Navies of 2 Koreas exchange fire near border

By HYUNG-JIN KIM, Associated Press Writer Hyung-jin Kim, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 19 mins ago

SEOUL, South Korea – A badly damaged North Korean patrol ship retreated in flames Tuesday after a skirmish with a South Korean naval vessel along their disputed western coast, the first such clash in seven years, South Korean officials said.

There were no South Korean casualties, the country's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, and it was not immediately clear if there were any casualties on the North Korean side. Each side blamed the other for violating the sea border.

The exchange of fire occurred as U.S. officials said President Barack Obama has decided to send a special envoy to Pyongyang for rare direct talks on the communist country's nuclear weapons program. No date has been set but it would be the first one-on-one talks since Obama took office in January. Obama is due in Seoul next week.

"It's a regrettable incident," South Korean Commodore Lee Ki-sik told reporters in Seoul. "We are sternly protesting to North Korea and urging it to prevent the recurrence of similar incidents."

North Korea's military issued a statement blaming South Korea for the "grave armed provocation," saying its ships crossed into North Korean territory.

The North claimed that a group of South Korean warships opened fire but fled after the North's patrol boat dealt "a prompt retaliatory blow." The statement, carried on the official Korean Central News Agency, said the South should apologize.

President Lee Myung-bak, who convened an emergency security meeting, ordered the South's defense minister to strengthen military readiness.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that a North Korean patrol boat crossed the disputed western sea border about 11:27 a.m. (0227 GMT), drawing warning shots from a South Korean navy vessel. The North Korean boat then opened fire and the South's ship returned fire before the North's vessel sailed back toward its waters, the statement said.

The clash occurred near the South-held island of Daecheong, about 120 nautical miles (220 kilometers) off the port city of Incheon, west of Seoul, the statement said.

The North Korean ship was seriously damaged in the skirmish, a Joint Chiefs of Staff officer said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy. Prime Minister Chung Un-chan told lawmakers the ship was on fire when it fled north.

Lee, the commodore, said the shooting lasted for about two minutes, during which the North Korean ship fired about 50 rounds at the South Korean vessel, about two miles (3.2 kilometers) away. He said the South Korean ship was lightly damaged.

Lee said several Chinese fishing boats were operating in the area at the time of clash, but they were undamaged. Chung, the prime minister, described the clash as "accidental," telling lawmakers that two North Korean ships crossed into South Korean waters in an attempt to clamp down on Chinese fishing.

Lee, however, said the South Korean military was investigating if the North's alleged violation was deliberate.

The Koreas regularly accuse each other of straying into their respective territories. South Korea's military said that North Korean ships violated the sea border on 22 occasions this year.

The two sides have fought deadly skirmishes along the western sea border in 1999 and 2002.

No South Korean sailors were killed in 1999, but six South Korean sailors died in 2002, according to the South Korean navy. It said exact North Korean causalities remain unclear.

Baek Seung-joo, a North Korea expert at Seoul's state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said the clash would not have a big impact on inter-Korean relations.

He said the Koreas held a landmark summit in 2000 and the North sent a cheering squad to the South for the Asian Games in 2002. Both events took place after the separate clashes in 1999 and 2002.

"It was an intentional provocation by North Korea," Baek said, noting that Pyongyang appears to want to create tensions and use them for domestic political consumption.

The two Koreas have yet to agree on their sea border more than 50 years after the end of their 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice and not a permanent peace treaty. Instead, they rely on a line that the then-commander of U.N. forces, which fought for the South, drew unilaterally at the end of the conflict.

North Korea last month accused South Korean warships of broaching its territory in waters off the west coast and warned of a clash in the zone, which is a rich crab fishing area.

The latest conflict comes after North Korea has reached out to Seoul and Washington following months of tension over its nuclear and missile programs.

con.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091110/ap_ ... aval_clash

I was just getting ready to post this too, Rutsie. Great catch! See below for a bit more info.

Navies of two Koreas in brief clash
Patrol vessel from North strayed into waters claimed by South, Seoul says
Reuters
updated 2:38 a.m. CT, Tues., Nov . 10, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea - North and South Korea's navies clashed briefly in the Yellow Sea on Tuesday, just ahead of a visit to Asia this week by U.S. President Barack Obama, in an incident that left a northern vessel damaged.

North Korea has a habit of increasing tension prior to major regional events and has been seeking direct talks with the Obama administration while riling global powers by last week saying it had produced more arms-grade plutonium.

The United States will announce in the next several days whether it will start direct talks with North Korea amid signs Pyongyang may be ready to return to broader nuclear disarmament negotiations, a U.S. official said on Monday.

"North Korea is taking this aggressive stance to show they're not backing down on their security," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the South's University of North Korean Studies.

The North's saber rattling is often seen by analysts as a bargaining ploy to increase its leverage in negotiations.

'Warning shots'
The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that a North Korean patrol vessel went about 0.7 miles into waters claimed by the South.

"We fired warning shots according to protocol and the North Korean patrol ship fired directly at our vessel," it said in a statement. The North Korean vessel than went back across the sea border and there were no reported casualties, it said.

A South Korean naval source told Yonhap news agency: "It is our initial assessment that the North Korean boat suffered considerable damage."

The two Koreas have fought two deadly naval battles in the past decade in the Yellow Sea waters near the contested sea border called the Northern Limit Line.

The NLL was set unilaterally by U.S-led U.N. forces at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, but the North has said it sees the border as invalid.

The South Korean won briefly retreated on the news. There was no noticeable impact on bonds while foreign investors kept up their buying spree of local equities.

"We will have to see what the incident means and how it came, but it's unlikely to have a lasting impact," said Choi Chang-ho, a market analyst at Shinhan Investment Corp.

Investors have grown used to the North's saber rattling, but incidents such as this sour the mood and remind market players of the security threat North Korea poses to North Asia, which is responsible for one-sixth of the global economy.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33815768/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

North Korea Warns South After Naval Clash


By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: November 11, 2009

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said Thursday that South Korea would pay a “dear price” for the naval clash on Tuesday that was the most serious between the countries in seven years, while South Korea sent additional warships near the site of the confrontation in a disputed sea border.

“We do not want confrontation or tension, but we will never tolerate the aggressors’ brazen violation of our sacred territorial waters,” North Korea’s state-run newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, said in a commentary carried by the official news agency, K.C.N.A.

“The warmongers who like to play with fire will surely pay a dear price,” it added.

The deployment by the South came as its defense minister, Kim Tae-young, told lawmakers that President Lee Myung-bak was concerned about the possibility of retaliation by North Korea. After the two-minute clash on Tuesday, a North Korean patrol boat was engulfed in flames and smoke, while a South Korean naval vessel was only lightly damaged, South Korean officials said.

Despite the growing tensions, the United States said earlier this week that President Obama had decided to accept a North Korean invitation to send an envoy to North Korea to try to resolve disputes over the country’s nuclear weapons program. Analysts here said that with Mr. Obama scheduled to visit the region later this week, the North Koreans might have intended to use the skirmish to strengthen their negotiating leverage.

The clash “does not in any way affect our decision” to send the American envoy, Stephen Bosworth, to North Korea, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Singapore on Wednesday. “We think it is an important step that stands on its own.”

Mr. Bosworth’s trip would represent the beginning of bilateral talks, a format that North Korea has coveted, and would be the Obama administration’s first direct dialogue with North Korea. Among Mr. Bosworth’s goals will be bringing the North Koreans back to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, which the North quit earlier this year, American officials said.

South Korea sent additional naval ships near the disputed waters off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday to deter any North Korean provocations, said a South Korean official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss military operations with the news media.

He declined to discuss details of the deployment, but the Yonhap news agency, citing an unidentified military source, said that two additional warships and a destroyer had been sent.

South Korea has placed its 680,000-member military on heightened alert but has detected no unusual North Korean troop movements along the border, according to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff.

con.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/world ... .html?_r=1

Official: Thais detain plane with weapons from North Korea

Bangkok, Thailand (CNN) -- Thai authorities seized a cargo aircraft carrying tons of weapons from North Korea during a refueling stop in Bangkok, a government official said.

The pilot told Thai authorities the aircraft was headed to Sri Lanka, but its final destination was unknown, according to Panitan Wattanayagorn, a spokesman for the Thai prime minister.

It contained about 35 tons of weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, shoulder-launched rockets and tubes that may be missile components, the spokesman said.

The plane, which was detained Saturday, had five people onboard -- four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus. They will appear in court Monday on charges related to illegal weapons smuggling, the spokesman said.

Thai government officials acted after working with several intelligence agencies for several weeks, the spokesman said. The cargo was taken to a military base while the plane, which is registered in Georgia, remains at Don Muang.

Sri Lanka officials said there were no shipments scheduled in the country either by air or sea from North Korea.

"We have asked the Sri Lanka embassy in Bangkok to obtain details from the Thai authorities," the ministry said. "We will have more information on the progress of their investigation later on Sunday."

Such an aircraft could not have landed in any of Sri Lanka's airports without prior authorization, officials in Colombo said.

Last year, two arm dealers were arrested in Thailand. The men's arrest came after a series of events that involved law enforcement agencies from at least five countries, including two undercover agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Viktor Bout and his associate, Andrew Smulian, made millions of dollars delivering weapons and ammunition to warlords and militants, officials said.

Bout is accused of supplying weapons to war zones around the world -- from Sierra Leone to Afghanistan. He has repeatedly said he has not broken any laws and the allegations against him are lies

A Thai court rejected a U.S. extradition request for Bout in August.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/13/thai.plane.nkorea/index.html

Monday December 14, 2009
Georgian Aircraft Delivering North Korean Weapons to Iran (or Africa, or Sri Lanka)

The story of the Georgia-registered aircraft halted in Thailand with 35 tons of North Korean weapons bound for Iran (or perhaps Africa or Sri Lanka) show what a true globalized structure is.

The Thais stopped the aircraft because U.S. intelligence warned them of the North Korean weapons on board, listed in the cargo manifest as oil drilling equipment. North Korea, although under an international ban on exporting weapons, makes an estimated $1 billion a year from the industry, attracting the least savory of the world's characters as clients.

Why the plane landed in Thailand is not entirely clear, nor is the final destination of the weapons. Iran buys North Korean weapons, largely for the Quds Force, Hezbollah and Hamas. These are terrorist organizations. Pakistan likewise has shown a fondness for the illegal purchases in the past, and much of that has gone to terrorist organizations. West Africa could also have been on the route.

The weapons included sophisticated rocket propelled grenade launchers and what experts said were K-100 rockets, known as AWAC killers because of their lethal use against the Airborne Warning and Control Systems aircraft, used as a flying radar stations.

The five crewmen arrested will, of course, share space in the Thai prison with Viktor Bout, who has also busted in Thailand trying to sell some of the same types of sophisticate weapons to people he believed represented the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). An appeals court decision on Bout's extradition to the United States is expected in February. A lower court ruled he could not be extradited for his alleged crimes.

Another interesting aspect of the case is that the IL-76, although registered in the republic of Georgia, was registered to company, Air West, that has long been affiliated with Bout network in Sudan. If the companies in Georgia and Sudan are related it would be an interesting view of how the Bout empire has morphed since he was arrested in March 2008.

Another interesting facet is that the pilot of the IL-76 used almost the exact same language Bout has used to defend his actions of flying illegal cargo by saying he did not not what was in the boxes (although pictures clearly show the missiles stick out from under a tarp).

“I have no interest in what I carry,” the pilot said. “Like a truck driver: just keep driving.”

But the most interesting thing is that shadow facilitators are still active facilitating the sale of weapons from a rogue state to terrorists. While this flight was caught, it takes little imagination to see how nuclear material or even more sophisticated weapons could fly into the wild blue yonder with no one the wiser.

Why is it so easy? In part because once a state controls the levers of criminality, there is guaranteed impunity. Hence my argument of some time now that criminal states (those like North Korea, Zimbabwe and Venezuela, which all depend on criminal proceeds to stay in power) are a bigger threat - or at least a big a threat as failed states or ungoverned spaces.

A state like North Korea can control the entry and exit points of the national territory, guaranteeing the aircraft can come and go as necessary, and that the illegal merchandise is loaded with no hassle. It can provide fake End User Certificates, false bills of lading and a host of other advantages.

We have had recent cases where Venezuelan ships were carrying illicit cargo for Iran, Hezbollah operatives siphoning drugs from Colombian cartels to Lebanon and Russian organized crime helping to launder FARC cash.

This is the true state of the world we live in. While there is a great deal of discussion of failed states or ungoverned spaces, in truth almost every space is governed by someone, even if it is not the state. Criminal states, not counted among the failing states, are growing and are a clear menace to the rest of the world community. Because there is no consensus on what a criminal state is (and Russia is dangerously close to becoming one), there is no international mechanism for doing anything about them except for the occasional and generally unenforced U.N. sanctions.

The case shows, perhaps (no ruling has yet been made) that the sanctions can have some teeth. But it is a needle in a haystack game, and one cannot always find state-protected needles.

POSTED BY DOUGLAS FARAH

http://www.douglasfarah.com/article/518/georgian-aircraft-delivering-north-korean-weapons-to-iran-or-africa-or-sri-lanka.com

North Korea may be readying missile tests
Published: Jan. 26, 2010 at 9:38 AM

By LEE JONG-HEON, UPI Correspondent

Share SEOUL, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- North Korea's military declared a no-sail zone off its west coast, including waters around South Korea's border islands, in an indication that it is ready to fire missiles into the South's territorial waters.

The North's navy warned ships from sailing in designated waters along the maritime border, a move that preceded previous missile test-launches, defense officials in Seoul said Tuesday. The warning went into effect Monday and it to last until March 29.

The no-navigation zone covers an area 2.5 miles south of the Northern Limit Line, an inter-Korean maritime border demarcated by the United Nations after the 1950-53 Korean War. The zone is close to islands that belong to South Korea.

It is the first time that the North's no-sail zone included the South's waters, a move apparently aimed at boosting its territorial sovereignty.

"North Korea declared a shipping ban in the sea south of the NLL. The South Korean military is closely examining whether the move is part of the North's winter military exercise or related to its preparation to test-launch short-range missiles," a military official said.

"We are fully ready to defend the maritime demarcation line and will act sternly in case of North Korean provocations. No particular move from the North has been detected yet."

The poorly marked western sea border has long been a source of conflict between the two Koreas, as the North does not recognize the NLL border. The North insists on its own maritime border, far south of the NLL, which includes the South's five border islands.

The territorial contest triggered armed clashes in 1999 and 2002, when the two Koreas traded naval gunfire that left dozens of casualties on both sides.

A third naval skirmish took place last November when a warship from the North intruded into the South's waters. The 2-minute exchange of gunfire left the North's boat badly damaged, with no casualties on the South's side. Military analysts warned that the North, humiliated by the defeat, could stage a retaliatory attack against the South.

Last month North Korea threatened to fire shells into waters around South Korea's border islands, declaring waters along its disputed sea border a "firing zone" and warning ships from the South to stay away from the area.

Cho Sung-yurl, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul, said the North could attempt to occupy the South's border island of Baekryeong, which has a population of 4,500.

"The North could attempt to occupy the border island and then threaten to use its nuclear weapons to deter the South's countermeasures," he said.

Last week the North's military threatened to stage a "sacred retaliatory battle" against the South in response to Seoul's reported contingency plan to handle a potential regime collapse in Pyongyang. In a show of its readiness to translate the threat into real military action, the North conducted a joint drill by the army, navy and air force under direct guidance of its leader Kim Jong Il.

On Sunday, the North again threatened the South, saying it would take "prompt and decisive" military action against any South Korean attempt to violate the North's "dignity and sovereignty," and would blow up major targets in the South.

"Our revolutionary armed forces will regard the scenario for 'pre-emptive strike,' which the South Korean puppet authorities adopted as a 'state policy,' as an open declaration of war," the General Staff of the Korean People's Army said in a statement.

The warning came in response to South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young's remarks that the South should launch a pre-emptive strike on the North if there was a clear indication the country was preparing a nuclear attack.

Military sources in Seoul said the North's series of tension-raising moves along the sea border are aimed at reminding the United States that the Korean Peninsula is technically in a state of war, as the 1950-53 armed conflict ended without a peace treaty, in a bid to back its longstanding demand of a peace treaty with Washington.

U.S.-led U.N. forces rescued South Korea, which was almost occupied by the North's surprise invasion on June 25, 1950. The war ended in July 1953, as the U.S.-led U.N. Command signed an armistice agreement with North Korea and China, whose 1 million troops supported North Korea.

Earlier this month, the North proposed talks for a formal peace treaty with the United States, saying a peace pact is "essential" to build confidence between the two sides and achieve denuclearization on the peninsula.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2010/01/26/North-Korea-may-be-readying-missile-tests/UPI-31171264516708/

The world better be prepared for what they might find if they peel back the N. Korea curtain.

Koreas exchange fire near sea border, markets drop
Wed Jan 27, 2010 2:08am GMT

SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korea on Wednesday exchanged what appeared to be artillery fire near a disputed sea border with the South off the west coast of the peninsula, Yonhap news agency reported government officials as saying.

South Korea's presidential Blue House said both sides were firing into the air and there were no casualties, according to Yonhap. It has called a meeting of top national security officials.

The rare exchange of fire rattled markets, with Seoul's main stock exchange extending losses and the won wiping out early gains against the dollar.

North Korea on Tuesday declared a no-sail zone in the Yellow Sea waters in a sign that it might fire artillery or short-range missiles, media reports said.

South Korea's office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff could not immediately confirm the reports.

The area is near a contested sea border between the rival Koreas that was the site of a brief naval clash in November between the states, which are technically still at war.

A South Korean ship was pockmarked with bullet holes and a North Korean vessel limped back to port in flames after that fire fight.

About a month before that clash, North Korea raised regional security concerns by firing short-range missiles off its east coast.

Destitute North Korea in recent weeks has signalled that it is ready to reduce the security threat it poses in North Asia by saying it could end its year-long boycott of international nuclear disarmament talks. Continued...

http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE60Q0B720100127

i don't know if this warrants its own thread yet...but this could get interesting....


EU: Somali pirates hijack North Korean cargo ship
By KATHARINE HOURELD
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 3, 2010; 10:28 AM

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Somali pirates hijacked a North Korean cargo ship on Wednesday with an unknown number of crew on board, the European Union Naval Force said.

The MV Rim was seized in the Gulf of Aden, outside the internationally recommended transit corridor patrolled by the anti-piracy naval coalition, said Cmdr. Anders Kallin of the EU Naval Force.

The MV Rim has not had any communication with maritime authorities, but Kallin said an American warship, the USS Porter, and a helicopter from American warship USS Farragut confirmed the seizure of the ship to the EU.

The 4,800-ton ship is owned by White Sea Shipping of Libya. It is carrying unknown cargo and the number and nationalities of the crew are not known. The seized ship was heading toward the Somali coast and warships were monitoring the situation, the EU Naval Force said.

The MV Rim is the third ship seized by Somali pirates this year. Its crew will join more than 180 sailors being held hostage along the Somali coast.

Most Somalis are impoverished and many have suffered from almost two decades of fighting. The anarchic Horn of Africa nation is the perfect pirate base because the weak U.N.-backed government is too busy fighting an Islamist insurgency to patrol its shores or go after pirates on land.

The multimillion dollar ransoms that pirates command are one of the few remaining ways for Somalis to make money. Experts say the problems will only get worse unless the security situation on land improves.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01125.html?

North Korea refuses to abandon nukes

(CNN) -- North Korea vowed Friday not to dismantle its nuclear program -- not even in exchange for economic aid -- as long as the United States continues a "hostile policy."

"It was none other than the U.S. that pushed [North Korea] to acquiring nuclear deterrence and it is, therefore, wholly to blame for the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula," the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

North Korea will never abandon its nuclear program, "even if the earth is broken to pieces unless the hostile policy towards [North Korea] is rolled back and the nuclear threat to it removed," the agency said.

The United States believes that North Korea has enough weapons-grade plutonium to build a half dozen nuclear bombs.

The reclusive Communist nation last year cut off six-party talks involving the United States, China, South Korea, Japan and Russia, in anger over international criticism of its nuclear and missile tests.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton previously said the United States was willing to meet bilaterally with North Korea but only within the framework of the six-party talks. She also has warned that the United States will not normalize ties with Pyongyang or lift sanctions unless North Korea takes irreversible steps toward dismantling its nuclear program.

North Korea has made it clear it is no rush to resume the stalled talks aimed at persuading the country to give up its nuclear weapons arsenal, according to Lynn Pascoe, the U.N. envoy to the country.

Speaking after a recent visit to Pyongyang, Pascoe said he and North Korean officials had "a frank and open discussion back and forth on a variety of issues." But, he said, "They are not eager to return to the six-party talks."

Pascoe said the North Koreans said they do not like the United Nations sanctions slapped on their nation.

Observers have said that the North Korea's dire economic conditions, including a severe food shortage, could bring it back to the bargaining table.

But North Korea said Friday that it feels no obligation to barter based on food, fuel or funding.

"Those who talk about an economic reward in return for the dismantlement of its nuclear weapons would be well advised to awake from their daydream," KCNA said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/02/19/north.korea.nuclear/index.html?hpt=T2

N. Korea vows 'nuclear strikes' in latest threat
updated 10:48 p.m. CT, Thurs., March. 25, 2010

SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea's military warned South Korea and the United States on Friday of "unprecedented nuclear strikes" over a report the two countries plan to prepare for possible instability in the totalitarian country.

The North routinely issues such warnings and officials in Seoul and Washington react calmly. Diplomats in South Korea and the U.S. instead have repeatedly called on Pyongyang to return to international negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear programs.

"Those who seek to bring down the system in the (North), whether they play a main role or a passive role, will fall victim to the unprecedented nuclear strikes of the invincible army," North Korea's military said in comments carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

The North, believed have enough weaponized plutonium for at least half a dozen atomic bombs, conducted its second atomic test last year, drawing tighter U.N. sanctions.

Experts from South Korea, the U.S. and China will meet in China next month to share information on North Korea, assess possible contingencies in the country, and consider ways to cooperate in case of an emergency situation, South Korea's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper reported earlier this month, citing unidentified sources in Seoul and Beijing. The experts will also hold follow-up meetings in Seoul in June and in Honolulu in July, it said.

The North Korean statement Friday specifically referred to the March 19 newspaper report.

A spokeswoman said the South Korean Defense Ministry had no information.

Military operations plan
South Korean media have reported that Seoul has drawn up a military operations plan with the United States to cope with possible emergencies in the North. The North says the U.S. plots to topple its regime, a claim Washington has consistently denied.

Last month, the North also threatened a "powerful — even nuclear — attack," if the U.S. and South Korea went ahead with annual military drills. There was no military provocation from North Korea during the exercises.

China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the U.S. have been trying to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons in six party talks. The North quit the negotiations last year.

The fate of the North's nuclear weapons has taken on added urgency since late 2008 as concerns over the health of leader Kim Jong Il have intensified.

Kim, who suffered an apparent stroke in 2008, may die within three years, South Korean media have reported. His death is thought to have the potential to trigger instability and a power struggle in the North.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36046278/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

South Korean navy ship 'sinking near North'
Map

A South Korean navy ship with about 100 personnel on board is sinking off the west coast near North Korea, possibly due to a torpedo attack, reports say.

The ship was sinking near Baengnyeong island, Yonhap news agency quoted navy officials as saying.

It also said the South Korean ship had fired shots toward an unidentified ship from the North.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, but a rescue operation was said to be under way, Yonhap reported.

The incident happened late on Friday night local time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8589507.stm

I just saw this, too, Rutsie. Not good - not good at all!

Some more info from The Korea Herald:

Navy ship sinking in West Sea after explosion

A Navy patrol boat with 104 crew members on board was sinking in the waters near the western maritime border with North Korea after an explosion, officials said Friday.

The 1,200-ton Cheonan began to sink around 9:30 p.m. off Baengnyeong Island in the West Sea. There was an explosion in the rear of the ship, sources said.

President Lee Myung-bak called an emergency security ministers’ meeting at 10 p.m.

Twenty-four sailors had been rescued so far, officials said.

The disputed border was the scene of deadly naval clashes in 1999 and 2002.

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2010/03/26/201003260083.asp

Report: South Korean navy ship sinks
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- A South Korean navy ship sank in the Yellow Sea near North Korea early Saturday, and the navy shot at an unidentified ship toward the north, according to reports quoting South Korean government officials.

Yonhap News Agency quoted Navy officials saying Friday that a ship carrying 104 crew members sank off the Seoul-controlled island of Baengnyeong in a flashpoint maritime border area between the Koreas.

The 1,500-ton ship Cheonan went down at 9:45 p.m. Friday near the island, but the cause of the incident was not immediately known, the officials said.

A rescue operation was under way. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but some sort of explosion occurred in the rear of the ship, officials told Yonhap.

The South Korean government issued a statement saying the reason for the incident remains unclear, but it wasn't ruling out some sort of military engagement.

Yonhap quoted naval officials as saying a South Korean vessel fired at a ship toward the north later.

However, South Korean government officials said it isn't certain whether North Korea was involved in the incident. Yonhap said local residents reported hearing gunfire for about 10 minutes.

As a result of the incident, South Korean government officials held an emergency meeting of ministers handling security-related matters, officials told Yonhap.

Aides to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said the first priority is rescuing crew members, and the Defense Ministry said 58 members of the crew have been saved.

South Korea's Korean Broadcasting System said Navy vessels and helicopters were rescuing crew members, some of whom reportedly jumped into the sea after the blast, the KBS report said.

The official said the Sockcho, another South Korean navy vessel patrolling nearby, fired at unidentified ships north of the area.

U.S. military officials told CNN a South Korean vessel sank.

North Korea has said recently it is bulking up its defenses in response to recent joint South Korean-S. JKorenews agency also quoted South Korean military officials saying North Korea conducted dozens of artillery firing drills Friday.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/26/south.korea.ship.sinking/index.html?hpt=T2

South Korea Cheonan warship sinking: Diver dies during rescue efforts
Strong currents frustrated rescue efforts for 46 sailors thought to be trapped on the sunken South Korea Cheonan warship, dimming their hopes for survival.

By Ben Hancock, Correspondent
posted March 30, 2010 at 9:32 am EDT

Seoul, South Korea —
Efforts to enter the hull of the sunken South Korea Cheonan warship were foiled Tuesday by strong underwater currents, dimming hope for the survival of the 46 sailors thought to be trapped inside.

Divers worked throughout the day to no avail trying to gain access to the Cheonan, a Navy corvette that was blown in two Friday night in a mysterious explosion and now sits 40 meters under water. Fifty-eight other sailors were pulled from the ship as it sank near the disputed Yellow Sea border with North Korea.

An estimate for when survivors inside the broken ship would run out of air passed Monday night, but rescuers were continuing to pump oxygen inside the vessel, hoping to extend the window.

One South Korean rescue diver died aboard a US Navy ship after having difficulty breathing, the BBC reported. A spokesman for US Forces Korea could not immediately be reached to confirm. The USNS Salvor, a salvage ship, was in the area to aid the rescue effort.

As the rescue effort entered its fifth day, politicians began to raise questions about the nation’s response to the tragedy.

A floating crane that could lift the stern of the 1,200-ton vessel, where most of the sailors are believed to be trapped, was not dispatched until Monday and likely won’t arrive at the site of the wreckage until the weekend.

Opposition skepticism
Some opposition lawmakers have suggested the presidential Blue House is withholding information about the explosion’s cause and seeking to put the case to bed. So far the government has remained cautious in making its theories public, but it recently put forth the possibility that a mine floated over from North Korea.

“Basically the opposition party is highly [discontented] with the way the Blue House is handling [the investigation],” says Jaung Hoon, a political scientist at Chung-Ang University.

Professor Jaung says the lawmakers are also frustrated with the way the Blue House has been “inconsistent” about the implications of the possibility that North Korea was behind the sinking.

Kim Tae-woo, an analyst at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, is skeptical.

“The opposition party’s attitude is always like that,” says Kim. “Usually they try to find fault with what the government is doing. But [whether the government is withholding information] is a question ordinary South Korean civilians may want to ask also.”

Dispute over North-South maritime border
After things have cooled down, Kim says, South Korea may also have reconsider its defenses along the Northern Limit Line. The sea border between North and South, drawn by the US at the end of the Korean War, is disputed by North Korea.

A momentary outburst from the victims’ families erupted yesterday after a defense official mentioned a funeral, suggesting they had given up hope. But Kim says that seems to have passed.

“What we see is silent frustration,” he adds. “The families of the victims are very tired.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2010/0330/South-Korea-Cheonan-warship-sinking-Diver-dies-during-rescue-efforts

South Korea's Lee calls for patience in Cheonan ship sinking investigation

By Ben Hancock, Correspondent
posted April 5, 2010 at 10:45 am EDT

Seoul, South Korea —
South Korea President Lee Myung-bak today called for patience in the Cheonan ship sinking investigation, days after his defense minister ratcheted tensions by saying that a torpedo likely sunk the naval warship last month near the maritime boundary with North Korea.

"I believe accuracy is more important than speed in determining the cause of this kind of disaster," said Mr. Lee in a biweekly address broadcast on radio and the Internet. "We should wait patiently, although it will be painful, as a joint investigation team from the government, military, and civilians is already looking into the case."

Lee added that the investigation "shouldn't be hasty conjecture or obscure prediction" but instead "based on stern facts and concrete evidence." The address came as a month-long session of parliament begins today, with the investigation threatening to escalate tensions with the North and sideline Lee's proposals.

Already delayed by political bickering, Lee's measures could be overshadowed by concerns over North Korea's possible involvement in the sinking of the warship, reports Reuters. On Friday, without openly pointing the finger at the North, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young cited the shape of one of the cleaved ends of the Cheonan as evidence suggesting a direct torpedo hit.

"We believe there is a likely possibility for the sinking to have been because of a torpedo, but we should look at all possibilities," Mr. Kim said during a parliamentary hearing, local media reported.

On Sunday, the North accused the South's military forces of opening fire on a land border outpost, a claim the South denied.

Rescue operation ends
Over the weekend, rescue divers found the body of a South Korean Navy sailor, one of the 46 who went missing when the 1,200-ton ship was ripped in half and sank in waters near the North Korean border on March 26.

The body of Senior Chief Petty Officer Nam Ki-hoon was the first to be found among the missing sailors. Shortly after he was proclaimed dead on Saturday, family members of the sailors requested that the dangerous rescue operation be called off.

The military has accepted the families’ request, saying it will now focus on pulling the halves of the vessel from the ocean floor to be examined – an effort estimated to take more than a week.

US forces to assist in salvage operation
On Monday, Gen. Walter Sharp, who commands US forces in South Korea, said the United States would continue to assist in the salvage operation, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Rescuers and family members had initially hoped the missing sailors might have survived on a pocket of air inside part of the sunken ship’s stern. Attempts to access the vessel last week were hindered by bad weather and strong underwater currents. One military diver died in the attempted rescue.

Also Saturday, the South Korean Coast Guard identified the body of two crew members of a fishing vessel that disappeared Friday night. The vessel, which had a crew of nine including two Indonesians, was one of several ships helping search for clues to the Cheonan's sinking.

A Cambodia-registered freighter that is suspected of crashing into the fishing vessel and causing it to sink has been detained by South Korean authorities.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pacific/2010/0405/South-Korea-s-Lee-calls-for-patience-in-Cheonan-ship-sinking-investigation

This probably should go in the Politics section since it is an Op/Ed piece. However, we've never started a thread on the Koreas there so I put it here.

Anyone wants me to move it - just let me know!

Why the U.S. Army Should Leave Korea
Joshua Stanton: After 60 Years, It's Time We Should Withdraw

Proceeding against the advice of my cardiologist, I must concede that for once, Ron Paul is actually on to something. The ground component of U.S. Forces Korea, which costs U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars a year to maintain, is an equally unaffordable political liability on the South Korean street. We should withdraw it. Every Saturday night off-post brawl is a headline in the muck-raking Korean press, for which the American soldier is inevitably blamed, and for which angry mobs perpetually demand renegotiations of the Status of Force Agreement to give Korea’s not-even-remotely-fair judicial system more jurisdiction over American soldiers.

The South Korean people do not appreciate the security our soldiers provide. The way some of them treat our soldiers ought to be a national scandal. Many off-post businesses don’t even let Americans through their front doors. The degree of anti-Americanism in South Korea is sufficient to be a significant force protection issue in the event of hostilities.

South Korea does not have our back. South Korea made much of the fact that it sent 3,000 soldiers to Iraq, where they sat behind concrete barriers in a secure Kurdish area of Iraq, protected by peshmerga, making no military contribution and taking no combat casualties. Their contribution to the effort in Afghanistan has been negligible, which is more than can be said of their contribution to the Taliban (previous President Roh Moo Hyun reportedly paid them a ransom of up to $20 million in 2007 to free South Korean hostages who took it upon themselves to charter a shiny new bus to bring Christianity to Kandahar). South Korea has been an equally unsteady ally against China.

The American security blanket has fostered a state of national adolescence by the South Korean public. Too many of them (some polls suggest most) see America as a barrier to reunification with their ethnic kindred in the North. Maybe nothing short of a North Korean attack on the South can encourage more sober thinking by South Koreans about their own security, but I suspect a greater sense of self-reliance and even vulnerability might.

During my service in Korea, as U.S. taxpayers subsidized South Korea’s defense, South Korea subsidized Kim Jong Il’s potential offense with billions of dollars in hard currency that sustained the very threat against which we were ostensibly helping to defend. South Korea never made North Korea’s disarmament a condition of this aid. Instead, that aid effectively undermined U.S. and U.N. sanctions meant to force North Korea to disarm. What does South Korea have to show for this colossal outlay now.

Because South Korea, now one the world’s wealthiest nations, expects up to 600,000 American soldiers to arrive protect it from any security contingency, successive South Korean governments actually cut their nation’s defense rather than modernizing it and building an effective independent defense. Consequently, South Korea still has a 1970-vintage force structure, designed around a 1970-vintage threat, equipped with 1970-vintage weapons.

This is partly the legacy of ten years of leftist administrations, but it’s also the legacy of military welfare that allowed South Korea to defer upgrading its equipment, building a professional volunteer army, and organizing an effective reserve force to deal with security contingencies. Worst of all, South Korea diverted billions of dollars that should have been spent on modernizing its military into regime-sustaining aid to Kim Jong Il, to be used, as far as anyone knows, for nukes, missiles, artillery, and pretty much everything but infant formula. To this day, South Korea continues to resist accepting operational control over its own forces in the event of war.

The U.S. Army presence in Korea is an anachronism, defending against the extinct threat of a conventional North Korean invasion. The far greater danger is that if Kim Jong Il assesses our current president as weak, he will choose more limited or less conventional means to strike at our soldiers and their families. Given the reported presence of Taliban operatives in Seoul, he might even plausibly deny responsibility for an attack.

Thus, while I don’t go so far as to accept the Princess Bride Doctrine (”never get involved in a land war in Asia”), I do not believe it is wise for us to have our forces within easy artillery range of Kim Jong Il, such that he may freely choose the time, place, and manner of our involvement

I offer two qualifications here. First, this is not to suggest that we unilaterally abrogate the alliance with South Korea. Our air and naval installations in Korea provide useful power-projection capability and are far more secure, ironically, than our many scattered and isolated Army posts.

I can imagine any number of contingencies for which we’d want to have the ability to move people and supplies into South Korea in a hurry.

Second, this is not to suggest that Ron Paul is not an anti-Semitic crypto-racist advocate of a thoughtlessly escapist foreign policy, and broadly speaking, an imbecile. This is just one occasion in which he inadvertently, in the fashion of a stopped clock, aligns with the correct result.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/11/opinion/main6386737.shtml

S. Korea hoists sunken warship, finds bodies
updated 5:54 a.m. CT, Thurs., April 15, 2010

SEOUL, South Korea - South Korea lifted part of a warship from the sea Thursday, nearly three weeks after it mysteriously exploded and sank with dozens of sailors trapped inside. Salvage workers found dead bodies of 12 crew members in the retrieved vessel.

Fifty-eight crew members were rescued shortly after the 1,200-ton Cheonan split into two pieces after exploding March 26 during a routine patrol near the tense border with North Korea. Fourteen bodies have been recovered so far, while 32 sailors remain unaccounted for.

Recovering the wrecked ship could help determine the cause of the blast. There has been some suspicion but no confirmation of North Korean involvement in the sinking, which occurred near the two Koreas' disputed western sea border — a scene of three bloody inter-Korean naval battles.

On Thursday, a huge naval crane hoisted the stern portion of the ship — where most of the missing sailors are believed trapped — a day after divers succeeded in tying the wreckage with chains.

Rescuers and salvage workers later boarded the stern and found 12 bodies identified as Cheonan crew, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul. Divers had previously retrieved two bodies during an underwater hunt.

'Hadn't given up our hope'
"It's very regrettable as we hadn't given up our hope until the last minute," President Lee Myung-bak said during an emergency meeting on the salvaging, according to his office. "I don't know how to console their families."

Footage by TV broadcaster SBS showed rescuers and salvage workers searching the stern after it was hoisted above the sea surface and loaded onto a barge.

The stern was to be moved aboard the barge to a naval base to investigate the cause of the explosion while the remaining two-thirds of the ship is to be salvaged as early as next week, military officials said.

No cause for the blast has been determined. South Korean officials have said they will look into all possibilities including that the ship might have been struck by a North Korean torpedo or a mine left over from the 1950-53 Korean War. The conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty, thus leaving the Koreas still technically at war.

North Korean officials have reportedly denied their country's involvement in the blast. Last week, the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper in Seoul reported that North Korea military delegates told Chinese officials during their trip to Beijing that Pyongyang was not behind the ship's explosion.

To ascertain whether North Korea was involved, authorities would have to look at the shape of broken ship parts and recover splinters of a torpedo or a sea mine and determine whether the North had such weapons, said Lee Hyun-yup, a marine engineering expert at Chungnam National University in South Korea. It could take years to find the exact cause, he said.

President Lee said the investigation must be made in a "through, scientific" manner, his office said.

The sinking was one of South Korea's worst naval disasters. In 1974, a ship sank off the southeast coast in stormy weather, killing 159 sailors and coast guard personnel. In 1967, 39 sailors were killed by North Korean artillery.

South Korea has asked the U.S., Australia, the Britain and Sweden to send experts for a joint investigation. A team of eight U.S. investigators, led by Rear Admiral Thomas J. Eccles, arrived in South Korea earlier this week, according to South Korea's Defense Ministry.

Bad weather and heavy seas have impeded efforts to locate the 44 missing crew and salvage the wreckage of the Cheonan.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36544896/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

Frist, hat tip to AC at GLP.

Second, this is the only place I can find this for now. Could be just a massive propaganda piece but ya never know, right?

'N.Korean Officer' Says North Sank the Cheonan

Choi Sung-yong

A North Korean Army officer has testified that the North Korean military attacked the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan before it sank in the West Sea on March 26, the head of a South Korean activist group claimed Monday. Choi Sung-yong of the Family Assembly Abducted to North Korea said, "It seems that the Cheonan was sunk in a premeditated North Korean operation."

Choi published a transcript of a telephone conversation with what he says is a senior North Korean Army officer.

According to the transcript, the officer says, "Thirteen commandos who left from Cape Bipagot sank the Cheonan. Many people as well as military officers already know who attacked the ship."

The officer claims the motive was revenge. "After the North lost the sea skirmish in November last year, Kim Jong-il gave an order to take revenge. He gave the order when he visited the naval fleet command in Nampo."

The officer according to the transcript claims Gens. Kim Yong-chol and U Dong-chuk traveled between Pyongyang and Nampo frequently to visit the fleet command to work out an operational plan. "Navy Commander Jong Myong-do stayed in Nampo until the mission was accomplished," he added.

Kim Yong-chol, the director of the Reconnaissance Bureau in charge of espionage operations against the South, has been consistently fingered by South Korean intelligence agents as the man behind the attack.

U Dong-chuk, the senior deputy chief of the State Security Department and a member of the National Defense Commission, and Navy Commander Jong Myong-do were promoted to full generals on Kim Il-sung's 98th birthday last Thursday. They were two of the four lieutenant generals who were promoted the same day.

Their promotions stoked suspicions here since U was promoted to a full general only a year after he was promoted to lieutenant general. Jong was promoted unexpectedly after his position became uncertain following North Korea's ignoble defeat in the sea skirmish last year.

"Some of the 13 commandos who left Cape Bipagot before they sank the Cheonan are acquaintances of mine," the alleged officer claims according to the transcript. "It seems it was such an important mission that a semi-submersible which was made originally for a crew of three was remodeled for the mission."

He claims the Cheonan's sinking lifted soldiers' morale and the 13 commandos "are being treated as heroes."

"They apparently spent a lot of time practicing camouflage by sneaking around fleet of North Korean and Chinese fishing boats operating near Baeknyeong Island," the officer says. "It seems likely that a bigger event will occur in the future given that they are operating also in the East Sea, camouflaging themselves there."

Commenting on North Korean broadcasts' denial of the North's involvement, the transcript has him saying, "It's natural for them to deny involvement, isn't it? We're tired since we've always been on emergency alert."

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/04/20/2010042000972.html

North Korea seizes South-owned resort as warship tensions grow

By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent
posted April 23, 2010 at 12:28 pm EDT

Tensions between North and South Korea escalated further on Friday, as the North confiscated five South Korean-owned hotels in a jointly operated mountain resort area. Pyongyang officials also warned that the two nations are on the brink of war after a South Korean ship mysteriously sank last month.

The seizure of the hotels represents a highly symbolic statement against pursuing peace, as the hotels were located in North Korea's Mount Kumgang. The resort area had been established so families separated by the 1950-53 war could visit one another. China’s Xinhua news agency called the tours a “longstanding but fragile symbol of peace on the Korean Peninsula.”

Officials in the communist nation accused South Korean President Lee Myung-bak of seeking out “confrontation” with it and added that cross border tours would be permanently stopped.

South Korea had suspended activity at the resort after a tourist was allegedly shot by North Korean soldiers in 2008, reports The New York Times. North Korean officials said their government was now taking control of the resorts as compensation for the resultant loss of revenues.

“This only shows that North Korea is not an entity with which one can do normal commercial deals and business,” said the South Korean government in a statement quoted in The New York Times. “We make it clear that the North Korea should be held responsible for worsening South-North Korean relations.”

It seems unlikely that tours will resume anytime soon without high-level diplomatic talks, reports The Korea Times. North Korean officials said they would expel any South Koreans who are working in the facilities, but they remain undecided whether the government will take control of the facilities or if they will be given to private tourism agencies to operate.

The decision to confiscate the resort properties is heavily linked to recent tensions between the two nations. The South has accused North Korea of involvement in sinking the Cheonan on March 26 near their maritime boundary, with the South's defense minister suggesting that a torpedo likely sunk the naval warship. The North has denied any involvement in the incident that killed 39 South Korean sailors.

This week, President Lee criticized the North's annual April 15 fireworks display to mark birthday of the late Kim Il-sung. According to the Associated Press, North Korea allegedly spent $5.4 million on fireworks on birthday celebration for the current leader's father. Given the food shortages in the North, Mr. Lee said the money would have been better spent trying to provide food the nation’s citizens.

Tit-for-tat, the North then called Lee a “traitor” for criticizing the elaborate firework display.

In addition to tensions over the sunken warship and Lee's remarks, relations were further strained April 21 when the South apprehended two North Korean agents who had reportedly entered the country to assassinate Hwang Jang-yop, a prominent North Korean who defected to the South 13 years ago.

“The situation has reached such extreme phase that it is at the crossroads of a war or peace, much less thinking of the resumption of the tour,” said a North Korean state agency in a report by Agence France-Presse.

However, in his clearest remarks yet that the South will not unilaterally resume its war with the North, President Lee on Friday said "we'll try to cooperate with the international community in taking necessary measures when the results are out," according to Yonhap news agency.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0423/North-Korea-seizes-South-owned-resort-as-warship-tensions-grow

Report: Close-range blast sank S. Korean ship

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- An explosion at close range, and not a direct hit, caused the 1,200-ton patrol ship Cheonan to sink last month, a team of South Korean military and civilian investigators has tentatively concluded.

The investigators' determination was reported Sunday by the Yonhap news agency.

"Instead of being directly hit by a torpedo or other underwater weapon, the Cheonan was affected by a strong explosion that occurred below its bottom at a close range," the news agency quoted a government official as saying.

The explanation matches one that investigators offered shortly after the ship's stern was salvaged 10 days ago.

A final result is not expected for a month, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told reporters.

He said that the most likely cause of the sinking was a "bubble jet" created by the external explosion under the ship.

A bubble jet effect occurs when an explosion goes off under a ship. The change in pressure causes a huge column of water that strikes the ship with great impact.

On Saturday, recovery crews found the body of a missing sailor in the wreckage of the ship.

The ship sunk in the Yellow Sea near the western sea border with North Korea on March 26.

Forty of Cheonan's 104 crew members have now been confirmed dead, and six more are also believed dead, though they are still listed as missing.

Fifty eight others were rescued before the vessel sank.

South Korea has not ruled out a theory that North Korea was involved.

But Seoul has avoided directly blaming North Korea, which sloughed off allegations it is responsible.

The families of the dead sailors began a five-day mourning period on Sunday.

On Thursday, the South Korean navy will hold a funeral ceremony at a naval command in Pyeongtaek, about 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Seoul.

The navy has also decided to posthumously promote the dead seamen by one rank and award them a military honor for their patriotism.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/04/25/south.korea.ship/index.html?hpt=T1

This situation is getting VERY SCARY

Seoul says North Korea sank Cheonan warship. Are sanctions next?

By Donald Kirk, Correspondent
posted May 19, 2010 at 8:47 am EDT

Seoul, South Korea —
South Korea's Foreign Minister bluntly laid responsibility for the March sinking of the Cheonan warship and the death of 46 sailors at the feet of North Korea on Wednesday.

“We have the evidence,” Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told reporters. Asked how South Korea would respond, Mr. Yu promised “very firm action” but avoided specifics.

Yu's comments came a day before the release of the results of an inquiry into the sinking of the Cheonan. But with Seoul already making it clear that North Korea fired the torpedo that sank the Cheonan the question is: What will the South do about it?

“To release the outcome of the investigation is easy,” says Kim Tae-woo, senior North Korea analyst at the Korea Institute. “What to do after that is the most difficult part.”

Seoul is now likely to seek international action, perhaps by asking for tougher sanctions on North Korea from the United Nations Security Council.

South Korean defense officials are confident they have sufficient evidence to convince skeptics who have accused the government here of rushing to judgment against the North. Defense officials say investigators discovered the propeller blade of a torpedo with a North Korean serial number on it as well as traces of an explosive used in North Korean torpedoes discovered off the west coast seven years ago.

But when it comes to options, Mr. Kim is certain of only one thing. “I would exclude the two extreme scenarios," he says. "The first is doing nothing, and the second is a tit-for-tat retaliation.”

To the United Nations
Between those unlikely extremes, he and other analysts expect that South Korea and the United States will bring the attack before the UN Security Council in a demand for tougher sanctions beyond those imposed by the UN after North Korea’s second nuclear test one year ago.

Besides urging the Security Council “to condemn the North Korean provocation... we need to tighten the sanctions in a way that will hurt North Korea,” said Shim Jae-hoon, a commentator on North-South Korean issues.

The role of China, North Korea’s primary source of economic and military aid, will be critical. “This case really puts China on the spot,” Mr. Shim said. “They have to join the sanctions. It will be very difficult for them to get out.”

How China will respond is probably the biggest question mark on the minds of analysts here.

“This is the moment for China,” says Choi Jong-kun, specialist in East Asian security at Yonsei University. “China cares about its international image. They don’t want to be perceived as a threat.”

At the same time, he said, Chinese leaders worry about “the stability of the Korean peninsula” and do not want to see unrest or an upheaval that might send hundreds of thousands of North Koreans fleeing across the Yalu and Tumen rivers into China.

The Cheonan incident likely means that six-party talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, last held in Beijing in December 2008, will not resume any time soon.

“Nobody is talking about six-party talks for the time being,” said Choi Jin-wook, senior analyst on North Korean issues at the Korean Institute of National Unification.

Cutting North Korea off
Mr. Choi and others believe South Korea may curtail imports of North Korean sand and seafood, items that it can easily obtain elsewhere, depriving North Korea of as much as $200 million in profit.

South Korea is not expected to bar small- and medium-sized companies from light industrial production in the North Korean city of Kaesong, about 40 miles north of Seoul, but could stop expansion of South Korean operations there. South Korean factories employ about 40,000 North Korean workers in an industrial zone in Kaesong, pouring $50 million a year into North Korean government coffers.

Although South Korea is not expected to respond militarily, patrols along the Northern Limit Line below which North Korean vessels are banned have increased since the sinking of the Cheonan. South Korea is also considering barring North Korean vessels from entering the straits between Jeju island and the South Korean mainland, meaning they will have to take a much longer route between their west and east coast ports.

Tensions may also increase if South Korea resumes loudspeaker broadcasts of news and propaganda into North Korea, an irritant that both sides agreed to stop during the years of attempts at North-South reconciliation.

“For more than 10 years South Korea has immersed itself in the romantic idea of the end of the Cold War,” said Shim. “This incident was glaring proof that North Korea remains essentially unchanged.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/2010/0519/Seoul-says-North-Korea-sank-Cheonan-warship.-Are-sanctions-next

North Korea Fired Torpedo That Killed 46 And Sank Cheonan, Says South Korea

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea accused North Korea on Thursday of firing a torpedo that sank a naval warship in March, killing 46 sailors in the country's worst military disaster since the Korean War.

President Lee Myung-bak vowed "stern action" for the provocation following the release of long-awaited results from a multinational investigation into the incident. North Korea, reacting swiftly, called the results a fabrication and warned that any retaliation would trigger war.

Investigators said evidence overwhelmingly proves North Korea fired a homing torpedo that caused a massive underwater blast that tore the Cheonan into two on March 26. Fifty-eight sailors were rescued from the frigid Yellow Sea waters near the Koreas' maritime border, but 46 perished.

"(We) will take resolute countermeasures against North Korea and make it admit its wrongdoings through strong international cooperation," Lee told Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in a phone conversation, the presidential office said.

The White House called the sinking an unacceptable "act of aggression" that violates international law and the truce signed in 1953.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, called the investigation results "deeply troubling," his spokesman said in a statement.

China, North Korea's traditional ally, called the sinking of the naval ship "unfortunate" but stopped short of backing Seoul. Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai refused to comment further Thursday other than reiterating long-standing Chinese comments on the need to maintain peace on the Korean peninsula.

South Korean and U.S. officials have said they are considering a variety of options, ranging from U.N. Security Council action to additional U.S. penalties.

North Korea already is chafing from international sanctions tightened last year in the wake of widely condemned nuclear and missile tests.

Story continues belowPyongyang, meanwhile, continued its steadfast denials of involvement in the sinking and said it would send its own investigators to conduct a probe, while warning that any punishment against the North would spark war.

"The all-out war to be undertaken by us will be a sacred war involving the whole nation, all the people and the whole state," a spokesman for North Korea's powerful National Defense Commission said, according to a report carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea's Kim Jong Il serves as chairman of the National Defense Commission, a position that makes him leader of the communist nation of 24 million.

The North also warned the South against any provocative acts near the Koreas' borders in the aftermath of the sinking, saying it would react with an "unlimited retaliatory blow, merciless strong physical blow."

Pyongyang, which accused Lee's government of exploiting the disaster for political gain, also urged the U.S. and Japan to "act with discretion."

"The world will clearly see what dear price the group of traitors will have to pay for the clumsy 'conspiratorial farce' and 'charade' concocted to stifle compatriots," KCNA said.

The two Koreas remain locked in a state of war and divided by the world's most heavily armed border because the conflict ended with the signing of a truce, not a peace treaty.

North Korea has waged a slew of attacks against South Korea since the war, including the 1987 downing of a South Korean passenger plane that killed all 115 people on board.

Pyongyang routinely denies the past provocations.

North Korea also disputes the maritime border drawn unilaterally by U.N. forces at the close of the Korean War, and the waters have been the site of several deadly naval clashes since 1999.

Fragments recovered from the waters where the Cheonan went down indicate that a North Korean submarine fired a torpedo, investigators said Thursday.

Pieces recovered at the sinking site "perfectly match" the schematics of the torpedo included in introductory brochures provided to foreign countries by North Korea for export purposes, chief investigator Yoon Duk-young said.

A serial number on a torpedo fragment also was consistent with markings from a North Korean torpedo that South Korea obtained years earlier, Yoon said.

"The evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a North Korean submarine," he said. "There is no other plausible explanation."

Investigators also confirmed that several small North Korean submarines and a mother ship supporting them left a North Korean naval base two to three days ago before the attack, and returned to port two to three days after the attack.

Other nations' submarines were either in or near their respective home bases at the time of the incident, Yoon said.

The joint civilian-military investigation team included experts from South Korea, the U.S., Britain, Australia and Sweden.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/1 ... 82788.html

Just a little interesting tidbit: as I was about to post, I saw that there have been 111 views of this topic.

Some headlines and snippets about the escalating crisis in the Koreas.

Clinton: Koreas security situation 'precarious'
May 24, 6:11 AM (ET)
By MATTHEW LEE

BEIJING (AP) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that North Korea's sinking of a South Korean warship has created a "highly precarious" security situation in the region and that the Obama administration is working to prevent an escalation of tension that could lead to conflict.

Speaking to reporters in Beijing shortly after the White House issued a statement offering Washington's full and unequivocal support for Seoul, Clinton said all of North Korea's neighbors, including its chief ally China, understand the seriousness of the matter and want to "contain" it.

"We are working hard to avoid an escalation of belligerence and provocation," Clinton said. "This is a highly precarious situation that the North Koreans have caused in the region." con.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100524/D9FT51NG0.html
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from "Breaking News" via Twitter:





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South Korea suspends trade with N. Korea
By the CNN Wire Staff

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak announced Monday his country is suspending trade with North Korea, closing its waters to the North's ships and adopting a newly aggressive military posture after the sinking of a South Korean warship.

snip

The White House issued a statement Monday supporting South Korea's measures, saying they were "called for and entirely appropriate."

"Specifically, we endorse President Lee's demand that North Korea immediately apologize and punish those responsible for the attack, and, most importantly, stop its belligerent and threatening behavior," the White House statement said.

"U.S. support for South Korea's defense is unequivocal, and the President has directed his military commanders to coordinate closely with their Republic of Korea counterparts to ensure readiness and to deter future aggression." con.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/0 ... index.html
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