North Korea is testing the waters!!

[EMT~SPARTA~]

South Korea announced today that evidence points to North Korea for the sinking of one of their ships with a torpedo.

 

Tomorrow they are going to announce it to everyone. Japan, U.S. and reluctantly Sweden have all supported the evidence presented to them.

 

China, North Korea's ally, is still supporting them, but has told us that they are still looking into the evidence...

 

WWIII? or do you think we are just going to slap them on the hand? and will china still support them?

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64I26F20100519

Edited May 19, 2010 by EMT

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

Moving this to Military Chitchat. I thought it was about some new game lol.

 

Doubt it'll be a WW3, since I think that'll start in another place, but it could lead to some very very dangerous actions involving our troops.

 

The Korean War was hell. With NK's leader holding nukes and fairly insane, anything is possible at this point.

[Halli~SPARTA~]

New M.A.S.H. Episodes!

That crazy Hawkeye........

[Steel~Sparta~]

last I read on the NK navy there was not much to it. Destroyers and LC's (litoreal combatents)... basicly a brownwater navy. I bet that with US backing, SK could sink NK's navy in about 48 hours or less.

[Forrester~SPARTA~]

There's a couple of questions that pop up in my mind.....

1 why took it that long to find out that it was a torpedo from north korea? (did the South not take time to build up evidence with stuff they found somewhere else aka false evidence) to put North Korea in the accused bench?

2 If North Korea did fire a torpedo why wouldn't they admit it if tehy say the south korean ship was in their waters....

 

There is so much we don't know goin on beneith the surface..... and If South Korea would take a step aginst the North, we would get to know it either..... I thing there's a lot of covert ops goin on on both sides... they don't have to blend in like SAS in Afghanistan to do their job.....

 

The real question is will those two countries risk a full scale war?

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

last I read on the NK navy there was not much to it. Destroyers and LC's (litoreal combatents)... basicly a brownwater navy. I bet that with US backing, SK could sink NK's navy in about 48 hours or less.

 

 

Then what? If war breaks out on the water, you can most definately bet it will break out on the land. NK just finished a 50k troop buildup on/near the border, and that has also raised tensions quite a bit I can imagine.

 

Also, it takes time to recover a sunken ship, and to compile the evidence to make sure it was indeed a torpedo.

[MedicSN6]

New M.A.S.H. Episodes!

That crazy Hawkeye........

 

I am with Halli on this one. LOL

 

As far as war is concerned... I never un-took my oath of enlistment. Where do I sign again?

[andrewman~SPARTA~]

Hopefully this will turn into the usual storm in a tea cup and SK will show some restraint if they can prove their ship was sunk. However, if it esculates, NK will get a heavy kicking.

[custard~SPARTA~]

Hopefully this will turn into the usual storm in a tea cup and SK will show some restraint if they can prove their ship was sunk. However, if it esculates, NK will get a heavy kicking.

 

Agreed but if it does esculate what happens if a creaky scud makes it past the anti missile defense they may not be conventional like the ones Saddam thru at Israel?

[EMT~SPARTA~]

I read somewhere that like 70 percent of NK's forces are near the border and like hundreds of artillary is pointed at a city near the border.

[Yankee~SPARTA~]

My friend from high school is there...says each side has alot more than just artillery pointed at eachother. Each side is on a "dead-man" trigger just waiting.

[Halli~SPARTA~]

The torpedo struck below the ship causing it to fracture and split.

 

War with NK won't be easy and it's not something we should look forward to as we (SK/US/Nato) never ended the war

our concerns should be how China will act.

[Elvis~SPARTA~]

Actually, I believe it didn't "strike." It explodes below the center of the ship a certain number of feet below it. The rise of the explosion breaks the ship in two.

 

Not your WWII torpedoes anymore.

 

Oh, two hot items from N.K. News:

 

US Scenario for Military Hegemony Assailed

Pyongyang, May 19 (KCNA) -- The United States is now busy stockpiling reserve strategic materials and stepping up the development of new type conventional weapons while putting up the signboard of "nuclear disarmament." This is a revelation of its shameless and wild ambition to put the world under its control and domination through high-handed military actions.

 

Rodong Sinmun Wednesday observes this in a signed commentary.

 

The U.S. seeks to maintain and strengthen its military domination over the world by modernizing conventional weapons, unbound to any international treaty under the situation where the elimination of nukes has become a demand of the times, the commentary says, and goes on:

 

The U.S. ambitious arms buildup sparks off a worldwide arms race, disturbing peace and stability.

 

If the waves of this arms race triggered off by the U.S. sweep not a few countries now in the grip of a serious economic crisis, it may bring disastrous consequences to them. By doing so the U.S. seeks to enfeeble its rivals and put them under its control as it pleases.

 

The U.S. is the main architect of arms race and arch criminal seriously threatening and disturbing world peace and stability as it is driving the international community into a vortex of arms race and putting world peace and stability at peril.

 

Being chieftain of aggression and war and a cancer-like entity standing in the way of peace, the U.S. will never be able to escape bitterer rebuff and condemnation from the world peace-loving people for its reckless arms race and moves to expand the sphere of its military domination.

 

and

 

Bulgaria's Cyrillic Alphabet Day Marked

Pyongyang, May 19 (KCNA) -- A film show was held at the Taedonggang Diplomatic Corps Club on Wednesday to mark Bulgaria's Cyrillic Alphabet Day.

 

Present there on invitation were Charge d'Affaires a.i. Vihren Nikolov and a staff member of the Bulgarian embassy here.

 

Vice-Chairman Ryu Sung Rim and members of the DPRK-Bulgaria Friendship Association and working people in the city of Pyongyang were on hand.

 

The participants watched a Bulgarian feature film.

Edited May 20, 2010 by Elvis~SPARTA~

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

It's sad to see what the regular people of NK are subjected to. I'm curious to what the mood of our forces in SK are. All I've heard so far is the regular "things are tense" that you always hear amongst regular soldiers, and is hardly a factual indication. (until it actually happens....Iraq anyone? lol)

[Ebden~SPARTA~]

Crazy Koreans with nukes? We said the same thing about the Russians, and they said the same about the US (who used 'em in wartime, too). Somehow we managed to avoid the big red button during the cold war, so who's to say N&S korea are much different, albeit on a geographically more limited scale.

[Zathrus~SPARTA~]

They actually raised the ship out of the water for the investigation.

So... they know where the ship was, and what happened to it.

This is another episode in the dangerous "cat & mouse game" that has been going on since the 38th parallel was established.

 

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

Crazy Koreans with nukes? We said the same thing about the Russians, and they said the same about the US (who used 'em in wartime, too). Somehow we managed to avoid the big red button during the cold war, so who's to say N&S korea are much different, albeit on a geographically more limited scale.

 

 

I think they're going with the worst-case scenario, since it's less dangerous than dismissing it.

 

And we kept from blowing the world up, yes, but it wasn't for a lack of trying. And as much as it pains me to say this, the Russians were much more civilized, that we know of. They knew the consequences of touching that button. We (the general public) has absolutely no clue what who the guy is with the button in NK, and we have less to know about his motivations.

[Zeno~SPARTA~]

From BBC.com

 

January 1967

 

North Korean artillery targets a South Korean vessel, the Dangpo, patrolling in the Yellow Sea with 70 sailors on board. The ship sinks, killing 39 of the crew.

 

January 1968

 

A team of 31 North Korean commandos crosses into South Korea and breaks into the presidential palace, the Blue House, in an attempt to assassinate President Park Chung-hee. The attempt is crushed by South Korean security forces, Mr Park survives but seven South Koreans and most of the commandos are killed.

 

January 1968

 

The research ship the USS Pueblo is captured by North Korea while on a surveillance mission. One crew member dies during the capture and the remaining 82 are taken to prison camps in the North.

 

The prisoners are released 11 months later after the US gave an apology and assurances the vessel had not been spying - both were later retracted. The Pueblo remains in North Korea as a museum - the only US warship in captivity.

 

December 1969

 

A South Korean airliner is hijacked and forced to fly to North Korea. Dozens of passengers are taken hostage. In January, 39 of the hostages were released but the remaining 12 are not known to have been freed.

 

August 1974

 

President Park's wife dies during a second attempt on his life - she is hit by stray bullets after a suspected North Korean agent opens fire at a public function.

 

October 1983

 

North Korea bombs a hotel in Rangoon, Burma, during a visit by President Chun Doo-hwan. He survives but 21 people, including some government ministers, are killed.

 

November 1987

 

A bomb, allegedly planted by North Korean agents, explodes on board a South Korean airliner travelling to Seoul from Baghdad. All 115 passengers and crew are killed.

 

September 1996

 

A North Korean submarine runs aground near Gangneung, off the east coast of South Korea, while allegedly conducting a spy mission. The crew of 26 escape to the shore, sparking a manhunt.

 

Eleven of the crew are found dead, apparently shot by their compatriots, but the rest go on the run for nearly two months. One alleged spy escapes, one is captured by South Korean security forces and the rest are killed. Several South Koreans also die in the operation.

 

March 2010

 

A 1,200-tonne Corvette, the Cheonan, mysteriously goes down near the disputed maritime border with North Korea - the Northern Limit Line. Many of the crew members escape but 46 are killed. After an extensive investigation, Seoul rules that a torpedo explosion directly beneath the vessel sank it and that the only "plausible explanation" is that North Korea was to blame.

[Ebden~SPARTA~]

Are we sure this isn't a repeat of the USS Maine?

 

Remember the Maine, down with Spain!

 

Remember the Cheonan, down with North Kore-an!

[andrewman~SPARTA~]

Seems like it is starting to esculate -this from Sky News this afternoon:-

 

North Korea's armed forces have reportedly been ordered to prepare for combat as tensions mount with the South over the deadly sinking of a warship.

 

The North's leader Kim Jong-Il is thought to have told his military to be braced for war, as Seoul blares out its own propaganda into the neighbouring rival country.

 

As part of psychological warfare operations, South Korea is placing loudspeakers at the border and is also using radio to broadcast messages into the North.

 

South Korea is slashing trade and denying permission for the North's cargo ships to pass through the South's waters.

 

The tensions also spooked global markets, with the FTSE 100 index of leading British companies falling by more than 2%.

 

Seoul has blamed Pyongyang for a torpedo strike that sank the warship Cheonan and killed 46 sailors on March 26.

 

A team of international investigators concluded last week that a torpedo from a North Korean submarine tore the Cheonan apart.

 

The sinking was the South's worst military disaster since the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

 

The North denies any involvement and has warned retaliation would mean war. It has threatened to destroy any propaganda facilities installed at the heavily militarised border.

 

The claim that Kim had told his million-strong armed forces to prepare for combat was made by the South's state-run Yonhap news agency, citing North Korean observers.

 

"We do not hope for war but, if South Korea, with the US and Japan on its back, tries to attack us, Kim Jong-Il has ordered us to finish the task of unification left undone during the... (Korean) war," Yonhap quoted a May 20 broadcast as saying.

 

Pyongyang is already subject to a number of UN-backed sanctions in response to its nuclear weapons and missile programmes.

 

The US, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has thrown its full support behind its ally's moves.

 

Washington is planning two major military exercises off the Korean peninsula in a display of force intended "to deter future aggression" by the North.

 

Also, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is stepping up pressure on China to back international action against North Korea over the sinking of the warship.

 

She said peace and security on the Korean peninsula is a shared responsibility between Washington and Beijing.

 

Mrs Clinton said the Obama administration expects to work closely with China to "fashion an effective response" to the sinking.

 

China, the communist country's main ally, has remained neutral, but the US wants Beijing to support UN Security Council action against North Korea.

Edited May 25, 2010 by andrewman~SPARTA~

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

South Korea provides close to 50% of the food that North Korea needs to survive. If war breaks out, it could be devistating for both countries, and ours as well.

[MedicSN6]

South Korea provides close to 50% of the food that North Korea needs to survive. If war breaks out, it could be devistating for both countries, and ours as well.

 

Well South Korea could just starve the North and either sell the extra food to the rest of the world or use it as rations for their own military. A well fed soldier is a happy soldier.

[Durka-Durka~SPARTA~]

Well South Korea could just starve the North and either sell the extra food to the rest of the world or use it as rations for their own military. A well fed soldier is a happy soldier.

 

The world has enough cats and dogs and they use them as pets.

[EMT~SPARTA~]

I'm hoping China goes on the side of the UN and supports S.K.

If that happens, then I'm 100% positive war will be averted. Who the hell goes to war with no allies ?

[Halli~SPARTA~]

Listen guys when we go in don't forget satchels for the radio towers.......That is all.