North Korea Attacks South Korea - Latest Update

[Nomenclature]

North Korea’s artillery attack on a South Korean island earlier on Tuesday may have been triggered by military exercises being held in the area, a spokesman for the South Korean presidential administration said.
“Our army was carrying out military training, and there was a telegram from North Korea with a protest and questioning whether this was an attack,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
He did not rule out that subsequent artillery fire from the North was a response to the drills.


So it was south korea that attacked the north first?

It's a question of perspective.

The maritime border between North and South Korea is disputed. South Korea did indeed fire into the disputed area despite North's warnings.

From the SK perspective they're only firing into their own waters but NK of course looks upon it very differently.

Anyway, even if the shelling from the North is just a reaction to the South Korean exercises, they went clearly too far by attacking civilian facilities. Although one may also question SK's policy of kicking a maddog in its face by conducting such exercises during a leadership transition in the North.

 

[siegecrossbow]

It's a question of perspective.

The maritime border between North and South Korea is disputed. South Korea did indeed fire into the disputed area despite North's warnings.

From the SK perspective they're only firing into their own waters but NK of course looks upon it very differently.

Anyway, even if the shelling from the North is just a reaction to the South Korean exercises, they went clearly too far by attacking civilian facilities. Although one may also question SK's policy of kicking a maddog in its face by conducting such exercises during a leadership transition in the North.

I now see the wisdom of not sending actual warships into the Senkaku Islands region. Things like this could happen if you've got territorial disputes.

 

[New Vision]

If China wills it, this can end today..........but does China want that ????? China could share the same concerns as the N koreans, but if China puts N korea in its place today, the international repute that it would earn, is beyond even Chinas understanding. I think China should overshadow the US by getting both Koreas to declare and status Quo, and China should gaurantee this status quo. China has a responsibility more than the US in these countries as they are in its very neighbourhood. It will be a great chance for China to prove it mediatory power to the world

 

[Mirza Jatt]

South Korea, Japan on alert

Japan is taking steps to remain “prepared for any eventuality” even as South Korea has raised its alert levels following North Korea's shelling of Yeonpyeong Island, a known flashpoint in inter-Korean ties, earlier this week.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and senior Ministers reviewed the situation at an emergency meeting in Seoul on Thursday after North Korea's state news agency carried a fresh warning from the country's military establishment. “We will stage second and even third rounds of attacks without any hesitation, if warmongers in South Korea make reckless military provocations again,” said a North Korean military official in a statement monitored in Seoul.

It was agreed at the emergency meeting, chaired by Mr. Lee, that South Korea's “ground forces should be drastically reinforced” in “vulnerable” areas to meet “North Korea's asymmetrical threats”. In a related move, South Korea would now “revoke” its earlier plan to reduce the size of the country's Marine Corps. Instead, Seoul's marine combat capabilities would now be “further strengthened”, said a senior official in a statement made public by Mr. Lee's office. Mr. Lee called for total alertness for the protection of five islands in the general area of North Korea's shelling earlier this week.

On a parallel track, a top Japanese official told The Hindu on Thursday that Prime Minister Naoto Kan had issued instructions for placing the country on alert. Without going into Japan's “military posture and position”, the official said Mr. Kan had asked Ministers to stay “prepared for any eventuality”. On the diplomatic front, Japan was active in the ongoing informal discussions at the United Nations Security Council on the recent North Korean action, the official said.

The Hindu : News / International : South Korea, Japan on alert

 

[gpit]

an appalling, unjustified and totally irresponsible move by North Korea

they sunk a S Korean corvette a few months back killing almost 40 sailors; now this......if those aren't BLATANT acts of war, i don't know what is

both sides should exercise restraint....I hope China and other regional powers can defuse tensions and help bring about a sustainable political solution.

North Korea however should be condemned for this action I think.

North Korea has a history of doing crazy sht. You guys probably just don't remember it, it blow up part of the SK cabinet in Thailand, it sent commandos to assault the SK presidential palace, it sent suicide missions to start uprisings in SK. Kim J blew up a SK airliner just before the 86 SK Olympics.

Just crazy stuff.

Regardless of NK's history, this particular incident is more complex than your over-simplified imagination, which most likely is base on one (western) side story.

First, about the Northern Limit Line — known to Koreans as the N.L.L.

When the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, rather than a permanent peace treaty, the warring militaries failed to agree upon a western sea border. The American-led United Nations forces unilaterally drew the Northern Limit Line, a border the South Korean and United States militaries have enforced since the end of the war.

But North Korea never accepted it, insisting on a border far south of the United Nations line that cuts deep into waters currently patrolled and fished by the South.

Any sane people can see how "reasonable" or "unreasonable" is the NLL.

Thus, this is a disputed marine area.

Second, as a commentator in NYT (I forgot the name. Sorry.) said, if you know NK is paranoid, and you do military exercises at the door step of the paranoid, in a disputed area, the only explanation is that YOU are paranoid as well.

Now, according to NK report, it is SK who fired shell first.

Now tell who is crazy?

Most likely it is both.

 

[gpit]

Neither US nor S Korea has any better policy on N Korea.

S Korea keep switching between sunshine then sanction then sunshine then sanction.

...

That's a typical failure of democratic system, especially when there are strong foreign influences and weak domestic capabilities.

 

[gambit]

S Korea is not totally innocent. Holding war games in front of your neighbor gate does not promote trust and friendship.

As far as I am concern. BOTH Kim Jong Il and Bush are war criminals.
However, who is right and who is wrong is based on who has the Might.

If you want to blame the victim, have the courage to say so. Do not beat around the bush. If my G/F washes her car in hot pants while on my property and if she is assaulted, she is to share the blame? War games are to show an adversary that one is capable of self defense. Or are you saying that only communist regimes are allowed the right to self defense? Talk about being brainwashed.

 

[gambit]

Sorry but it seems you didn't read the good article he was giving as link. it would avoid this answer showing you ignore what china is really doing.

I have read the article and it is meaningless in the larger context.

AFP: China prods N.Korea on economic reform

China has pressed North Korea to speed up economic reforms in a summit encounter that underscored Beijing's concerns about its impoverished and wayward ally, experts said Tuesday.

Oh gee wizz...Whoop whoop dee dooo and a lot of bovine doo-doo.

The best people to give advice on economic reforms to North Korea are not the Chinese but the South Koreans and US, ya think? But the reason China is the one to give that advice is because China created North Korea and sustained that abomination all these decades and that is the larger context that I am talking about. Economic reforms in the form of advice is no good if the pupil is hard headed and that fact is not lost on China. The more NKR get out of hand, the harder it will be for China to make relevant to NKR those advice. Economic reforms are not external. Lobbing artillery shells at your neighbor is external. Economic reforms are internal. Regime change lead by China is internal. As long as China tolerate the Kim regime's outrageous and dangerous behavior, the more difficult it will be for China to talk to NKR, let alone give economic reform advice.

That is what I was talking about.

 

[T-Rex]

I have read the article and it is meaningless in the larger context.

AFP: China prods N.Korea on economic reform

Oh gee wizz...Whoop whoop dee dooo and a lot of bovine doo-doo.

The best people to give advice on economic reforms to North Korea are not the Chinese but the South Koreans and US, ya think? But the reason China is the one to give that advice is because China created North Korea and sustained that abomination all these decades and that is the larger context that I am talking about. Economic reforms in the form of advice is no good if the pupil is hard headed and that fact is not lost on China. The more NKR get out of hand, the harder it will be for China to make relevant to NKR those advice. Economic reforms are not external. Lobbing artillery shells at your neighbor is external. Economic reforms are internal. Regime change lead by China is internal. As long as China tolerate the Kim regime's outrageous and dangerous behavior, the more difficult it will be for China to talk to NKR, let alone give economic reform advice.

That is what I was talking about.

Whom are you calling an 'abomination'? DPRK has not been created by stealing the homeland of some natives, so the term 'abomination' is more applicable to the US or Israel.

 

[T-Rex]

If you want to blame the victim, have the courage to say so. Do not beat around the bush. If my G/F washes her car in hot pants while on my property and if she is assaulted, she is to share the blame? War games are to show an adversary that one is capable of self defense. Or are you saying that only communist regimes are allowed the right to self defense? Talk about being brainwashed.

We have this kind of 'victims' in Palestine don't we? Now, we don't see such strong compassion of yours for those 'victims' who have been living as refugees in their own country and you call their act of 'self defense' as terrorism. Now, that's blaming the 'victim' big time, don't you think so? So scram and sing your 'victim' song somewhere else.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

But the reason China is the one to give that advice is because China created North Korea and sustained that abomination all these decades and that is the larger context that I am talking about.

I think you made a mistake here. China did not "create" North Korea at all.

As for economic reforms, any pressure towards that end is welcome I would imagine.

 

[below_freezing]

north korea's reform and opening will be the biggest nightmare for the US. gain a competitor, lose a scapegoat.

on paper they say they'd welcome it. just like they welcomed Japan when they attacked us and shipped it oil, just like it welcomed then backstabbed USSR after WW2, just like they welcomed us in 1979 and backstabbed us in 1989. US foreign policy is dependent on a scapegoat for internal problems to distract the masses from their misery. North Korea and Iran are only the latest.

 

[Laughing Buddha]

Guys check this out !!
http://www.********.com/view?i=dc7_1290523233&p=1

 

[Nan Yang]

If you want to blame the victim, have the courage to say so. Do not beat around the bush. If my G/F washes her car in hot pants while on my property and if she is assaulted, she is to share the blame? War games are to show an adversary that one is capable of self defense. Or are you saying that only communist regimes are allowed the right to self defense? Talk about being brainwashed.

You mean S Korean military was wearing hot pants ?

Just wearing hot pants is fine. Wearing hot pants and shooting guns in front of your neighbor house is entirely different matter.

Sources for BUSH is a war criminal.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/sep2005/iraq-s27.shtml

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/201...violated-interational-law-dutch-inquiry-finds

The then United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in September 2004 that: "From our point of view and the UN Charter point of view, it [the war] was illegal."[1][2] The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court reported in February 2006 that he had received 240 communications in connection with the invasion of Iraq in March 2003 which alleged that various war crimes had been committed.

 

[Developereo]

one may also question SK's policy of kicking a maddog in its face by conducting such exercises during a leadership transition in the North.

Precisely my point.

War games are to show an adversary that one is capable of self defense.

But conducting war games in a disputed zone is needlessly provocative.