisis,” with the South Korean government of then-President Lee Myung-Bak initially insisting on a robust military response. “South Korea’s original plans for retaliation were, we thought, disproportionately aggressive, involving both aircraft and artillery,” Gates wrote in his memoir. “We were worried the exchanges could escalate dangerously,” he added. Over the next few days, Gates said he, US President Barack Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had numerous telephone calls with their South Korean counterparts in an effort to calm things down. “Ultimately, South Korea simply returned artillery fire on the location of the North Koreans’ batteries that had started the whole affair,” he said.[/quote]