South Korean ship fires on a ship

[Happy Times]

The survivors have told the explosion was external and lifted the ship up and broke it in two.
Narrows down the options.
No one wants to but taking down NK would be the right thing to do, it could take 20 years to wait for its internal collapse.

[Castout]

Warships just don't go exploding in half by accident.

Kursk was on a torpedo firing drill....but this Korean warship was not doing any dangerous or risky drill . . .

what if it was a US ship that exploded?

I wonder what the reaction might be?

--self censored line deleted--

I didn't imply it was definitely North Korea but it seemed like a torpedo attack and that paints a very suspicious light on North Korea. Could it be that a third party wish to paint a bad picture on North Korea? The answer to that would lead to subsequent conclusion.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Happy Times

No one wants to but taking down NK would be the right thing to do, it could take 20 years to wait for its internal collapse.

Judging from the german, very mixed experiences, I wonder if South Korea is any better suited to deal with the economic and financial consequences of a reunification. South Koreans will be surprised at what it means to clean up the mess a failed state has left behind after half a century. Germany for sure has totally, fundamentally, absolutely underestimated the costs. Back then they made promises about blossoming landscapes within just a handful of years. Today we know that East germany for the most is the fastest failiung area in all Europe, and in growing rural areas but also minor and medium sized cities gets abandoned by young population.

[diver]

Originally Posted by Happy Times

No one wants to but taking down NK would be the right thing to do, it could take 20 years to wait for its internal collapse.

20 years of peace is better than 20 days of the kind of war you propose.

It is easy to say from the relative safety of a computer desk in Finland that we should act now to fix the NK problem. But believe me there are plenty of people in the world (and on this forum) that do not want to go rattling any sabres until we know for certain what happened.

Now saying here that it may have been an old mine left from the Korean war era, or some other time. Makes you think though doesn't it? Some age old mine brings the situation to a point where some loony individuals clamour for a nuclear showdown.

[Fincuan]

Loony individuals do what loony individuals do, and have done for ages. In this case the only loony individual whose opinion matters has remained silent so far, and the rest we can safely ignore. On the forums there's even tools for it

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by Fincuan

On the forums there's even tools for it

Originally Posted by Fincuan

Loony individuals do what loony individuals do, and have done for ages. In this case the only loony individual whose opinion matters has remained silent so far, and the rest we can safely ignore. On the forums there's even tools for it

In this case the loony individuals whose opinion matters would be the leaders of SK and NK. Too bad there's no ignore button in real life.

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by Castout

Personally deleted by me

reason: might be felt insensitive to the sailors who fell victim in the incident.

I can still see that post. Just FWI

Originally Posted by OneToughHerring

Now saying here that it may have been an old mine left from the Korean war era, or some other time. Makes you think though doesn't it? Some age old mine brings the situation to a point where some loony individuals clamour for a nuclear showdown.

Mine from WWI starts WWIII that is fought with the weapons that ended WWII.

Originally Posted by Fincuan

On the forums there's even tools for it

Too bad we don't have these tools in real life... We really should put R&D on that...

[Castout]

Originally Posted by OneToughHerring

Now saying here that it may have been an old mine left from the Korean war era, or some other time. Makes you think though doesn't it? Some age old mine brings the situation to a point where some loony individuals clamour for a nuclear showdown.

Umm nobody is clamoring for nuclear war

But the last time the world checked Iraqi was attacked for just believed having possession of WMD . Now it's implied that Iraq was probably not going to be attacked if it really had in their possessions WMD.

To me it looked like a good kill though

But let's hope that both side could restrain themselves in the long run after all retaliation is an ugly word once received should be forgotten. After all it's only logical that we must assume that too a degree the government of South Korea knows better.

[Jimbuna]

I'd hate to see a military confrontation because of an old mine (presuming that is what it was)....these are being found from the last world war in European waters on an almost daily basis.

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

I'd hate to see a military confrontation because of an old mine (presuming that is what it was)....these are being found from the last world war in European waters on an almost daily basis.

According to the South Korean government the last was found in 1984. These waters have to be extensively charted by both sides since they are so close to the DMZ, I find it hard to believe that the ROK/US forces haven't cleared them all since 1984.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100329/...rea_ship_sinks

Its possible that it was an old mine from 1950 but I think the odds are better that it was recently planted.

[SteamWake]

Here is a newswire story that really doesent tell us anything new excpet for coverage on rescue efforts.

Seems a rescue diver has died and another injured.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100330/D9EOTQJ00.html

[XabbaRus]

I think even if it has been sunk by a newly laid mine or by submarine the ROK has it in their interests to downplay it at the moment.

ROK wants war no more than NK really wants war...however if it was a submarine attack it allows ROK to deal with NK quietly.

If it was an overt attack then all hell would be let loos and NK knows that and what it would bring.