The sinking of South Korean Corvette Cheonan

Quote:
Originally Posted by ravenshield936
Refusal may have led to Kim getting angry and leaving ahead of schedule. Although they've said it's China refusing infrastructural aid or whatever, but it can be a coverup.


Kim ended the trip early? Can you provide a news source for this? Thanks in advance.

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I read about that to, but I forgot where, maybe the BBC news?.

however

There's confusing reports on this possibly caused by the fact that his trip was scaled down to be less hetic for Kim due to his failing health. The "CBS" says the trip lasted fourdays while the "WSJ "suggested five days. Maybe the confusion about his length of stay has come about by the way its measured by different news sources.


That mutual interdependence goes far in explaining China's willingness to acquiesce in the farcical spectacle of obfuscation and denial that defined Kim's four-day trip that was believed to have wrapped up on Thursday........ A motorcade left the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, where foreign dignitaries often stay, on Thursday afternoon, arriving shortly afterward at Beijing's South Station from which Kim's train left a short time later - destination unknown.


BEIJING—North Korean leader Kim Jong Il left China on Friday after a secretive five-day visit that reaffirmed the importance of long-delayed nuclear disarmament talks but produced no firm dateline for rejoining that process.
Mr. Kim's armored train crossed the border back into North Korea mid-morning after leaving Beijing on Thursday,

Spartan95 said:

The North said it would not talk to the South again for the remainder of President Lee Myung-Bak's term of office.

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I'll be surprised if they actually follow through on that. Usually their threats are pretty meaningless. Though if they're expecting him to beg them to change their minds they'll be sorely disappointed.

Spartan95 said:

Huh?

Singapore has an indigenous commercial shipbuilding industry, and its oil rig building is amongst the most established in the world. Also, we build the majority of the warships of our own navy (some are under ToT agreements, such as the RSS Formidable class stealth frigates).

As for naval disasters, we have had our share too. The most tragic being the collision of RSS Courageous with an oil tanker that resulted in 4 female sailors losing their lives.

These info are readily available on the internet, and a simple google will find it. ff

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Singapore has no experience in naval disaster investigation. For the RSS Courageous investigation, they relied on USN assistance for the investigation.

Mr T said:

I'll be surprised if they actually follow through on that. Usually their threats are pretty meaningless. Though if they're expecting him to beg them to change their minds they'll be sorely disappointed.

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there is a interesting brinksmanship competition going on among them at the moment...we'll see who breaks first.

lol and it seems that the south koreans will be the one that will back off first LMAO

well, you cant really play game of chicken with kim jong il and expect to win

I came across this breaking news, does anyone know any more about it?




South Korea's military was tracking four North Korean submarines which disappeared from their east coast base after conducting naval training in the East Sea earlier this week, a military official in Seoul said Wednesday.

Locations of the North's four 300-ton-class submarines have been unknown for two days, the military official said, noting, "We are tracking the four submarines by mobilizing all naval capabilities in the East Sea."

Above Top Secret isn't exactly credible, but the link goes to Yonhap which is real. Although one of the ATS posters did make a good point, which is that it is a good idea to put subs out to sea in a time of tension merely to keep them safe.

War is still highly unlikely.

As for the state of the investigation, I think that we have shown on here that the evidence is not as "ironclad" as it has been claimed to be. But it has proven that a torpedo caused the explosion, and the most likely culprit by far is North Korea, due to quite a lot of circumstantial evidence and lack of any other likely culprit. I suppose it could all be a huge conspiracy on the part of the United States. That theory certainly hasn't been proven wrong. But then again Bigfoot hasn't been proven to NOT exist, it hasn't been proven that there weren't WMDs in Iraq, and half of the posters on here say everything is a huge conspiracy on the part of the United States anyway.

Is that a fair assessment?

Actually in my opinion (not basing on any source though), this incident (the sinking of the Cheonan) came as a godsent to many parties at once.

For the Japan's government, it came as good timing whereby the government had all the reason to let US continue their presence in one of the contested airbase, (if I recall correctly, the government of Japan wanted to move the airbase to other location in the country, much to the annoyance of the citizens and most probably US too.) many had demanded the removal of the airbase, which everyone knows is not going to happen. Thus the sinking of Cheonan, actually give the Japanese government a reason for her people that that area is not safe, and they needed US presence there to 'protect' them.

For the South Korean (except for the families of the dead), this is a god send too. It give SK's government all the reason to sanction NK, and not provide any aides to NK. In the past the SK president - Li ming Bo had wanted to do it... but couldn't really find a valid reason.

For US... well... it will decrease some pressures by Japan and SK to reduce their presence in the area due to demands from their citizens.

rhino123 said:

Actually in my opinion (not basing on any source though), this incident (the sinking of the Cheonan) came as a godsent to many parties at once.

For the Japan's government, it came as good timing whereby the government had all the reason to let US continue their presence in one of the contested airbase, (if I recall correctly, the government of Japan wanted to move the airbase to other location in the country, much to the annoyance of the citizens and most probably US too.) many had demanded the removal of the airbase, which everyone knows is not going to happen. Thus the sinking of Cheonan, actually give the Japanese government a reason for her people that that area is not safe, and they needed US presence there to 'protect' them.

For the South Korean (except for the families of the dead), this is a god send too. It give SK's government all the reason to sanction NK, and not provide any aides to NK. In the past the SK president - Li ming Bo had wanted to do it... but couldn't really find a valid reason.

For US... well... it will decrease some pressures by Japan and SK to reduce their presence in the area due to demands from their citizens.

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It's pretty clear that this is the last thing the South Koreans wanted. That's why they initially said it was an accident and only entertained the notion that the Norks did it after the situation became suspicious.

Finn McCool said:

It's pretty clear that this is the last thing the South Koreans wanted. That's why they initially said it was an accident and only entertained the notion that the Norks did it after the situation became suspicious.

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Yes, the south korea citizens generally do not want war with North Korea. However they do not want massive aides to go to South Korea too, thus it had been widely criticise of the formal president that given to NK. Thus in my opinion it was a good thing for the president of SK that this happen and so he could impose a sanction and cut away all of the aides.

What we are seeing is that SK citizens do not want war with NK... but they might not want to provide massive amount of aides to NK too... especially since NK seemed to have been taking these aides for granted and the attitude against SK did not improve at all.