[quote]
SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea's president convened an emergency national security meeting Friday, a day after an official report concluded that North Korea was responsible for the deadly sinking of a naval patrol ship.
North Korea, for its part, spoke of war for a second straight day, while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was on the way to the region and tensions on the Korean peninsula were expected to dominate her agenda.
South Korea accused North Korea on Thursday of sinking the patrol ship Cheonan with a torpedo in late March in what was the deadliest attack on the South since the Korean War ended in 1953.
President Lee Myung-bak convened a meeting of his National Security Council, said Nam Ki-myung, an assistant in the press office at the presidential Blue House, though she had no details as the meeting was under way.
The council consists of the prime minister, the foreign and defense ministers, the minister in charge of unification with North Korea and the chief of the National Intelligence Service.
Lee vowed Thursday to take "resolute countermeasures" against the North over the sinking. He was expected to give an address to the nation in coming days.
North Korea, which has denied any role in the sinking, said Friday it "will regard the present situation as the phase of war and decisively handle all matters arising in inter-Korean relations to cope with it."
The remarks were included in a statement by the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea, which is in charge of inter-Korean affairs and carried on the Korean Central News Agency.
The statement followed one by the country's military on Thursday that any retaliation over the sinking would mean "all-out war."
Meanwhile, Clinton, the top U.S. diplomat, was scheduled to begin a three-nation tour of the region with a visit to Japan later Friday. Besides Tokyo, she will visit China and South Korea.
Japan criticized the North on Thursday over the sinking, but China, Pyongyang's key ally, refrained from doing so, instead calling on all parties to "stay calm and exercise restraint."
Just hours before she departed, the White House called the ship sinking an "act of aggression." In a statement, officials called it "a challenge to international peace and security and ... a violation of the Armistice Agreement" that ended the Korean War.
Separately, the U.N. Command's Military Armistice Commission will soon launch an investigation into whether the North has violated the 1953 armistice, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Friday, citing an unnamed government source.
Should the findings prove true, the commission will suggest holding military talks with the North and strongly protest the violation, the report said.
The 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, rather than a peace treaty. The land border is the world's most heavily armed and the western sea border has been the site of several deadly naval clashes since 1999. The United States stations 28,500 troops in the South.
An international team of civilian and military investigators declared Thursday in that a North Korean submarine fired a homing torpedo at the Cheonan on March 26, ripping the 1,200-ton ship in two.
Fifty-eight sailors were rescued, but 46 died - South Korea's worst military disaster since a truce ended the three-year Korean War in 1953.
Torpedo fragments found on the seabed "perfectly match" the schematics of a North Korean-made torpedo Pyongyang has tried to sell abroad, chief investigator Yoon Duk-yong said. A serial number on one piece is consistent with markings from a North Korean torpedo that Seoul obtained years earlier, he said.
"The evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a North Korean submarine," he said. "There is no other plausible explanation."
North Korean naval spokesman Col. Pak In Ho told broadcaster APTN in an exclusive interview in Pyongyang that the evidence was faked.
It remains unclear what steps South Korea will pursue against the North. Options include taking the issue to the U.N. Security Council, where North Korea has been previously sanctioned over nuclear and missile tests.
Military retaliation, however, is seen as too dangerous and not a serious option given the vulnerability of South Korea's capital, Seoul, and its 10 million some residents to North Korean artillery located just across the border.
U.S. troops in and around South Korea remained on the same level of alert, said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Carl Baker, an expert on Korean military relations at the Pacific Forum CSIS think-tank in Honolulu, said that military retaliation was not in the cards.
"I think that we need to be strategic about it in the sense that you can't just go back and do something as retaliation because that just sort of feeds the cycle and so that's not going to be useful," he said. "And I think all indications in the South Korean military is that they recognize that."
___
Associated Press writers Kelly Olsen, Sangwon Yoon and Hyung-jin Kim in Seoul, Jay Alabaster in Tokyo, Chi-Chi Zhang in Beijing, Anne Flaherty and Matthew Lee in Washington, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
[/quote]
[url]http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100521/ap_on_re_as/as_skorea_ship_sinks;_ylt=AsORhxJ.KX264D9JqSVVZcZvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTJsZWg5Z2t0BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNTIxL2FzX3Nrb3JlYV9zaGlwX3NpbmtzBGNwb3MDMQRwb3MDMgRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3J5BHNsawNzb3V0aGtvcmVhaG8-[/url]
Col. Pak In Ho
War
Good old UN, looking into whether sinking one of their ships intentionaly was an act of aggression and violated the armistice. You have to appreciate their dedication to bureaucracy.
I KNOW WHAT. South Korea should aim all of their artillery at the Norths batteries, so they can't bombard Seoul.
Yup.
Somehow I have the feeling this will end up being an embarrassment to everyone involved.
[QUOTE=Second-gear-of-mgear;22077109]I KNOW WHAT. South Korea should aim all of their artillery at the Norths batteries, so they can't bombard Seoul.[/QUOTE]
I doubt the North even has functioning artillery. They're shells are probably plastic ones used for counter-IED training. This probably isn't the case, but how funny would it be for them to fire off plastic shells? Once they hit, confetti and flag that says "BANG!" comes out.
[QUOTE=Aredbomb;22077430]Somehow I have the feeling this will end up being an embarrassment to everyone involved.[/QUOTE]
An act of agression from North Korea would give the world it's opportunity to kick the shit out of that terrible country.
[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;22077452]An act of agression from North Korea would give the world it's opportunity to kick the shit out of that terrible country.[/QUOTE]
I think the statement of "And nothing of value was lost" comes into play here. North Korea provides nothing. Well, it does provide laughter, but that country is collapsing in on itself.
I'm going to be pissed if I end up fighting in the Second Korean War.
[QUOTE=Identity;22077475]I think the statement of "And nothing of value was lost" comes into play here. North Korea provides nothing. Well, it does provide laughter, but that country is collapsing in on itself.[/QUOTE]
Think of the potatoes.
[QUOTE=Xystus234;22077476]I'm going to be pissed if I end up fighting in the Second Korean War.[/QUOTE]
Well the U.S. does have MP's and Artillery battalions there. I wouldn't be surprised if we broke off a few companies to fight.
North Korea can shit on South Korea from such a height they'll think God himself has crapped on them.
[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;22077488]Think of the potatoes.[/QUOTE]
Oh gosh.
[img]http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:6KVNQEGB6dEMtM:http://thegoldenspiral.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/mcdonalds-french-fries.jpg[/img]
We must save these future edibles.
Pfft, North Korea is best Korea.
[QUOTE=Identity;22077511]Oh gosh.
[img]http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:6KVNQEGB6dEMtM:http://thegoldenspiral.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/mcdonalds-french-fries.jpg[/img]
We must save these future edibles.[/QUOTE]
Exactly, potatos are fucking good.
[QUOTE=Xystus234;22077476]I'm going to be pissed if I end up fighting in the Second Korean War.[/QUOTE]
Sometimes... I really want people to go back to a history class.
The Korean War hasn't even ended. Only a ceasefire.. .What do you fuckers not get about a ceasefire!
:doh:
[QUOTE=Identity;22077436]I doubt the North even has functioning artillery. They're shells are probably plastic ones used for counter-IED training. This probably isn't the case, but how funny would it be for them to fire off plastic shells? Once they hit, confetti and flag that says "BANG!" comes out.[/QUOTE]
The KPA doesn't have [i]that[/i] faulty of logistics and equipment.
[QUOTE=sloppy_joes;22077488]Think of the potatoes.[/QUOTE]
Mashed potatoes under artillery shells.
Shoot North Korea with a tranquilizer dart
[QUOTE=TH89;22077974]Shoot North Korea with a tranquilizer dart[/QUOTE]
Might be quiet rampant son... Use the Elephant Tranq.
It's okay, it's only afraid.
I think people underestimate north korea when it comes to everything military but nukes and air craft. The reason their country is poor is because they spent all the money they had building up their army while making what I like to call work buildings, buildings that serve no purpose but to put people to work, like that dam that destroyed a lot of their farm land. There are far more North Koreans in their military than us. This is partly because of the government's brain washing and partly because joining up is a great way to get food and provide for your family in North Korea, in fact I'd say it's one of the only ways to provide enough for your family in North Korea unless you live in one of the few good farm land areas.
so unless we want to use bombs and have massive civilian casualties we're gonna have a bloody fight on our hands.
Odds are nothing will happen, however if anything does happen, it won't be good.
[quote]the commission will suggest holding military talks with the North and strongly protest the violation[/quote]
You better watch out Kim Jong Il, the U.N. might strongly protest you....again!
[QUOTE=Devodiere;22077066]Good old UN, looking into whether sinking one of their ships intentionaly was an act of aggression and violated the armistice. You have to appreciate their dedication to bureaucracy.[/QUOTE]
It's a diplomatic organisation, what do you want them to do?
If there was one place in the world that should be nuked. It has to be North Korea, too bad it will affect South Korea.
Yankee shankie
i keel you fo fah
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