The sinking of South Korean Corvette Cheonan

ASEAN ministers called for early restart of six-party talks

Xinhua, July 20, 2010

Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Tuesday expressed their concern about increased tension in the Korean Peninsula following a South Korean warship sinking and called for early resumption of six- party talks.

Ministers attending the 43rd ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting expressed the support for a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula and encouraged the parties concerned to resume the six-party talks as soon as possible, said the meeting's spokesman Tran Ngoc An at a news briefing. "The six-party talks will be a main solution for long-term peace in peninsula," said An.

ASEAN foreign ministers also expressed their support for the declaration of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) earlier this month on the Cheonan warship sinking, which cost the lives of 46 South Korean sailors, said An.

ASEAN foreign ministers extended condolences to the people and government of the Republic of Korea for their loss, said the spokesman

The foreign ministers called for parties involved to remain restraint, increase confidence and resolve disputes and disagreements through peaceful methods, said the spokesman.

The six-party talks involve China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan. It is targeted at realizing denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

The talks were launched in 2003 and have been stalled since December 2008.

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Red Moon said:

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article was on china.org.cn a couple of days ago. It is somewhat lukewarm, but if you consider that the 6 party talks are China's answer to the tensions on the Korean peninsula, and not military drills threatening the DPRK, then this looks a bit like ASEAN is backing China's position. Here's the article:

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HANOI, Vietnam — Opening a new source of potential friction with China, the Obama administration said Friday that it would step into a tangled dispute between China and its smaller Asian neighbors over a string of strategically sensitive islands in the South China Sea.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking at an Asian regional security meeting in Vietnam, stressed that the United States remained neutral on which regional countries had stronger territorial claims to the islands. But she said the United States had an interest in preserving free shipping in the area and would be willing to facilitate multilateral talks on the issue.

Though presented as an offer to help ease tensions, the stance amounts to a sharp rebuke to China. Beijing has insisted for years that all the islands belong to China and that any disputes should be resolved by China. In March, senior Chinese officials pointedly warned their American counterparts that they would brook no interference in the South China Sea, which they called a “core interest.”

Many of the islands are just rocks or spits of sand, but they are rich in oil and natural gas deposits, and China views the islands as important outposts that extend its territorial waters far into the busy shipping lanes in the sea.

“The United States has a national interest in freedom of navigation, open access to Asia’s maritime commons and respect for international law in the South China Sea,” Mrs. Clinton said.

The announcement was a significant victory for the Vietnamese, who have had deadly clashes in past decades with China over some of the islands. Vietnam’s strategy has been to try to “internationalize” the disputes by bringing in other players for multilateral negotiations that dilute China’s power.

The administration’s decision to get involved appeared to catch China flat-footed and angered its foreign minister, Yang Jiechi, at a time when the country is already on edge over naval exercises the United States and South Korea will hold starting this weekend off the Korean Peninsula.

Twelve of the 27 countries at the security meeting spoke out in favor of a new approach to the South China Sea, prompting Mr. Yang to observe that the American effort seemed orchestrated.

International concern has been deepening about China’s maritime ambitions, which have expanded with its economic and military muscle. Earlier this year, China raised tensions with Vietnam by announcing plans to develop tourism in one of the island groups, the Paracels, which the two nations fought over in 1974 before China assumed full control. They had another lethal clash in 1988 over the Spratly island group.

In recent months, administration officials said, China has harassed fishing boats and leaned on energy companies that have tried to make offshore deals with other countries.

Although American relations with China on political and economic matters are regarded as stable, military ties have become strained over United States arms sales to Taiwan and American concerns about China’s growing naval ambitions. In June, China withdrew an invitation to host a visit by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, and the two have largely suspended regular military-to-military talks.

This week, China was already bristling over the joint American-South Korean naval exercises because some drills are to take place in the Yellow Sea, which China claims as a military operation zone.

At the security meeting, other tensions flared on the familiar front of North Korea, with an official threatening a “physical response” to the naval exercises. The United States made no secret that it intended the drills to be a deterrent to North Korean aggression. It announced them after an investigation led by South Korea found the North responsible for torpedoing a South Korean Navy ship, the Cheonan, in March.

The North Korean official, Ri Tong-il, said, “This is not defensive training,” noting that the United States was deploying one of its most formidable nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, the George Washington, in the exercises. “It is a grave threat to the Korean Peninsula and also to the region of Asia as a whole.”

But North Korea has opened a small window of engagement on the issue. Military officers from North Korea and the United Nations Command met on the inter-Korean border on Friday for the second time this month to discuss the sinking. Meeting at the border village of Panmunjom, colonels from both sides “exchanged ideas and further details for convening a joint assessment group” to investigate “the cause of the armistice violations that led to the sinking,” the American-led United Nations Command said.

It remained unclear whether North Korea accepted the proposal. North Korea has so far insisted that it conduct its own investigation by sending a team of “inspectors” to South Korea.

On Friday, the United Nations Command notified North Korea of plans to hold another joint America and South Korean military exercise: an annual drill from Aug. 16 to Aug. 26. As is normal for the annual drill, no location was announced.

Mrs. Clinton’s stop in Hanoi wrapped up a grueling trip that amounted to a tour of American wars, past and present: from Afghanistan to the demilitarized zone in South Korea, and finally to Vietnam, where, in a sunset ceremony, she watched the remains of three American soldiers killed in the war loaded on an Air Force transport plane to be returned to the United States.

Mrs. Clinton sought to apply lessons from the American experience in the Korean War to Afghanistan.

“We saw South Korea struggle to become a functioning democracy — huge amounts of instability, coups, corruption, scandal, you name it,” she said. “It’s good to remind ourselves: the United States has stood with countries that went through a lot of ups and downs for a lot longer than eight years.”

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solarz said:

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Coincidence? Or part of a calculated strategy to further encircle China?

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AssassinsMace said:

These are suppose to be pics of the ship fished out of the water.

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/6010/56f7b4c2a19942eaa364fe8.jpg[qimg]

[img]http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/2036/9bfef3ba6b20421980f765c.jpg

If it were a torpedo or mine... a ship that size... wouldn't you see more damage even if it were hit on the other side?

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In this Thursday, April 15, 2010 file photo, sunken South Korean naval ship Cheonan is salvaged after it mysteriously exploded and sank off Baengnyeong Island, South Korea.

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In this Wednesday May 19, 2010, photo photographers take pictures of a wreckage of the South Korea naval vessel Cheonan, which was sunken on March 26 near the maritime border with North Korea, at the Second Fleet Command of Navy in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. Evidence overwhelmingly proves North Korea fired a torpedo that sank a South Korean warship in March, killing 46 sailors, investigators said Thursday May 20, 2010.

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getready said:

wow, people here are really entertaining thoughts of military strikes, and china removing kim? talk about detached from reality less neo con stuff here please, thanks.

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getready said:

ok i haven't been following this thread for a while. are there any new military plans from our armchair generals?

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Finn McCool said:

The situation blew over. North Korea got away with it's criminal shenanigans again, like they always will, until China and South Korea finally decide to completely cut them off.

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