John McCain chasing North Korean ship

No, Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who lost the presidential race to Barack Obama, isn’t chasing a North Korean ship. Instead the USS John S. McCain — named after McCain’s admirals father and grandfather — is shadowing the Kang Nam.

The ship is suspected of carrying weapons or nuclear material, possibly to Myanmar. Even more odd or perhaps not, the guided missile destroyer, shaddowing the North Korean vessel is commanded by an officer born in South Korea.

Cdr. Jeffrey J. Kim, according to the McCain Web site, was born in Seoul and grew up in Albany, Calif., after immigrating to the U.S. with his family. He holds an aeronautics and astronautics degree from MIT, a master’s in public policy from Harvard and also studied as an Olmsted Scholar at Leiden University in the Netherlands, following Dutch language training via the Defense Language Institute.

Does that give this mission an international flair or what?