Another day, another threat of all-out war.

[Rum]

This so comes over as nah nah nah boo boo!

The difference being of course that thousands of lives would be at stake if this ignites. It is almost impossible to conceive that it would, but you never know with this sort of brinkmanship going on.

[Svartalf]

The Glorious Glosters are on standby.....

That was double cheesy

[Coito ergo sum]

This so comes over as nah nah nah boo boo!

The difference being of course that thousands of lives would be at stake if this ignites. It is almost impossible to conceive that it would, but you never know with this sort of brinkmanship going on.

I think it is certainly possible. The north doesn't have a 1,000,000 men ready to fight for nothing. They torpedoed a ship and sank it, killing something like 50 people.

I mean, the war never ended. It's just an armistice. In Panmunjom, the "peace city," for the last 55+ years, there have been two soldiers staring each other down at the borderline, like this:



And, this:



They are literally scowling at each other from across the demarcation line. You probably already know this, but some other folks might not.

It's like two kids staring each other down at the flagpole after school, waiting for the other to make a move. Sooner or later, they're going to fight.

[FBM]

Hmm...http://english.chosun.com/site/data/htm ... 00426.html

N.Korean Forces 'Told to Get Ready for Combat'

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has ordered the military to be ready for combat, a Seoul-based defectors' group said Tuesday quoting a source in the reclusive country.

North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity said when South Korea announced the findings of a probe into the sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan last Thursday, O Kuk-ryol, the vice chairman of the North's National Defense Commission, in a statement said Kim ordered the entire military, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Security Department, the Worker-Peasant Red Guard, and the Red Youth Guard to be ready for combat."

Kim's order was relayed via wire broadcasting to a speaker installed in each home. These broadcasts are often used by the regime when it disseminates information that it does not want to be known abroad.

A South Korean security official said the government is "trying to verify" the report. According to the defectors' group, O, who is in charge of operations against the South, called the Cheonan incident a "plot to strangle" the North. Kim commanded that the North should "achieve the reunification of the fatherland by all means" since it failed during the Korean War, O said.

Kim Sung-min, the head of defector station Free North Korea Radio said North Korean soldiers on furlough or official trips have been ordered to return to barracks.

A North Korean source said security guards in the North Korea-China border regions were ordered to punish South Koreans in China found slandering the North over the Cheonan incident.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency the same day reported in detail on South Korean sanctions against the North. It threatened to "respond to any kind of punishment, retaliation, or sanctions with tough measures, including an all-out war" and repeated an earlier statement saying it regards the current situation as "a phase in the war."

[Gawdzilla Sama]

So, NK sinks a SK ship. Then get belligerent when SK calls them on it.

This is starting to remind me of July 1914.

[FBM]

So, NK sinks a SK ship. Then get belligerent when SK calls them on it.

This is starting to remind me of July 1914.

Hadn't thought of it like that, but...yeah...seems kinda like that.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

So, NK sinks a SK ship. Then get belligerent when SK calls them on it.

This is starting to remind me of July 1914.

Hadn't thought of it like that, but...yeah...seems kinda like that.

I just finished reading Dreadnought and now I'm reading Castles of Steel. SSDD

[Ian]

Hmm...http://english.chosun.com/site/data/htm ... 00426.html

N.Korean Forces 'Told to Get Ready for Combat'

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has ordered the military to be ready for combat, a Seoul-based defectors' group said Tuesday quoting a source in the reclusive country.

Interesting. Y'know what Kim Jong-Il told his western naval command after the November 2009 skirmish with the South Korean Navy, which ended badly for the North? "You must take revenge." What happened four months later? A torpedo blows a South Korean warship right in half.

This is really, really not good. And I think most people in the US are barely noticing it, probably because they're so used to the status quo tension and because conventional wisdom says that Kim always uses wild rhetoric. It's still several stories down in the media's list of priorities. In my copy of today's Washington Post there was no story on Korea until page 8. On NPR it was the third or fourth news story at 7am, after yet another detailed description of the Gulf oil spill and some other stuff I don't even remember.

[FBM]

Hmm...http://english.chosun.com/site/data/htm ... 00426.html

N.Korean Forces 'Told to Get Ready for Combat'

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has ordered the military to be ready for combat, a Seoul-based defectors' group said Tuesday quoting a source in the reclusive country.

Interesting. Y'know what Kim Jong-Il told his western naval command after the November 2009 skirmish with the South Korean Navy, which ended badly for the North? "You must take revenge." What happened four months later? A torpedo blows a South Korean warship right in half.

This is really, really not good. And I think most people in the US are barely noticing it, probably because they're so used to the status quo tension and because conventional wisdom says that Kim always uses wild rhetoric. It's still several stories down in the media's list of priorities. In my copy of today's Washington Post there was no story on Korea until page 8. On NPR it was the third or fourth news story at 7am, after yet another detailed description of the Gulf oil spill and some other stuff I don't even remember.

I have an afternoon class of adults, all men except one, all of whom have served in the ROK military. I'm going to see if I can squeeze out a few comments from them. I'll let you know what they think say.

[JimC]

FBM wrote:

I have an afternoon class of adults, all men except one, all of whom have served in the ROK military. I'm going to see if I can squeeze out a few comments from them. I'll let you know what they think say.

Damn!

And here was me quite certain you had telepathic powers!

[Robert_S]

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has arrived in South Korea after the North cut ties after being blamed for sinking a Southern warship.

Mrs Clinton, at the end of a week-long tour of Asia, met Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and was also due to see President Lee Myung-bak.

North Korea said it was severing all ties and banning South Korean ships and planes from its territory.

South Korea announced earlier it was suspending trade links with the North.

It is seeking a strong international response to the sinking of its ship, the Cheonan, which was torpedoed on 26 March with the loss of 46 sailors.

I hope this tactic doesn't cause trouble us more trouble like what happened in Pakistan:

[FBM]

Damn!

And here was me quite certain you had telepathic powers!

Am working on it! Once I get that power...

Anyway, I talked to the students and the ones who expressed an opinion said that they're stuck here on the peninsula with no power to affect the outcome, so they're just focusing on their daily lives and going about their business. It is on their minds, and they know things are more precarious now than they have been in a very long time, but the attitude is like, 'Well, wtf can I do about it?'

I hope this tactic doesn't cause trouble us more trouble like what happened in Pakistan: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH8owcMHc34/youtube]

They're sending her to China. They'll probably do what she asks, just to prevent another visit...

[FBM]

They throw this shit in as a "meanwhile"...

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/na ... 66580.html

NK vessel expelled from western sea lane

By Jung Sung-ki
Staff reporter

A North Korean cargo ship approaching South Korea's western waters was turned away Tuesday after a radio warning radio from the South Korean Navy, the Ministry of National Defense said Wednesday.

The move came a day after President Lee Myung-bak announced a set of measures to punish North Korea, which is being held responsible for the March 26 sinking of the South Korean Navy frigate Cheonan in the West Sea. He said North Korean commercial vessels would not be allowed to enter South Korean waters.

Minister of National Defense Kim Tae-young also pledged any North Korean ship entering South Korean waters would be forced to move out of the area.

The Navy has dispatched a 4,500-ton KDX-II destroyer to the straits between the southern island of Jeju and the mainland to block the entry of North Korean vessels.

"We sent a warning message to a North Korean vessel approaching our sea lane in the West Sea via radio," Jang Kwang-il, deputy minister for policy, told reporters. "The ship then left the sea lane."

Meanwhile, intelligence and military authorities revealed that four North Korean Sango-class submarines had disappeared from their home port in the East Sea on May 24.

The authorities are tracking the location of the submarines, an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said.

"It is quite rare for four North Korean submarines to disappear at one time," the official said. "We're closely tracking and monitoring the subs' routes by mobilizing all possible intelligence and surveillance assets."
The submarines left a base near a missile launch pad site in North Hamgyong Province on the east coast, according to the official.

North Korea is reported to have a fleet of 70 submarines ― 20 1,800-ton Romeo class, 40 300-ton Sango class and 10 midget subs.

[Coito ergo sum]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37329506/ns ... iapacific/

[FBM]

This one goes into more background:

http://english.chosun.com/site/data/htm ... 01219.html