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South Korea lifted the vessel from the sea and it was pretty conclusive a torpedo sank it, and they figure it was the North Koreans.

Why they didn;t retaliate at the time is beyond me.

We’re not talking damage here, or accidental collision, or a minor scuffle or engagement.

This vessel was deliberately sunk...destroyed wioth the loss of many sailors.

it was an overt act of war and should ahve been responded to with overwhelming force against one of their naval bases, particularly where their subs are located.

The South has more than enough naval power to have responded in higher proportion (whcih IMHO you ahve to do to deter tyrants), and yet they did not.

They are talking srtrong now, but they came off looking indecisive and weak after this happened.

I have no idea either why the South Koreans did not respond to the sinking of the ship. Maybe partly the reason is the USFK presence there. According to the January 5, 2011 Korea Herald, since July 1953 North Korea has violated the armistice 221 times, including 26 military attacks.

http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20110105000563

I believe ROK command need some sort consensus with the US/UN command since they will be taking the brunt of any North Korean attack. I think the South Koreans are tired of this and they will become more confrontational in the future.

Hi Jeff ...I think your tagline was posted in error (it seems to be a cut-off post that was pasted there by mistake). It says (quivalent of our AEGIS and they already have six of them. They need to build 16 f those. Their Ast), which I think came from the discussion thread the other day on the British Type 45 Destroyers.

As for the Koreas - I read a study that said the North has between 15,000 to 18,000 artillery pieces aimed at the South, and that it is this threat towards Seoul that is the real problem even when compared to the budding nuclear issue. Many of these artillery pieces are just over 18 miles away from Seoul. By the time enough of those artillery pieces were removed from the equation the city of Seoul would be a sea of fire, and there is still no way to negate that artillery quickly (unless one considers a heavy nuclear attack all across the artillery locations - which is obviously something that is beyond the call of any American president, Democrat or Republican, for the last 2 decades). Without the threat of the artillery barrage I believe the South would be able to smite the North pretty hard ...they have an overwhelming qualitative advantage in the air (e.g. one of the most advanced F-15 variants, the F-15K), in the sea (one of the most potent AEGIS destroyers, and the most heavily armed, in the world, the Sejong the Great class), on land (they have one of the most powerful Main Battle Tanks in the world, with the K1A1 that is a variant of the Abrams tank, and the K2 which is said to not only be the most expensive tank in the world but arguably the best once its development is finalized). They have armed forces that know their job, and thus in a war could give the North Koreans a truly tough time.

However, there are still those artillery pieces.

Until they are taken care of there will be no way the South will retaliate against the North under any circumstances apart from a full-on full-scale assault. This means, in my opinion, the only time the South will retaliate against the North is if the North actually goes ahead and uses the artillery against Seoul. It is sort of like one of those circular loops in Excel ...the South will not attack because of the artillery, and the only time the South would attack is if the artillery is used in a big scale against them.

Until then, Pyongyang can order South Korean ships (like the Cheonan) to be sunk ...with no response. Pyongyang can order South Korean towns to be shelled (like what happened when a small SK town was shelled some time back) ...no response. Until there is a way to neutralize that artillery, Pyongyang can do (almost) anything to Seoul, apart from a massive attack, and nothing will happen. As long as that artillery

"They are talking srtrong now, but they came off looking indecisive and weak after this happened. "

There's good reason why they looked "indecisive and weak" right after it happened. They were clueless as to how a sub could have gotten into the middle of their training exercise without being detected...

It took a 4-man team (that included my son) brought to SK to review the electronic systems of the planes flying patrol to find the specific problems that had been blinding the SK's for a lengthy period of time.

All of the problems were eliminated and both airborne and ground-based systems have been upgraded to state-of-the-art levels.

The SK's really are hoping the NK's try for a repeat.