S.Korean ship sinking, North attack suspected: report

[American Patriot]

Red Alert (Update): South Korean Ship Sinking


Stratfor Today » March 26, 2010 | 1532 GMT






A South Korean ship has been sunk in the vicinity of the maritime border with North Korea. While details are sketchy, initial reports suggest that some South Korean naval ships had been involved in combat with an unidentified ship in the area immediately preceding the incident. Other reports suggest that the ship was struck by a torpedo. Yet another indicates a stern explosion.


Tensions between the two Koreas have always been at least moderately high, but previous governments in the South have tended to seek a rapprochement. That warming has cooled significantly in recent months; on result has been occasional naval skirmishes.


There are three issues to keep in mind when evaluating the potential for an inter-Korean conflict. First, the South Korean army, air force and navy are far better equipped and run than the North’s, despite the North’s numerical superiority when it comes to men in uniform. Stratfor has little doubt that the South could ultimately prevail in a military conflict.


But – and this is the second issue – it would come at a massive cost. The North maintains many thousands of artillery emplacements within range of Seoul. So while the South’s military is superior by most measures, the North could quite easily decimate the South’s capital and largest city. Roughly one in four South Koreans live in Seoul.


Third, the South Koreans are not alone. Despite recent shifts in American military posture, the United States still maintains 25,000 troops in South Korea – so an inter-Korean conflict immediately escalates to a global issue.

[vector7]

Reports: South Korean naval vessel attacked

Friday, 26 March 2010 16:09

South Korea's navy has opened fire on an unidentified ship in the Yellow Sea after reports that one of its own ships was attacked.

The South Korean naval vessel with 104 people aboard is reportedly sinking in waters near North Korea amid media reports of a torpedo attack.

The 1,500-tonne vessel is reported to have gotten into difficulties near the island of Baengnyeong but the cause of the incident is unknown, the Navy stressed.

Several South Korean sailors have been killed in the incident, South Korean media reported.

A rescue operation is under way, with MBC television saying about half the crew had so far been saved.

South Korea's YTN TV network said the government was investigating whether the sinking was due to a torpedo attack by the North, and Yonhap news agency said the Seoul government had convened an emergency meeting of security-related ministers.

Yonhap also reported a South Korean navy ship firing towards an unidentified vessel to the north.

[vector7]

South Korean navy ship sunk near disputed border


South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, centre, talks with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young, second from right, during the National Security Council ministers meeting in Seoul on Friday. The Associated Press

Officials say explosion ripped hole in military boat near North Korean waters; more than 100 aboard

Cho Mee-young and Kim Miyoung

Seoul — Reuters Published on Friday, Mar. 26, 2010 11:36AM EDT Last updated on Friday, Mar. 26, 2010 12:42PM EDT

A South Korean naval ship sunk Friday after possibly being hit by a North Korean torpedo and several sailors were killed, South Korean media reported.

A South Korean warship later fired at an unidentified vessel towards the north, indicating a possible attack, and the South's presidential Blue House was holding an emergency security meeting, the Yonhap news agency said.

“The ship appears to have begun sinking after an explosion at the rear of the ship,” Yonhap quoted the South Korean Navy saying in a statement. “We have been unable to find the exact cause of the incident as of this moment.”

The incident comes as destitute North Korea is facing pressure to end its year-long boycott of international nuclear disarmament talks, where it can win aid to prop up its broken economy in exchange for reducing the security threat it poses.

The North often rattles sabres ahead of major diplomatic meetings as a way to alarm its dialogue partners in the hope that they would be more willing to make concessions.

South Korea's YTN TV network said the government was investigating whether the sinking was due to a torpedo attack.

But the network also quoted a government source saying it was unclear yet whether the incident was related to North Korea.

“We are currently focusing on rescuing people,” the source said.

The incident took place near a disputed Yellow Sea maritime border off the west coast of the peninsula that was the scene of two deadly naval fights between the rival Koreas in the past decade.

Yonhap said the 1,500-ton ship with 104 crew aboard began sinking around 9:45 p.m.

Local media reports said at least 59 South Korean sailors survived the attack and an unknown number appeared to have been killed or were missing. A rescue operation was under way.

Navies from the rival Koreas exchanged gunfire for the first time in seven years in Yellow Sea waters in November, damaging vessels on both sides.

North Korea in recent weeks has said it was bolstering its defences in response to joint South Korean-U.S. military drills that were held this month.

[vector7]

North Korea Wants to Nuke Us, So Why Is China Lending a Hand?

By Gordon G. Chang
FOXNews.com

At a crucial moment, China is throwing a lifeline to Kim Jong Il. North Korea is an increasingly fragile state. But with Beijing’s help, it will probably survive to once again threaten the United States with nuclear destruction.

Today, North Korea threatened to unleash “unprecedented nuclear strikes” on the United States and South Korea. The reason for Pyongyang’s extreme unhappiness? Washington and Seoul are making plans about what to do should the North fall apart. Kim Jong Il’s regime called the possibility of internal unrest a “pipe dream.”

It’s not. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea seems, once again, to be in terminal decline—and perhaps on the verge of collapse.

Collapsing regimes often execute their own officials for policy mistakes, and that’s what North Korea is doing now.

Pak Nam Gi, the official held responsible for last November’s botched demonetization of North Korea’s currency, was reportedly executed this month by firing squad. The finance and planning department chief of the ruling Workers’ Party paid a high price for the economic chaos and social turmoil that followed the regime’s desperate attempt to confiscate the wealth of private traders and gain control of informal markets.

Pak’s currency move was so disastrous that there are now reports of starvation deaths—even in a relatively prosperous area bordering China—and stories of malnourished beggars in the capital city of Pyongyang.

There has also been a rash of public executions for economic crimes. In December, for instance, a citizen was put to death for burning old currency to hide prior market activities. In January, a factory worker faced a firing squad for talking about the price of rice on cell phone to a South Korean.

So will the system headed by Kim Jong Il collapse soon? New reports, including one released this week from the East-West Center in Honolulu, indicate growing instability within the world’s most isolated state. The unexpected protests following last November’s currency “reforms” have persuaded analysts that the DPRK could see what is politely termed “discontinuous political change.”

And there is much to suggest a change in the form of government soon.

In Pyongyang, at the moment, there is a one-man regime headed by a sickly individual sponsoring an unpopular secession plan to take over an increasingly discontented society. North Korea, despite its weapons of mass destruction, is a weak state.

But perhaps not as weak as experts think. For all the problems plaguing the North, the Kim family regime has something even better than an ace in the hole. And what is that?

That is China. Ever since both states were formed—the Korean people’s republic in 1948 and the Chinese one in the following year—they have been allies. Mao Zedong famously said China and North Korea were “as close as lips and teeth,” but in some ways there is even less distance between the two countries today. In Mao’s time, Kim Il Sung, the DPRK’s founder, maintained independence by playing Moscow off against Beijing. Now, however, strongman Vladimir Putin is not interested in engaging in that game, and as a result, Kim Jong Il has only one sponsor.

Perhaps that’s the reason the North Korean leader made the trip to the tarmac and hugged Wen Jiabao on the Chinese premier’s arrival in Pyongyang last October. Another reason—undoubtedly more important in Mr. Kim’s mind—is that Wen came to sign commercial pacts and to dispense aid. Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, stated that the two communist states “signed a series of agreements on cooperation and announced that a new highway bridge over the Yalu River will be built.” It appears Beijing also agreed to provide financial assistance to Kim’s destitute state, perhaps as much as $200 million.

Mr. Wen’s visit to the North was ostensibly to celebrate sixty years of diplomatic ties, but his real goal was to buttress Kim’s economy. China’s trade with its communist cousin soared since Pyongyang’s first nuclear test in October 2006. For instance, commerce with the Chinese increased 41.3 percent in 2008. This spurt was instrumental in helping Pyongyang end the two-year recession of 2006 and 2007. China-North Korea trade fell off in 2009—down about 4 percent according to preliminary figures—but the agreements announced by Premier Wen in October helped put trade back on course toward the end of the year.

China is not only aiding the North Korean economy—it is also helping the North militarize the atom. Unfortunately, a growing share of the China trade is channeled through business enterprises directly controlled by the Korean People’s Army, which is expanding its grip over the economy. Therefore, the connection between China’s commercial ties with Pyongyang and its nuclear weapons program is tight. That is undoubtedly one of the reasons that led Seoul, immediately after Wen’s trip to Pyongyang, to ask Beijing for an explanation of the announced commercial pacts.

On their face, the deals appeared to violate U.N. Security Council Resolution 1874, unanimously adopted last June in the wake of the North’s second nuclear weapons test. Paragraphs 19 and 20 of the resolution forbid many, if not most, commercial contacts with Kim’s Korea.

If the October 2009 raft of agreements did not violate Resolution 1874, then later developments surely did. Two of them in particular stand out.

First, Beijing in February reportedly pledged $10 billion in investments into North Korea. Second, earlier this month the Chinese announced they would extend their lease on North Korea’s Rajin port, on the Sea of Japan, for another 10 years. The port could end up serving as a base for China’s navy. In any event, Beijing is sanctions busting, giving the North the means to continue its nuclear weapons program and forestalling the need to disarm.

At a crucial moment, China is throwing a lifeline to Kim Jong Il. North Korea is an increasingly fragile state. But with Beijing’s help, it will probably survive to once again threaten the United States with nuclear destruction.

Gordon G. Chang is the author of "The Coming Collapse of China." He writes a weekly column at Forbes.com.

Fox Forum is on Twitter. Follow us @fxnopinion.

[American Patriot]

54 rescued:

South Korean patrol boat sinks after explosion in disputed waters

12:21 PM

• • 
    

A South Korean patrol boat with 104 crew members on board is sinking near a disputed maritime border with North Korea following an explosion, The Korean Herald reports.
The newspaper, quoting unidentified sources, says 58 sailors have been rescued.


The Associated Press says South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports that South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has convened an emergency meeting of security-related ministers.


While noting that the area has been the scene of deadly naval clashes with the North Koreans in the past, the explosion in the rear of the 1,200-ton Cheonan may have been caused by the boat's own explosives.


The Herald, quoting the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, also reports that a South Korean vessel around the same time had fired warning shots toward the North at a suspicious object on radar that turned out to be a flock of birds.


The Herald says North Korean forces had conducted artillery firing drills in the area earlier.


(Posted by Doug Stanglin)

[vector7]

North Korea Warns of Nuke Attacks on U.S., South

Friday, March 26, 2010

North Korea warned today that it might launch a nuclear attack on the United States and South Korea in remarks reacting to a newspaper report that the two nations were planning their response to potential turmoil in the Stalinist state, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, March 23).

"Those who seek to bring down the system in the (North) ... will fall victim to the unprecedented nuclear strikes of the invincible army," the North Korean military said in a statement to the official Korean Central News Agency that referenced an article in last week's Dong-a Ilbo newspaper.

Such rhetoric is normal for Pyongyang, AP reported. The Stalinist state is thought to have enough plutonium to produce a minimum of 6 nuclear bombs and carried out its second nuclear test last year. However, North Korea is not believed to have yet developed the ability to mount a nuclear weapon on a long-range missile.

The Dong-a Ilbo reported that experts from China, South Korea and the United States would hold meetings in April in China to exchange intelligence on the North, examine potential scenarios that could occur there and weigh options for collaborating in the event of a crisis.

Additional meetings on the matter would be held this summer, the newspaper said.

The eading U.S. military officer on the Korean Peninsula told the U.S. House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday that the potential for a crisis in North Korea is a serious issue.

"The possibility of a sudden leadership change in the North could be destabilizing and unpredictable," Gen. Walter Sharp said (Kwang-Tae Kim, Associated Press/Yahoo!News , March 26).

U.S. Pacific Command head Adm. Robert Willard said yesterday that Beijing has increased its efforts to convince Pyongyang to stop its nuclear work, Agence France-Presse reported. China is the North's top economic benefactor and most powerful ally.

"We're convinced that the Chinese are committed to the denuclearization of North Korea," Willard said to the House Armed Services Committee.

"They have made efforts -- increasing efforts, I think -- over the past year to exert their influence over North Korea," he said.

Willard called on Pyongyang to return to stalled six-party nuclear negotiations, which also involve China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States (Agence France-Presse/Google News, March 25).

Sharp reaffirmed Wednesday that wartime command would be transferred to South Korea in 2012, the Yonhap News Agency reported
Plans for the military transfer of operational command and control of South Korean troops back to Seoul are "on track as planned and we are working hard to ensure that all conditions will be met for a smooth OPCON transition on 17 April, 2012," Sharp said.

His remarks come amid concerns over North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile capabilities. There is worry that the handing over of operational command could result in weakened defenses for South Korea, Yonhap reported.

The United States has 28,500 troops stationed in the South -- a holdover from the 1950-1953 Korean War, which only ended with an armistice agreement.

Sharp rejected the possibility of a gap in U.S-South Korea defenses.

"OPCON transition will not result in independent OPCON nor require independent self-reliant [South Korean] forces," Sharp said. "It also will not lead to a reduction of (U.S.) forces or weaken the U.S. commitment to provide reinforcement to the Korean Peninsula."

Following the transition, Washington would continue to support the national security of the South with "the full range of military capabilities" that include "extended deterrence," the general said.

Conservative South Korean lawmaker Chung Mong-joon has pressed for a postponement in the military transfer, calling it "an irresponsible decision" that he said was being pursued by Seoul "without an objective assessment of security conditions."

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young has also sharply criticized the schedule for the planned command transfer.

Should Pyongyang before 2012 develop long-range missiles that could carry nuclear weapons, it might be decided to delay the OPCON transition, U.S. security analyst Larry Niksch said in Washington (Hwang Doo-hyong, Yonhap News Agency I, March 25).

According to Sharp, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has been hard at work laying the groundwork for the eventual transfer of power to his youngest son, Yonhap reported.

"Over the past year, Kim has systematically introduced his third and youngest son, Kim Jong Un, as the heir apparent," Sharp said.

The general's remarks are the first affirmation by a U.S. official on widespread reports that Kim is preparing his youngest son to take over leadership of the communist nation (Hwang Doo-hyong, Yonhap News Agency II, March 25).

[Ryan Ruck]

Trading small arms fire across the border is one thing. Sinking a major surface combatant is another.

This definitely bears keeping a close eye on.

[American Patriot]

North Korea Korea Threatens War Over Preemptive Strike Warning

March 26, 2010 by admin



Chosun Ilbo, 26 March 2010

North Korea on Sunday slammed South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young over recent remarks that Seoul would launch a preemptive strike if there are clear signs of a planned nuclear attack by the North. “We regard the scenario for a preemptive strike as an open declaration of war against us,” the North Korean military’s General Staff said in a statement. The North will “take resolute military action and blow up major targets, including the command center” in the South, it added.


“Violent talk of a preemptive strike” by the South Korean minister “is creating an ominous situation on the Korean Peninsula where nobody knows when the disaster of the Korean War will be repeated,” the statement said.


At the same time, North Korean agencies involved in economic cooperation with South Korea continue to ask South Korean NGOs for aid. One of them, the National Economic Cooperation Federation in December asked the Seoul chapter of the evangelical charity World Vision for 300 tons of flour and 200 tons of rice.


In the past, all the North had to do was wait until the South offered aid, but with a conservative government in Seoul, North Korean organization have had to make several phone calls through offices in Dandong. One NGO staffer said Pyongyang “keeps asking what the progress is.”


A Unification Ministry official said the North has been issuing visit visas to South Korean NGOs since the beginning of this year, which would usually only be forthcoming after Kim Jong-il’s birthday on Feb. 16.


One security official said the simultaneous threats and pleas are issued depending whether the North stands to profit.


North Korea is apparently determined to hit back at anything it sees as a threat to the regime but at the same time it appears to be trying to improve inter-Korean relations if that will result in more aid. – Chosun Ilbo

[American Patriot]

Vector! Beat YA!

LOL

I posted that one already I think.

[American Patriot]

FNC live now. Meggan Kelly.

"South Korea is downplaying this incident".

"It is not clear North Korea was involved at this point, but not ruling it out at this time...."

[Ryan Ruck]

Yep, just caught that too. It is abundantly clear why SK would want to down play this. They have the most to lose if a real shooting war breaks out.

[American Patriot]

Suspected torpedo attack sinks South Korean navy ship


Published 26 March, 2010, 18:27


A South Korean navy ship with about 100 sailors on board has sunk near the border with North Korea after a suspected torpedo hit. It has also been reported that some South Korean ships opened fire toward North Korea.


South Korean media reported that many of the 104 crew of the sinking ship “Cheonan” have been killed. Only 58 men were rescued, the rest are either dead or missing. State television said the government called an urgent meeting of security ministers on Friday.


British newspapers report that the ship opened fire at an unidentified vessel nearby in a suggested retaliation.


The news broke shortly after North Korea announced it was fortifying its naval force in response to joint US-South Korean military exercises which were held in March 2010.

[American Patriot]

Yep, just caught that too. It is abundantly clear why SK would want to down play this. They have the most to lose if a real shooting war breaks out.

They have US to back them up though.

Right?

RIGHT?

[vector7]

Vector! Beat YA!

LOL

I posted that one already I think.

Yep, you got to it first...

[Malsua]

Maybe SK will light them up. 104 sailors is enough to get really pissed off about.

[American Patriot]

Did North fire torpedo on S. Korean ship?



Associated Press


SEOUL—South Korea’s military scrambled naval vessels to the western waters near the disputed maritime border with rival North Korea late Friday after an explosion ripped a hole in the bottom of a military ship, officials and news reports said.


The ship, on a routine patrolling mission with 104 crew members on board, began sinking off the coast of South Korean-controlled Baengnyeong Island close to North Korea around 9:45 a.m. EDT, an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.


South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported an explosion in the rear of the 1,200-ton ship and said the military had not ruled out the possibility of an attack by North Korea. However, the military official said the exact cause was not immediately clear and said he could not confirm the Yonhap report.


A rescue mission was under way and the military moved to strengthen its vigilance near the maritime border, the site of three bloody naval clashes in the past between the warring Koreas. The divided peninsula remains in a state of war because the three-year Korean conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.


Earlier Friday, North Korea’s military threatened “unpredictable strikes,” including a nuclear attack, in anger over a report that South Korea and the U.S. were preparing for possible instability in the totalitarian country.


After the ship began sinking, President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency meeting of security-related ministers, Yonhap said, citing presidential spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye. She said it wasn’t clear yet whether North Korea was involved in the ship’s demise.


Six naval ships and two coast guard vessels were rushed to the waters to save the crew, Yonhap said. Rescue helicopters and ambulances also sped to the scene, the military official said. By 12:30 a.m. Saturday 10:30 a.m. EDT Friday, with the ship nearly submerged, 58 of the soldiers had been rescued, the official said. There were no immediate confirmation of any casualties.


Yonhap reported earlier that a South Korean ship fired shots toward an unidentified target in the direction of North Korea. The military official confirmed that shots were fired but said the object detected by radar may have been a flock of birds.


Baeknyeong Island, four hours by boat from the port of Incheon, is the westernmost point of South Korea and is a key military post for South Korea because of its proximity to the North.

[American Patriot]

I think this will go down in history as another non-issue.

Just my take on this.

South Korea might retaliate but i they do so, it will cause escalation, something that as Ryan points out they don't want.

The North, however, WANTS them to do something to give them an excuse.

"Go ahead punk, make my day..." - and they call Americans cowboys.

[American Patriot]

South Korean Ship Sinks; Incident Under Investigation

VOA News 26 March 2010
[IMG]http://media.voanews.com/images/480*275/AP_SouthKorea_ShipMeet_27MAR10.jpg[/IMG] Photo: AP

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak (C) talks with Defense Minister Kim Tae-young (2nd R) during National Security Council ministers meeting in Seoul, 26 Mar 2010



The South Korean cabinet is meeting in emergency session, after a South Korean navy ship sank near the disputed sea border with North Korea. South Korea's Yonhap news agency is also reporting that the South Korean navy has fired at an unidentified vessel in the area.

It was not immediately clear why the South Korean ship sank, but media reports from Seoul say officials there are investigating whether the vessel was hit by a North Korean torpedo.

The South Korean navy says about half of the more than 100 sailors on board were rescued, but the others are feared dead.

The ship went down late Friday local time in disputed waters off the western coast of the Korean peninsula.


The developments follow recent warnings from North Korea that it was bolstering its defenses in response to joint U.S.-South Korean military drills this month.

[Ryan Ruck]

Per FNC, SK saying ammo explosion sank the ship.

[American Patriot]

Ammo explosion.

In the stern.

Right......