Posted on 03/26/2010 3:29:43 PM PDT by traumer
A massive rescue operation was underway this evening to save the crew of a South Korean navy ship feared to have been hit by a North Korean torpedo.
Several of the 104 crew were reported to have been killed and others are missing from the ship which sunk in waters near Baengnyeong island, close to the disputed maritime border between the two Koreas.
South Korea's president President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency meeting of security ministers amid concerns the incident could become the flashpoint to draw the countries closer to renewed conflict.
A South Korean ship is said to have fired in apparent retaliation at a vessel in the north but there were no details of whether it was hit.
Officials in the South Korean capital Seoul reported 59 people had been rescued from the unidentified 1,500-tonne naval vessel which was said to have begun to sink after an explosion at the rear.
The ship was on a routine patrolling mission when it was rocked by an explosion believed to have been caused by a torpedo strike, possibly fired from a submarine.
'The cause is not certain and an investigation is underway - our priority is the rescue operation,' a South Korean official said last night.
Six naval ships and two coast guard vessels were rushed to the waters to try to save the crew, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported. Rescue helicopters and ambulances also sped to the scene.
Police in Seoul were placed on heightened alert in case of attack.
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I remember hearing the ship fired on something.
Correct
VP Biden, “This is a big fookn deal!”
Do we really know if this South Korean boat was torpedoed?
All the articles I read earlier seemed to indicate it just exploded. In fact, in an article I saw earlier someone said there was suddenly just a big hole in the bottom. It seemed as if the South Korean’s really didn’t know what happened. I’ve seen speculation that it could have been a mine, or ordinance going off on board, etc.
Just think of the fertile field for illustrations and satire.....the King of Clubbing Obama, the JackAce Biden, the Red Queen Nancy, the Four of Farts Rangel.......then we have the cabinet and the czars and the committee chairmen....and the media (the Ten of Tingles Chrissie....)
Oh what fun to play gin with this deck poolside this summer.
Leni
I saved that image, named it “dangling testicles”
That ship’s seen some rough seas, look how the hull’s been hammered to the ribs. Wouldn’t take much to punch through that waterline.
S Korea has a good thing going. Hyundai and KIA are making the country a fortune here in the US. Money is rolling into the country. Half the families of kids in Queens I’ve taught in the last ten years have returned ti the homeland, and we hardly ever get a Korean kid now. The folks in the offices in Seoul are not going to screw that up with a war that would devastate their country and return it to 1950. They’ll put up with almost anything to prevent that from happening. What’s a corvette and its crew when measured against war? Seoul will call this crew error and move on.Besides they also know who the POTUS is.
LMAO~!
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