Posted on 04/02/2010 10:33:54 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
South Korea's defence minister said Friday that a torpedo might have sunk a warship near the tense North Korean border but cautioned that the investigation was incomplete.
"A torpedo or a sea mine might have been involved but a torpedo is a more realistic cause than a mine," minister Kim Tae-Young told parliament as divers resumed a search for 46 sailors missing from the 1,200-tonne corvette.
Sailors operating the ship's sonar detection system had not detected any approaching torpedo, Kim said, adding: "Patience is needed until investigation results come out."
A week after the disaster, officials are still groping for answers as to what caused the ship to break in two in the Yellow Sea on the night of March 26.
Earlier in the week Kim had said a North Korean mine -- either drifting or deliberately placed -- may have caused the blast. He did not say Friday why he now thought a torpedo more likely and did not indicate who might have fired one.
The disputed border was the scene of deadly naval clashes between North and South Korea in 1999 and 2002 and of a firefight last November.
The minister told legislators the chances of an explosion inside the warship were slim, although he did not rule them out. Addressing another theory, he said metal fatigue was unlikely in the 21-year-old ship.
Seoul has ordered its military on alert but not cited any evidence the North was involved.
Fifty-eight crewmen were saved soon after the sinking, but no one since then. Officials suspect most of the missing are in the rear section of the hull
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A torpedo would represent telling evidence of North Korean involvement, one would think. Maybe the ship had drifted into torpedo infested waters?
I think now, that the evidence is leaning toward a torpedo.
I think they know, they just don’t want to say it.
Pushed in = mine
Pushed out = torpedo (or other internal detonation)
"They best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity".
I wanted to lean toward mine because that class has a full ASW suite and should have heard a torpedo but that vessel did exactly what torpedo are ideally supposed to do; explode under the keel, crack and split the vessel in half.
If it is determined to be a torpedo, then you might see a real shooting war real quick.
They may have already determined it was a torp and are figuring out the appropriate response. The current POTUS would probably send a strongly worded letter of disapproval, call lil Kim a jackass, and remark that he acted stupidly. But that would be it. What’s SK gonna do?
hI think they will hit back and hard.
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