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North Korea Fires Artillery Shells Into Sea Close To South Korea Border, Holds Fishing Boat With 7 On Board
Some interesting geopolitical news to start off the day from Reuters: "North Korea fired artillery rounds into the sea off its west coast on Monday, a South Korean military official said, heightening tension on the divided peninsula. YTN cable news channel reported dozens of rounds were fired into the North's waters near the border with the South soon after a South Korean naval exercise off the west coast officially ended at 5 p.m." This follows earlier news that North Korea held a South Korean fishing vessel with seven people on board, after it crossed into North Korean waters. As the Kospi is closed it is difficult to estimate the unexpectedness of the event. We will follow the news to see if the already tense situation between the two Koreas is affected by this development, and if South Korea, which conducted extensive join-US drills recently, retaliates.
More from Reuters on the artillery firing:
"All we know is that North Korea fired artillery rounds into its sea off the west coast, but we have no more details as of now," Lieutenant-Commander Yu Jae-il at the Joint Chiefs of Command in Seoul said by telephone.
In recent weeks, North Korea and its only powerful ally China have criticised a series of military drills by the United States and South Korea off the divided peninsula.
The South was due to complete an independent exercise on Monday, and will conduct more joint exercise with the United States next week.
Beijing says the joint drills threaten both to its security and regional stability. It has also made public its own recent military drills, events normally kept secret
Adding to tension on the peninsula, the North last Sunday seized a South Korean fishing vessel with seven people on board off its east coast.
The Unification Ministry said it had not received any word from the North about the capture.
And on the missing boat:
Simmering tensions between the two Koreas have risen a notch in recent days with the staging of military drills by the South off the west coast, infuriating Pyongyang which threatened "physical retaliation" for the exercise.
"We have found out that our fishing vessel is being investigated by North Korean officials in the presumed North Korea exclusive economic waters in northern East Sea," the South Korean coast guard said in a statement.
"The South Korean government, according to international law, wants the swift resolution to the matter and the safe return of its vessel and its fisherman."
Yonhap news agency reported the vessel had advised the coast guard it was being taken by a North Korean patrol to a port in the communist country.
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the south should just ignore the north and everything will pass.
Is it that hard for the south to say to their fisherman: Don't near the border for 5 miles and you'll be fine?
Let those fishermen pay for the costs that this escalation is costing and I'm sure they won't do it again.
And why does the US get involved with this? Why push the bully? Just ignore them.
YTN news. Isn't that the Dyslexic subsidiary of the New York Times. They're the ones who specialize in gubamint newspeak dissemination, no?
They said that they artie were just fer fishin', add somptin' to the plate to surround the seaweed and dirt clods.
Move along, nothing to see, smell or eat here.
After all this time and cost invested in making a powder keg, you have the **** to think that it is not going to be used? You posit that those are "fishermen" crossing the water border? What level of Great Game are you playing?
/the tone of this missive is a soothing Mr. Spock to a flailing (your avatar, SD) Captain Smirk, who is once again overacting and underthinking./
Sometimes a fisherman is just a fisherman.
This one was fishing for squid, Wall Street variety.
I can't help but think tensions are being raised for a variety of reasons. I have no doubt that the world's powers-that-be are looking for major distractions. Between North and South Korea, all it takes is a poke at the bees nest and suddenly there's lot of activity.
i've developed an immunity to stories of military conflicts abroad. I can't and don't trust any of them. Sorry.
Same here.
Timmy.... just military stories? We'd thought that you'd developed an immunity to any reality.
PS Nice letter to the editor in the WSJ the other day. Toprol induced?
(Sorry, but I couldn't resist, as I'd never have the cajones to tell it to his face. This is very scary this early in the morning. I'm unsettling myself greatly.)
cajones = kitchen drawers
cojones = stones, brass,
Just sayin'
damn I hope the South doesn't hurt the North's water too... nothing can be solved by this...
The Chinese are not broke like the impotent Russians. They will never allow North Korea to fall under American control. The moronic games the US is playing with China will fail in the end as they have every time before. If we keep provoking them, one day they may pay us back for the millions of dead we caused. This time they have more than bullets and mortors to hit us with.
Are you really afraid of the Chinese? Really?
Why would I be afraid of the Chinese? The US fought multiple direct and indirect wars against China over the last 120 years. In the end it lost them all. It is a moronic policy to start wars you cannot win. Nixon finally realized this and cut deals with China that had the added benefit of driving a wedge between Russia and China. It also was fact the US was broke after the Korean and Vietnam wars.
The Neocon's broke all our agreements with China and restarted the dirty wars. The North Korean rhetoric from the Neocons is mainly aimed at cutting weapons shipments to Israel's enemies. It does not benefit the US to start another war with China.
The North is probably lobbing shells into the sea to help BP in its latest deep water drilling venture.
Agreed. BP found the secret to getting the oil from deep wells to the surface cheaply. Blow gigantic holes in the sea floor and utilize environmentalists to clean up the beaches for you. Didn't you ever wonder why they had them putting the oil soaked birds and sand into 55 gallon drums. Recycling at its best.
I'm sure China would exchange NK for Tiawan...
Why it owns both now. NK is flush with resources that China needs and the though of 30,000 US troops on it's border is abhorrent. Taiwan's importance drops as China's economic and technical power increases. Taiwan will be begging for China's financial help in the future.