Korea, has the ship hit the fan?

[Gob]

A North Korean submarine's torpedo sank a South Korean navy ship on 26 March causing the deaths of 46 sailors, an international report has found.

Investigators said they had discovered part of the torpedo on the sea floor and it carried lettering that matched a North Korean design.

Pyongyang rejected the claim as a "fabrication", South Korea's Yonhap agency reported.

It said the North threatened war if sanctions were imposed by the South.

But South Korean President Lee Myung-bak pledged to take "stern action" against the North.

The White House described the sinking of the ship as an "act of aggression" by North Korea that challenged peace.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the report was "deeply troubling".

Pyongyang said it would send its own inspection team the South to " verify material evidence" behind the accusation.

A North Korean defence spokesman said the country would "respond to reckless countermeasure with an all-out war of justice", the state KCNA news agency reported.

The Cheonan went down near the disputed inter-Korean maritime border, raising tension between the two nations, which technically remain at war.

The shattered wreck of the 1,200-tonne gunboat was later winched to the surface, in two pieces, for examination.

The investigation was led by experts from the US, Australia, Britain and Sweden.

The Cheonan sinking has increased tensions between the two Koreas It said: "The evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a North Korean submarine.

"There is no other plausible explanation."

The report said the torpedo parts found "perfectly match" a torpedo type that the North manufactures.

Lettering found on one section matched that on a North Korean torpedo found by the South seven years ago.

There had earlier been a number of explanations suggested for the sinking, including an accidental collision with an unexploded sea mine left over from the Korean War.

Mr Lee's presidential office said he had told Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd: "We will be taking firm, responsive measures against the North, and through international cooperation, we have to make the North admit its wrongdoing and come back as a responsible member of the international community."

The White House, said one expert, will be looking for a response that deters, but does not provoke North Korea.

Sources here say the Obama administration is considering putting North Korea back on the list of countries which sponsor terrorism. That could mean sanctions. North Korea was removed from the list in 2008.

The Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to travel to Japan, South Korea and China in the coming days. Managing this smouldering crisis between the two Koreas will no doubt occupy much of her time.
However, the BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul says agreeing an international response will be difficult as the diplomatic options will be limited.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said on Thursday the sinking of the vessel was "unfortunate" but he would not comment on the international report.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said US President Barack Obama had expressed his "deep sympathy" to Mr Lee and the Korean people.

"The United States strongly condemns the act of aggression that led to their deaths," Mr Gibbs said.

Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said in a statement that North Korea's action was "unforgivable".

The British embassy in Seoul quoted Foreign Secretary William Hague as saying: "[North Korea's] actions will deepen the international community's mistrust. The attack demonstrates a total indifference to human life and a blatant disregard of international obligations."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_p ... 129703.stm

[tyro]

The shattered wreck of the 1,200-tonne gunboat was later winched to the surface, in two pieces, for examination.

Strangely, they don’t mention that the damage done to the ship is consistent with a torpedo strike.

[Sue U]

Assuming this was in fact a North Korean attack, what is their purpose? What goal are they trying to achieve? If the South Korean ship was illegally in Northern waters, the North could at least offer its exercise of sovereignty as a justification. In this instance, what would be the point of sinking a ship and then denying any involvement? What message does that send?

[Scooter]

Maybe they want to look like the aggrieved party being falsely accused

Maybe it was a colossal fuck up and someone got trigger happy without having authorization from the man upstairs.

The shattered wreck of the 1,200-tonne gunboat was later winched to the surface, in two pieces, for examination.

Strangely, they don’t mention that the damage done to the ship is consistent with a torpedo strike.

You noticed that too.

Just like they didn't say where the torpedo fragment was found in relation to the ship.

[Crackpot]

Sue

You're asking for logic from NK?

The news reports I heard today did say the damage was consistent of a powerful torpedo strike

[Gob]

I think I'm right in saying that N.Korea is under the heaviest available sanctions already, where do we go from here?

The report - by a team including experts from the US, Australia, Britain and Sweden - concluded that a torpedo had sunk the Cheonan corvette.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_p ... 134613.stm

[Crackpot]

Hope that China will finally decide they're too erratic to be an effective buffer zone and sign on to their destruction? (I've heard they're getting close to that conclusion)

[Gob]

Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!

North Korea has threatened “all-out war” if there Seoul retaliates for the torpedo attack that sank the South Korean warship Cheonan in March.

Pyongyang made the threat as it dismissed as fabrication a report by an international team of investigators that concluded that a torpedo fired by a North Korean submarine was responsible for the explosion that ripped the 1,200-tonne corvette in two, killing 46 sailors in one of South Korea’s worst naval tragedies.


A torpedo part recovered from the Yellow Sea in the area in which the South Korean ship, the Cheonan, sank

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 131533.ece

[Andrew D]

Maybe it was a colossal fuck up and someone got trigger happy without having authorization from the man upstairs.

Thus far, that's looking to me like the best explanation.

[Rick]

Strangely, they don’t mention that the damage done to the ship is consistent with a torpedo strike.

Torpedos nolonger actually STRIKE a ship.

They explode underneath them.

The 2 halves...

[dales]

Let South Korea settle it.

(in hindsight, Gen. Mac Arthur was right and so was Gen. Patton!)

[rubato]

Just send a few US ships and subs to the area and sink every POS N. Korean garbage they float or submerge for a few months.

Out level of technical ability is so much better than theirs it should be no contest.

yrs,
rubato

[dales]

Why risk US lives?

The ROK is perfectly able to launch any retaliatory action needed against the North.

During our involvement in VietNam....the VC was scared sh-tless of the ROK soldiers.

The ROK troops took no prisoners and their interogation methods made ours look like a walk in the park.

[Gob]

Surely any intervention here should be international.

[rubato]

Ok, you guys can come along and help us sink all their shit for a month or two.

We have so many, and such effective, 'standoff' weapons that it is not likely that we would have to put any servicemen or women in harms way to do it.

yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

Why thanks, you're too kind.

[rubato]

Anything for our little friends.

yrs,
rubato

[Jarlaxle]

The NK's still have the Pueblo, right? If so...hmm, a couple of Tomahawks (or MOABs) on it might send a hell of a message.

[loCAtek]

NK sure does seem itching to go war with somebody, anybody.

They throw missiles at Japan every once in a while, just to see if they can hit a fishing boat.

[Gob]

South Korea has suspended trade with the North and demanded an apology, after a report blamed Pyongyang for sinking a Southern warship.

President Lee Myung-bak said those who carried out the attack on the Cheonan, which killed 46 sailors, must be punished.

He also announced that Northern ships would be banned from Southern waters.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged China to co-operate with the US on North Korea.

Mrs Clinton told a US-China summit in Beijing that Pyongyang must be held to account for the attack on the Cheonan.

China is North Korea's sole ally and has remained silent on the Cheonan incident.

In a strongly worded televised address, Mr Lee said that the South was forgetting that it shared a border "with one of the most war-mongering nations on Earth".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_p ... 144059.stm

On the sixth day of Hate Week, after the processions, the speeches, the shouting, the singing, the banners, the posters, the films, the waxworks, the rolling of drums and squealing of trumpets, the tramp of marching feet, the grinding of the caterpillars of tanks, the roar of massed planes, the booming of guns - after six days of this, when the great orgasm was quivering to its climax and the general hatred of Eurasia had boiled up into such delirium that if the crowd could have got their hands on the 2,000 Eurasian war-criminals who were to be publicly hanged on the last day of the proceedings, they would unquestionably have torn them to pieces - at just this moment it had been announced that Oceania was not after all at war with Eurasia. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Eurasia was an ally.