WASHINGTON (AP) – Foreign policy challenges are intruding on President Barack Obama's promise to focus on the economy after the Democrats' election debacle and threatening to knock the White House off message altogether.

The escalation of tensions between North and South Korea this past week capped a postelection period that included two presidential trips abroad, discussions about America's future in Afghanistan and a debate in Washington over Senate ratification of a nuclear treaty with Russia.
The risk for Obama is that the capital and energy spent on a foreign crisis can undermine the perception that he's working on the public's top priority: finding jobs at home for Americans.
White House officials say the international focus hasn't diminished the amount of time Obama spends working on the economy. Aides acknowledge that events abroad can make it more difficult to spotlight Obama's economic message — one of an economy on a slow but steady march toward recovery, and a president aware that his political future rests on his ability to speed that recovery.
Take Obama's trip to Kokomo, Ind., last Tuesday, his first domestic trip since the Nov. 2 elections.
By the time Obama arrived at a Chrysler plant to promote the revival of the U.S. auto industry, attention had turned to how the White House would respond to North Korea's artillery attack against a South Korean island.
""You learn quickly as president that there are events that happen like North Korea that you have to address as they happen, not how you would plan for them to happen,"" White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Obama aides say they see opportunities for the president's economic message to break through, starting with a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers this Tuesday. The top issue will be what to do about the Bush-era tax cuts set to expire at year's end. Obama also plans to take a few more domestic trips through the end of the year to discuss the economy.
White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer said he doesn't believe the public is looking for the president to take an all-or-nothing approach to the economy.
""The American people understand that we have both domestic and international issues that have to be dealt with,"" Pfeiffer said. ""The public expects that's what he's doing.""
The recent burst of activity on the foreign policy front comes after an election that saw international issues seldom discussed, and a year that saw Obama spend just three days abroad, having traveled to the Czech Republic and Afghanistan in April.
Ari Fleischer, who served as press secretary for President George W. Bush, said it's too soon to tell whether a November filled with foreign policy following an election focused on the economy will hurt the current administration. But he said the ease with which world events can trump an administration's agenda is ""a vivid reminder of how much more complicated and multifaceted governing is than campaigning.""
While incidents such as North Korea's attack on South Korea were out of the administration's control, some of the shift toward foreign policy has been of the White House's making, most notably Obama's 10-day, four-country trip to Asia. Officials hoped Obama could use his popularity abroad to improve his standing following his self-proclaimed ""shellacking"" in the vote this month.
Former presidents have used a similar playbook, in part because political opponents at home traditionally refrain from criticizing the commander in chief while he's representing the U.S. on foreign soil.
Photo: This is Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010 file photo, President Barack Obama listens as Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the Chrysler Indiana Transmission plant. (Photo: AP)