Free Republic

North Korean submarine fired a Chinese-made torpedo to sink the South Korean warship Cheonan, South Korean scientists said. If confirmed, it would implicate China in the incident that killed 46 South Korean sailors and increased tensions on the volatile Korean peninsula. U.S. defenders of China’s communist government dismissed the report, saying there was no way to confirm whether a Chinese torpedo and not a North Korean-manufactured torpedo was used. China affairs specialist William Triplett II said the sinking exposes a Beijing-Pyongyang arms relationship, something that is rarely mentioned in discussions of North Korea’s missile and weapons buildup. U.S. intelligence reports...

South Korea has concluded that a North Korean torpedo sank one of its warships in March, killing 46 sailors, according to government officials and domestic news reports on Tuesday. South Korean officials are preparing to announce the results of their investigation later this week. The much anticipated finding will accuse North Korea of committing one of the worst military provocations on the Korean Peninsula since the end of the Korean War, deepening tensions between the countries. North Korea, denying involvement in the sinking, has vowed to retaliate against any attempt to link it with the March 26 explosion that broke...

South Korea, alarmed at what appears to be the North Korean use of a Yu-3 type torpedo to sink one of their warships, has undertaken to reform their armed forces to better deal with tactics like this. North Korea officially denies having anything to do with the loss of the 1200 ton corvette Cheonan, but most North Koreans accept the fact that North Korea did the deed, and northerners are proud of that. Examination of the salvaged wreckage made it clear that it was an external explosion, using military grade explosives, that sank the ship and killed 46 sailors on...