Free Republic

Japan and the United States reaffirmed Thursday that, together with South Korea, they will respond in a united manner to North Korea based on the findings of the probe being conducted into the unexplained sinking of a South Korean warship, Japanese officials said. The decision was made in a meeting between Akitaka Saiki, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and U.S. special envoy to North Korea Stephen Bosworth. They met at a time when suspicion is growing that the March 26 sinking in the Yellow Sea, which killed 46 crew members, might have been the...

The South Korean Navy fired warning shots Saturday night after two North Korean patrol boats crossed into South Korean waters, state media said. The two North Korean patrol boats separately crossed a maritime border in the Yellow Sea. One retreated after receiving a warning communication from the South Korean Navy, and the other retreated after two rounds of warning shots were fired, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff told the state-run Yonhap news agency. Tensions between the two nations have run high since the mysterious sinking of a South Korean warship in the border area on March 26. Fifty-eight men escaped...

They seemed to have it in the bag. With the sinking of a South Korean warship, North Korea had again become public enemy No. 1. Polls revealed overall support for how South Korean President Lee Myung-bak had handled the crisis, and high voting rates among older conservatives meant this group were set to tip the balance in favour of his Grand National Party. But after a sleepless night on Wednesday during which votes from South Korea’s local elections were being counted, the GNP went to bed Thursday distraught and confused after taking a surprising beating by rival Democratic Party candidates...

Military authorities on Tuesday revealed video footage showing the moment the Navy corvette Cheonan sank in the West Sea last Friday. The one-minute-20-second clip was filmed by a marine stationed on nearby Baeknyeong Island using a thermal observation device. This makes it possible to observe objects at night by detecting temperature differences. The clip shows the moment the bow of the Cheonan started to sink with the stern already broken off three minutes after an explosion broke the ship in two on March 26 and a naval fleet of high-speed boats approached the sinking ship at 9:56 p.m. In the...