The first shots of the Third World War have been fired as North Korea sinks a South Korean navy ship with 104 officers as of 1200 Greenwich Mean Time.
Quite an extravagant thread title for just a ship sinking.
This isn’t Pearl Harbor.
Personally I think Third World War is a bit extreme at this time since clashes between these two countries have happened for ca. 60 years.
But to address this quote from the article you linked:
"Earlier on Friday, North Korea’s military accused the United States and South Korea of trying to topple the Pyongyang regime and said it was ready to launch nuclear attacks to frustrate any provocations.
The military General Staff cited a South Korean newspaper report as evidence of “desperate moves of the US imperialists and the South Korean puppet warmongers” for regime change.
“Those who seek to bring down the system in the DPRK (North Korea)… will fall victim to the unprecedented nuclear strikes of the invincible army,” a General Staff spokesman told the official Korean Central News Agency."
Is North Korea accusing the U.S. and S.K. of “trying to topple the… regime” because of a S.K. newspaper article? Or are there special forces at play that are not being divulged? I don’t know.
South Korea just retaliated.
“South Korean navy reportedly shot at unidentified ships near North Korea and is investigating whether a sinking ship in its navy was hit with a torpedo near the maritime border with the communist North.”
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/03/26/south-korean-navy-ship-sinking-near-border-n-korea/
Actually, this does look like a really big deal…
this could escalate…and as much as American Politicians love war…I assume they can’t wait to go over and start helping out South Korea.
Missiles are being deployed in the states of the Persian Gulf, and bombs are being shipped to the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
It’s not a big deal at all, not yet. The North, and South Koreans have had previous shoot outs in those waters, and seem rather fond of it.
A list
PREVIOUS CLASHES
2009: One North Korean sailor killed in a naval battle
2002: Four South Korean sailors and an estimated 30 North Koreans killed in a naval battle
1999: At least 17 North Korean sailors believed killed in naval fire fight
1998: South Korea captures a North Korean mini-submarine in its waters
1996: A North Korean submarine runs aground in South Korean waters
EDIT:
From Strategypage.
November 12, 2009: The November 10th gunboat clash off the west coast, which was a humiliating defeat for the north, resulted in the usual warlike threats from North Korea. But this time, U.S. officials rather bluntly and publicly told the northerners to shut up, because the north could not, and would not, do anything about the naval incident. Moving the maritime border, the NLL (Northern Limit Line), south, has been a North Korean goal for decades. The reason is the lucrative crab fishing grounds off the west coast. North Korea currently makes $100 million from crabs taken north of the NLL. Only military families (mostly from the navy) are allowed to take crabs, and the crab catch is a major part of the income of these loyal officers. North Korea wants more crab fishing grounds, to make more of its naval officers happy. Thus, every few years, North Korean patrol boats cross the NLL, get shot up by superior South Korean warships, and honor is satisfied. The northerners also believe the waters south of the NLL contain oil deposits as well, but this appears to be mostly rumor. The crabs are real, and so is the combat superiority of the southern naval and air forces.
This looks like a job for… THE UNITED STATES MILITARY (cue music by Wagner)
edit: I question the validity of that article being current news.
Obama was to go to Australia, but didn’t. He said due to the Healthcare Bill in wait. But then it has passed and I guess he could have gone still without disrupting his schedule from what I’m reading in the press. Instead he met with the Israel President. So has the U.S. citizens now got their candy, i.e. universal health insurance, to give them the fix needed to go, yet again, into another war. I mean that’s completely hypothetical. What is factual is the bill passes and suddenly troops, outside of the existing special forces that have been in Somalia for months already, are sent into that region of Africa. Somalia was already a long time coming. There’s a lot of natural resources in that region and with no central gov’t it’s difficult of course for other central gov’ts to parlay with anybody there to set-up international trades with that the central gov’ts, such as U.S., France, etc… can strong arm. China has been in Africa and has seemingly been competing with the U.S., France, UK, etc… for the natural resources there for years. This is another entrenchment for the U.S. to gain control. Yemen is just right across the Sea, I would keep that in mind as this develops.
Edit: How does that ‘blogger’ know if the troops went in today? I didn’t see anything that mentions today. That article seemed a bit distorted in being able to rely such information. I don’t know if what an overall story on U.S. troops there, as I’ve said they’ve been there for months already. I didn’t read the whole article but when I read the beginning I now suspect that this might have been a general story and not really undated news.
Time to sit back and enjoy the show
The Koreans have been taking shots at each other for years, and a technical state of war has existed for ages.
It really isn’t a big deal yet.
NK cant wage war for more than 3 weeks without total starvation, relax folks.
Technically speaking the two countries have been at war since 1950: in 1953 they just signed a truce at Panmunjon. They have been provoking each other for more than 50 fifty years now by digging tunnels under no man’s land, infiltrating saboteurs, sniping, shelling, sinking each other’s patrol boats etc. But neither country really wants open war: North Korea can obtain so much more by simply acting like a “mad, rabid dog” while South Korea doesn’t dislike the present situation.
The medias just need another cover story to cover up for the fact that the “recovery” is nowhere to be seen (unless you are Lehman Brothers or Goldman Sachs), Afghanistan doesn’t want us there, Israel is showing Obama who’s in charge etc.