Posted on 04/24/2010 2:03:58 AM PDT by XHogPilot
South Korea on Saturday raised the front half of a warship that exploded and sank a month ago near a contested sea border with North Korea, finding clues that support growing suspicions Pyongyang attacked the vessel.
The 1,200-tonne corvette Cheonan sank in what military officials said was a torpedo attack.
Forty-six South Korean sailors were killed in what could be one of the deadliest strikes by Pyongyang on its rival since the end of the Korean War. The North denies involvement.
South Korea's president on Friday gave the clearest signal yet Seoul had no plan to launch a revenge attack, calming investors worried that armed conflict would damage the South's economy.
"The catastrophic costs of a war on the peninsula will greatly constrain the U.S. and South Korean options for a military response, which thus remains an unlikely trigger for major military conflict," the global strategy group Control Risks wrote in a research note this week.
The front end of the ship was raised by a giant sea crane and drained before being placed on a barge.
One body has been found so far in the just-raised wreckage and six sailors were still missing, Yonhap news agency reported. The bodies of most of the 46 missing were found in the stern section raised earlier this month. Another 58 were rescued alive.
"The way a hatch (near where the ship split in two) had been thrown off its hinge indicates there had been a very strong external impact," Yonhap quoted an unidentified military official as saying, adding weight to the torpedo theory.
A survey team that includes experts from South Korea, the United States and Australia said after the rear of the ship was raised the Cheonan had been destroyed by an external explosion. That stoked suspicions of the torpedo attack.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Answer: Obama is very, very, weak.He will not overtly respond militarily to a direct attack on an ally.
Do you have ANY idea what this means for Taiwan? For Japan?For Israel? For South America where Iran now has its operative Khuds force?
Obama moves one finger wrong now and the Sorkies will want Obama out of thier lives, permanantly.
I will applaud them.
We are in the process of getting rid of the idiot, before he causes World War III.If anyone gave me his plug, I would pull it immediately.
Welcome to FR. You seem to want this to happen — for people to die. (Also I find some of your comments on other threads early this morning interesting as well.)
Playing golf in Asheville today on a much needed (?) vacation before he heads out to "sell" his further takeover of America at more union and illegal alien rallies. That's where.
[Sorks are reasoned people, they know what needs to be done and will do it in good time.]
From what I’ve heard, they are nastier than the Russians when it comes to payback. They just won’t announce it.
The live 9-11 thread pegged Bin Laden within minutes of the second tower getting hit. I’ve never forgotten it because - at the time - I had no idea what the FReeper was talking about.
It was a torpedo, why wasn’t it detected by visual/acoustic or other means? I don’t know about Corvettes, so I need to ask.
Oh...and who could forget Buckhead and Dan Rather.
The sad fact is that tyrants continue to kill and hurt others, wars are sometimes the better bottom line.
Agreed regarding the threat of North Korea. Don’t know if South Korea is going to be protected by the US adequately, frankly. And, China? Well, that’s a question mark, is it not? What would they do?
All it takes is a spark, and we’ve got problems here. I hope Kim Jong-Il can be handled some other way still — even if others deem it useless... At least that’s what I pray for all the time — I don’t want more fronts to open up across the world. It may be unavoidable, but if it is I would try... Not to the extent of Chamberlain with Hitler though — know that!
I hope against hope that the people of NK would see the truth, and stand against their leadership. However, I do recognize that the level of brainwashing in that country is frankly, astounding. Either that, or people go along to get along — with no choice visible to them.
Contrasted, or perhaps alongside that, Saddam was also identified by those within the military very quickly.
Sometimes the thing that argues the loudest against war, is that it is exactly what your enemy wants.
How can there be no response?
That has to rile people of the south. So the north can kill them and sink their ships with impunity and get no reaction?
What will that do the S Korea government?
Find a way to neutralize that and they have nothing.
“South Korea’s president on Friday gave the clearest signal yet Seoul had no plan to launch a revenge attack, calming investors worried that armed conflict would damage the South’s economy.”
Jeez, what a weak-kneed, spineless response to an outright attack.
I am not technically proficient in that field, there are some bubbleheads on the forum who could paint a better picture, but perhaps the sub that fired it was very close, and the torpedo came in hiding in the screw noises of the corvette.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.