Posted on 03/27/2010 5:17:40 AM PDT by jhpigott
They are still finding unexploed bombs in Europe. IIRC, even WWI ones fairly recently (within 20 years is recent to me).
Not much new from S.K. govt officials today . . . still saying they don’t know what the cause was . . .
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After visiting the disaster site Saturday, Defense Minister Kim Tae-young told the press that the government is “yet to track down the exact cause behind the tragedy.”
“The vessel appeared to have been split into half,” he said. “But making predictions is meaningless in this situation, I believe. Please bear with us.”
The Seoul government is refraining from any comments suggesting Pyongyang’s involvement in the incident.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/nati...00900315F.HTML
some interesting snippets from another Yonhap article today - some analysts suggest that if the investigation does point the finger at N.K., the current S.K. govt is more likely to respond then the past S.K. administrations . . .
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Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, described the unexplained explosion as “an oddity in an era of sophisticated ships and communication,” raising a sea mine as a possible cause.
“Although initial media reports suggested a North Korean torpedo as the cause, that interpretation now appears to be the result of overeager reporters,” he said. “Seoul is now downplaying the likelihood of North Korean involvement in the explosion and sinking. A survivor of the sinking insists there was no onboard explosion, leading to speculation the cause was a naval mine, either South Korean or one that had drifted from the North.”
Klingner, however, would not dismiss the chance of North Korea’s involvement, pending the outcome of the ongoing investigations.
“Concerns over North Korean involvement remain, however, since the sinking occurred near the disputed maritime border which was the site of clashes in 1999, 2002 and 2009,” he said.
“Pyongyang’s return to more belligerent rhetoric was cited as cause for concern by the U.S. Pacific Command on the day before the sinking,” he added.
Some analysts in South Korea initially speculated Pyongyang’s disgruntled military leadership might have attacked the South Korean vessel to escalate tension.
“If the South Korean investigation does point the finger at Pyongyang, President Lee Myung-bak is less likely to overlook the incident than either of his more accommodating predecessors, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun,” Klingner said.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2010/03/28/56/0301000000AEN20100328001200315F.HTML
How much money you wanna bet that Obama called up somebody in the SK government and told them not to allow this “incident” to have any legs, thus “random mine” just fell out of nowhere/ After all, Kim Jung II is probably one of Barak’s pals... along with all the other murderous commie bastards.
ROTFL!
“Let me be clear” ... of unprecedented anti-ship mines floating around disputed waters!
Yes, He is setting the example... that America is now controlled by a cabal of leftist crackpots, every bit as dangerous to freedom as themselves!
I think they know damn well what caused the explosion and are going to do nothing about it because the Bozo ordered them to stand down.
Right random mine. I saw a random mine flying through the air once, I think it went through an office building window and they found it lying on the floor. Nothing worse than someone throwing mines around randomly.
Update on the Cheonan “incident” over at the Information Dissemination blog. IMO, this is sounding more, not less, like a torpedo or mine every day. If it is an accident... That’s one hell of a catastrophic failure. No fire reported, no event precursors reported, just boom? It will be interesting to see what the S.K. Defense Minister has to say . . .
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Cheonan Update
According to Korea Times, a US vessel will be joining search and rescue efforts, although at this point it’s very hard to be optimistic about finding any survivors. Efforts to determine the cause of the sinking continue:
The cause of the incident remains under investigation.
Defense Minister Kim Tae-young plans to announce interim results on the cause of the tragedy to lawmakers on the National Assembly Defense Committee, today.
Initially, the JCS said an explosion either from the outside or inside appeared to have torn a hole in the rear of the vessel, shutting off the engine and sinking the ship in less than three hours. Following a visit to the scene Saturday, however, Defense Minister Kim said a thermal observation device shows that the ill-fated vessel was split in half.
Some experts interpreted Kim’s remarks as the possibility that an outside impact - either a torpedo or a mine - might have caused the destruction.
Korea Times also has a nice graphic of the impact that various events might have had on Cheonan. Salvage and investigation are supposed to take about three weeks. The accompanying story also sheds a bit more light on the “flock of birds” sighting; apparently Cheonan began firing on radar contacts after the explosion. This would seem to be consistent with either and accident or an attack; either Cheonan saw something real (a periscope?) or the panicked crew opened fire without good contacts.
Families of the crew are unhappy:
Weeping, angry relatives of 46 crew members missing after a mysterious explosion sank a South Korean navy ship sailed around the site Sunday as rescue teams struggled to search for survivors...
Some families also vented anger at the military, accusing authorities of a cover-up and saying survivors told them the Cheonan was leaky and in need of repair. They shouted “Liars!” and jumped on a car carrying the rescued ship captain as it drove away.
My understanding is that the Republic of Korea Navy has a pretty good maintenance record; if anyone with better information has a different impression please note in comments. I’d also be a bit surprised to find that the ROKN was deploying a ship that was barely seaworthy to what is, in effect, a war zone.
Posted by Robert Farley at 9:08 AM
http://www.informationdissemination.net/2010/03/cheonan-update.html#disqus_thread
Thanks jhpigott.
The pro-Commie current gov’t of the Republic of Korea (”North Korea” otoh is an illegal regime imposed by foreign invasion) will be torn limb from limb if it continues touting this obvious lie. Thanks jhpigott.
Amazing how his incident has died on arrival in this country...
Never mind that the war is still on over there, just a little tenuous “time out” that keeps getting challenged by both sides...
If this had been a US ship...hehehe, never hear the end of it till something had decisively dissappeared north of the 38th...
At least that would be what I would expect, but then again we have a feckless CinC and not enough of us to effect a proportional response at the very least...
There has been no unusual movements by the DPRK so far,
That in itself is suspect...
I’ve never heard it called a feck before... ;’)
fickle???
;-)
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...4b_jwD9EO02OO0
NKorea accuses US, SKorea of disturbing border
(AP) – 20 minutes ago
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has warned the U.S. and South Korea of “unpredictable incidents” after it says they have been disturbing security at a buffer zone bisecting the peninsula.
The warning came amid tension raised after a South Korean military ship sank Saturday due to an unexplained explosion onboard. The ship was near the disputed sea border with North Korea.
The North’s military issued a statement Monday accusing South Korea of staging an anti-NKorea psychological warfare in the demilitarized zone and allowing journalists there.
The statement says that violates a Korean War-ending armistice and the U.S., a truce signatory, is also responsible.
It says these acts could “entail unpredictable incidents” including deaths.
Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
“If the U.S. and the South Korean authorities persist in their wrong acts to misuse the DMZ for the inter-Korean confrontation despite our warnings, these will entail unpredictable incidents including the loss of human lives,” the North’s KCNA news agency quoted the spokesman as saying.”
Unpredictable incidents including the loss of human lives..
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Either a thinly-veiled reference or a very tasteless joke.
pathological...
The inheirant mentality of communist, marxist, liberal-statist countries and their population is basically childish, immature and basically a playground bully persona...
We see this in how they communicate within their ranks, and to the rest of the world...
Note the current administration and those that voted for them as well...
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