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Guest Post: For A North Korean Dissident, Pyongyan Sank The Cheonan
Submitted by Maurizio d'Orlando of AsiaNews.it
Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A special squad of North Korean soldiers was behind last month's deadly sinking of a South Korean frigate, this according to human rights activist Choi Sung-yong, who cited a North Korean military officer. The claim could not be verified because Choi promised the source not to reveal his identity. In Seoul, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said, they could not confirm the allegation.
The 1,200-tonne Cheonan was blown apart by an explosion on 26 March 26 as it conducted a routine patrolling mission in South Korea’s western waters near the tense maritime border with North Korea. Fifty-eight sailors were rescued, but at least 38 died and eight are still missing.
None of the survivors has been able to explain what caused the blast. Experts believe it could have been caused by a torpedo, an engine room explosion or an underwater mine.
In a tearful speech to the nation, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak vowed on Monday to deal “resolutely and unwaveringly” with the outcome of the investigation. “I, as president, will find out the cause of the Cheonan's sinking in full and in detail”. Addressing the victims, he said, “Your fatherland, which you loved, will never forget you."
South Korea has not blamed the Communist North for the incident. For its part, North Korea broke weeks of silence on Sunday to deny involvement. However, North Korea’s Stalinist regime has a past of maritime aggressions against the South, most recently in November.
According to Choi, the soldiers who took part in the sinking were publicly treated as national heroes in North Korea.
The two Korean states are still formally at war with one another. They fought a bitter three-year civil war that ended in 1953 with the division of the peninsula. Since then, they have not signed a peace treaty.
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my grandma heard Elvis say he did it
I guess the world war to free us from the grips of this Depression is going to take the form of the US vs the "Axis of Evil".
Sigh.
Probably was IRIS.
See, e.g., http://www.dramafever.com/drama/124/1/Iris/
you mean IRS?
Heh -- similar in sinister-ness, but IRIS boasts much snappier dressers.
Is this something we should get excited about? When a suicide bomber kills 50 people in Iraq and we know it's sponsored by Iran, is there a reaction? The sinking of the SK vessel even at the hands of NK will not shake the global need to secure economic recovery. Nothing will become of this. Sorry for the cynical attitude. It's just that as much as TD uncovers such glaring articles, facts and revelations about what's really going on (usually accurate enough), it appears the switch is still on "UP" mode in perpetuity.
Remember the Maine. The real question is, exactly what are we remembering?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(ACR-1)
was the maine our first 9/11? must have been a mexican war 9/11
NK Suicide bombers. Damn that sounds like terrorism...
Now who would benefit from leaking a story like this.
Dick Cheney?
The latest report on investigation was - an external source of explosion & case has been closed. The reason is simple, all sides are interested in this incident to go away and there are few eyewitnesses all of whom could be easily manipulated.
My bet would be on friendly misfire though. Could not identify the friendly coming back from a classified intelligence gathering mission, opened gunfire (there was a report of it) , friendly (could be S K or US submarine) responded and ... case closed.
It would be dumb for N K to bluntly provoke the other side and unlike our media portray their leader, he is anything but dumb. If he would be dumb, he would lose power long time ago.
I agree (I think). NK (or China through NK) can make huge demands on the US knowing that we will allow them to sink a ship. Everyone knows that a war against NK right now would be suicide to our economy. The US might not win. Most recently the US charge whining about China being a currency manipulator went away. What is next?
There are whole teams of people watching and managing the North Korean situation...G-d bless them !
Even if South Korea had rock hard evincence of North Korean torpedo, they would do absolutely nothing about it. The current South Korean president has no interest in taking the country to a war, even though S K would win the conflict (with possibly heavy civilian casualties). For South Koreans, risk/reward-ratio of a war is very bad, as North Korea might fall apart anyway some day by itself.
It is not dumb for North Korea to provoke. The Dear Leader stays in power by creating and maintaining an external threat. Recently there were reports about internal N K problems, possibly a coup in the making. Stoking fire here and there is a way to rally the proletarians behind their leader. You can sink a South Korean ship, just don't sink a too big a ship. North Korea 1 - South Korea 0.
Just send them a few W80's a little north of the DMZ and be done with it.
Oh please. As much as I'd love to see the Pyongyang government answer to anything, this is complete bullshit. Unverified source with unverifiable information.
So the culprits were treated as national heroes in NK, eh? That shouldn't be too hard to prove, right? Except there's zero supporting evidence provided. Nice fact checking Tyler. I love your blog but this is weak.
Hey Tyler, I used to work for Goldman and I swear they're all part of a devil cult. Run with it. It's a hot scoop.
The ability of the South Koreans and Americans to keep a lid on the potential fireworks on the Peninsula is remarkable. The sinking incident was a significant blip on the global security radar, yet probably 95% of the adult western population was unaware of the act. Big Brother and the Premier League rate more highly than a warship being sunk.
http://www.youtube.com/user/FranTxis#p/c/5D374BAE7D7A6C46/15/7cPb45tzgdQ
And now for something completely different:
Europe is the place to be -- except for the little volcano fallout problem.
I thought at first that this was a joke until I checked your link. Incredible. This guy doesn't live in the same world that I live in. Maybe it's their water?
Not the water -- it's the air. I hear it's quite abrasive. Can you say "pumice"?
So does that mean usa can get its jobs back from south korea ??????????