The situation on the Korean Peninsula has sharply deteriorated in the last several days. An international expert commission was set specifically to investigate the causes for the sinking of the Republic of Korea’s Cheonan Navy corvette in the Yellow Sea on March 26, 2010, causing numerous casualties. The commission concluded that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was involved in this incident.
The people of Russia share the people of South Korea’s grief at what has happened and express their deepest condolences to the families of the victims. At the moment, Russian experts are carefully and thoroughly examining materials on the outcomes of the investigation which were submitted to Russia by the South Korean side.
Following the suggestion from South Korean authorities, the President of Russia decided to send to the Republic of Korea a group of highly qualified Russian specialists for a detailed on-the-spot review of the investigation results and the physical evidence that has been collected. Dmitry Medvedev finds it crucially important to establish the true cause for why the ship sank, and to identify the responsible parties with full certainty.
Russia presumes that should reliable information on involvement of any parties with the incident be available, such guilty parties shall be subjected to response measures deemed necessary and appropriate by the international community.
Besides, the President of Russia finds it important that all parties engaged demonstrate restraint and moderation for the purposes of preventing further escalation of tension, and maintaining peace, security and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the region overall.
Russia is ready to continue addressing this problem in close cooperation with any interested states.
Somehow, I get the feeling this incident has Mukden written all over it.
"Where Argentina goes, Latin America will go".
Leonid Brezhnev
Soviet cogitations: 3688 Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 07 Jul 2006, 04:49 Ideology: Juche Old Bolshevik
28 May 2010, 02:00
Speaking of Russia...
Quote:
A leading Russian expert on North Korea said on Thursday he had serious doubts about Pyongyang's involvement into the sinking of South Korea's Cheonan warship.
Relations between the two Koreas soured after Seoul accused North Korea of firing a torpedo from a submarine at the 1,200-ton South Korean Cheonan corvette. The vessel sank near the disputed Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea on March 26 causing the loss of 46 lives.
"I personally have serous doubts that it was North Korea that sank the ship. Why do this? For what purpose?... I don't see any logic," said Konstantin Pulikovsky, who maintained official contacts with Pyongyang while serving as presidential envoy to Russia's Far East in 2000-2005.
He said an armed conflict in the region was possible after the maritime incident, which had seriously escalated tensions in the region.
"But such conflict development is unwelcome, [and] unnecessary. I see that the stronger parties to the conflict are willing to impose their will on the 'weaker party.' But, in my opinion, the stronger party's task is to assist the weaker [party], not to ruin it," Pulikovsky said.
On Monday, South Korea froze economic relations and maritime communications with its northern neighbor. The decision was yet another blow to the North's economy already damaged by past UN sanctions intended to force Pyongyang to quit its nuclear program.
North Korea retaliated on Tuesday by announcing that it was cutting all ties with Seoul and allegedly ordered its 1.2-million armed forces to get ready for combat. Two days later, it said that it is withdrawing all its military safeguards in its relations with the South and scrapping their agreement aimed at preventing clashes off the west coast.
Tensions continued to escalate on Thursday as Pyongyang threatened to block South Korean access to the joint Kaesong Industrial Park on the border between the two countries, where some 700 South Korean citizens work.
"I think that the North wants to show that it will be hard to defeat them in an armed conflict," Pulikovsky said.
The Russian expert said that according to his extensive knowledge of the North Korean leadership, armed forces and popular sentiments, "it will be impossible to defeat them with conventional weapons."
The expert said Russia should continue discussions within the framework of the six-party talks to ease tensions.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent on Wednesday a group of Russian experts to South Korea to examine the results of the investigation into the Yellow Sea incident.
Soviet cogitations: 7674 Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 11 Nov 2004, 02:08 Embalmed
28 May 2010, 02:51
evidence?
Quote:
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sent on Wednesday a group of Russian experts to South Korea to examine the results
Hey Russia, This jet went down a little while back, had a bunch of Polish heads of state on board, reported no survivors. But, even before an investigation was launched, you swore it was pilot error and Russia had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Then there's this video on the internet that went viral, showing unidentified figures walking through the wreckage, followed by gunshots.
Meanwhile nobody other than Russian investigators have been allowed to visit the crash site, see any evidence, or examine the flight data recorders, nor were the Polish allowed to examine the crash site to recover sensitive documents that might have survived the crash.
Now I'm not one to cramp your style, Russia, but isn't this a bit suspicious, maybe even hypocritical? Poland's president, a huge chunk of its cabinet, and its entire senior military leadership died in a mysterious accident where a military aircraft flown by a seasoned flight crew somehow lost an ILS-equipped runway in heavy fog and crashed, and every attempt at an international investigation has been flatly refused, yet you take issue at not being permitted to investigate an NK/SK military incident?
Sounds like you need to do a little of what we in the West call STFU and sit back down in your remarkably comfortable looking chairs.
Soviet cogitations: 4955 Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 13 Feb 2008, 15:25 Ideology: Other Leftist Politburo
28 May 2010, 04:11
I'm pretty concerned this could lead to another war. On one hand, I think the North could quite possibly give the world a shock and make some gains if it comes to this, especially with the Americans tied up in the Middle East. I would get a kick out of seeing the reaction in the media. But the rational side of me says that war is an unacceptable option under all but the most dire circumstances. Whoever wins in the end, a war between the two would be devastating and could cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
I don't think this is a case of the DPRK being crazy war mongers. If anything, the current tensions are mostly due to the confrontational policy of the South's present government. The last two or three were quite conciliatory and some small gains towards peaceful reunification were made. With it's economy still recovering from the collapse of the Soviet Union and facing ever stronger isolation from the West, North Korea is in a precarious position right now. Threatening war is one of the few methods they have to encourage the South to settle down and start talking again.
Soviet cogitations: 1384 Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 28 Feb 2009, 03:41 Party Member
28 May 2010, 09:04
Quote:
Hey Russia, This jet went down a little while back, had a bunch of Polish heads of state on board, reported no survivors. But, even before an investigation was launched, you swore it was pilot error and Russia had absolutely nothing to do with it.
Then there's this video on the internet that went viral, showing unidentified figures walking through the wreckage, followed by gunshots.
Meanwhile nobody other than Russian investigators have been allowed to visit the crash site, see any evidence, or examine the flight data recorders, nor were the Polish allowed to examine the crash site to recover sensitive documents that might have survived the crash.
Now I'm not one to cramp your style, Russia, but isn't this a bit suspicious, maybe even hypocritical? Poland's president, a huge chunk of its cabinet, and its entire senior military leadership died in a mysterious accident where a military aircraft flown by a seasoned flight crew somehow lost an ILS-equipped runway in heavy fog and crashed, and every attempt at an international investigation has been flatly refused, yet you take issue at not being permitted to investigate an NK/SK military incident?
Sounds like you need to do a little of what we in the West call STFU and sit back down in your remarkably comfortable looking chairs.
Your friends, NATO
that sounds like conspiracy theories. any good source on these? especially that only russia was allowed to investigate? was the crash even in russian territory? if not there's no reason that russian would investigate it.
personally i'm quite happy someone is standing up for north korea.
Soviet cogitations: 3116 Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 12 Jun 2006, 02:14 Ideology: Marxism-Leninism Party Bureaucrat
28 May 2010, 19:59
The crash was in russian soil. According to the black-box, there were unauthorized people in the cabin in the moment of the crash. The pilot didn't do as the control tower advised, that is to land in another airport because of the fog. The most plausible cause, according to russians and poles, was that the pilot was forced to land by Kaczynski himself because he didn't want to be late for the ceremony. This has already happened in a previous flight, but that time they got lucky. The polish government is satisfied with the russian investigation and polish authorities will receive the data flight recorders on Monday. There is a joint investigation between russians and polish experts and another done by the polish military. Source
This accident has nothing to do with the sinking of the south corean ship. It was only a way for Trent to derail the thread and show his russophobia.
Now, let's got back to Korea.
"Where Argentina goes, Latin America will go".
Leonid Brezhnev
Soviet cogitations: 106 Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 20 Feb 2010, 11:57 Resident Admiral
28 May 2010, 23:31
Sorry if i failed to read all your replies about the sinking. I'm very interested about Naval facts, and at real i think that a North Korean submarine sunk the ship. But as ever, the truth it's in the middle. My view is that the SK Navy knew about submarines missions in that areas, and some days after the attack there was a new that NK subs were often on patrols. We knew also that a secon SK corvette fired against an unidentified object. Probably this corvette received order to open fire at the NK support ship, while the Cheonan didn't received orers. NK midget submarines operate together their mother-ship and probably this unit sent the sub to counterattack. It's obvious that NK don't want admit it's involvement. And this is a laudable conduct to avoid the war. SK warmongers want only this crisis for elections' propaganda .. All this is similar at the Gulf of Tonkin.. there wasn't an attack, but a Vietnamese reaction.. and the US navy exaggerated the battle.
My thoughts are for the poor SK sailors, conducted to death by the Seul's puppets And also for the heroic NK sailors, that did the third successful submarine attack against a warship after the WWII.
Global Research, May 31, 2010 Wayne Madsen Report - 2010-05-28
WMR's intelligence sources in Asia suspect that the March attack on the South Korean Navy anti-submarine warfare (ASW) corvette, the Cheonan, was a false flag attack designed to appear as coming from North Korea.
One of the main purposes for increasing tensions on the Korean peninsula was to apply pressure on Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to reverse course on moving the U.S. Marine Corps base off Okinawa. Hatoyama has admitted that the tensions over the sinking of the Cheonan played a large part in his decision to allow the U.S. Marines to remain on Okinawa. Hatoyama's decision has resulted in a split in the ruling center-left coalition government, a development welcome in Washington, with Mizuho Fukushima, the Social Democratic Party leader threatening to bolt the coalition over the Okinawa reversal.
The Cheonan was sunk near Baengnyeong Island, a westernmost spot that is far from the South Korean coast, but opposite the North Korean coast. The island is heavily militarized and within artillery fire range of North Korean coastal defenses, which lie across a narrow channel.
The Cheonan, an ASW corvette, was decked out with state-of-the-art sonar, plus it was operating in waters with extensive hydrophone sonar arrays and acoustic underwater sensors. There is no South Korean sonar or audio evidence of a torpedo, submarine or mini-sub in the area. Since there is next to no shipping in the channel, the sea was silent at the time of the sinking.
However, Baengnyeong Island hosts a joint US-South Korea military intelligence base and the US Navy SEALS operate out of the base. In addition, four U.S. Navy ships were in the area, part of the joint U.S-South Korean Exercise Foal Eagle, during the sinking of the Cheonan. An investigation of the suspect torpedo's metallic and chemical fingerprints show it to be of German manufacture. There are suspicions that the US Navy SEALS maintains a sampling of European torpedoes for sake of plausible deniability for false flag attacks. Also, Berlin does not sell torpedoes to North Korea, however, Germany does maintain a close joint submarine and submarine weapons development program with Israel.
The presence of the USNS Salvor, one of the participants in Foal Eagle, so close to Baengnyeong Island during the sinking of the South Korean corvette also raises questions.
The Salvor, a civilian Navy salvage ship, which participated in mine laying activities for the Thai Marines in the Gulf of Thailand in 2006, was present near the time of the blast with a complement of 12 deep sea divers.
Beijing, satisfied with North Korea's Kim Jong Il's claim of innocence after a hurried train trip from Pyongyang to Beijing, suspects the U.S. Navy's role in the Cheonan's sinking, with particular suspicion on the role of the Salvor. The suspicions are as follows:
1. The Salvor engaged in a seabed mine-installation operation, in other words, attaching horizontally fired anti-submarine mines on the sea floor in the channel. 2. The Salvor was doing routine inspection and maintenance on seabed mines, and put them into an electronic active mode (hair trigger release) as part of the inspection program. 3. A SEALS diver attached a magnetic mine to the Cheonan, as part of a covert program aimed at influencing public opinion in South Korea, Japan and China.
The Korean peninsula tensions have conveniently overshadowed all other agenda items on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visits to Beijing and Seoul.
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report(subscription required). Wayne Madsen is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
"Where Argentina goes, Latin America will go".
Leonid Brezhnev
Soviet cogitations: 4340 Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 20 Jul 2007, 06:59 Ideology: Marxism-Leninism Forum Commissar
04 Jun 2010, 22:58
Quote:
S. Korea takes case to the UN
South Korea's ambassador to the UN, Park In-kook, on Friday handed a letter to Claude Heller, permanent representative of the UN Security Council presidency Mexico, asking for considerations on the South Korean ship allegedly sunk by North Korea.
Tensions between the two Koreas grew after South Korea's 1,200-ton Cheonan corvette sunk near the disputed Northern Limit Line in the Yellow Sea on March 26, with the loss of 46 lives. An international investigation concluded that North Korea fired a torpedo at the vessel from a submarine, although Pyongyang has denied the allegations.
Earlier Friday, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said Seoul already appealed to the United Nations Security Council, but in reality the letter was handed over after 1500 GMT.
Pyongyang claims the incident was "orchestrated" by the United States in order to "hype the threat from North Korea" ahead of "Congress midterm elections slated for the coming November."
The diplomat said the letter contains no call for sanctions but only a request to consider the situation. Veto-wielding China is set against possible sanctions.
A group of Russian experts are in South Korea assessing the results of the investigation and will present their findings to President Dmitry Medvedev.
Following the investigation into the sinking, South Korea froze economic relations and maritime communications with its northern neighbor, further crippling the North's economy, which is already damaged by UN sanctions intended to force it to quit its nuclear program.
Despite a history of being attacked by North Korea, Seoul has never taken Pyongyang to the Security Council for an inter-Korean provocation, indicating now that it wants to take the matter beyond the Korean peninsula.
In the letter, Park said an international investigation determined that the torpedo that sank the 1,200-ton South Korean corvette Cheonan in March was made in North Korea and that additional evidence pointed "overwhelmingly" to the conclusion that it was fired by a North Korean submarine.
He called the attack a violation of the U.N. Charter, the 1953 Armistice Agreement that ended the Korean War, and the 1992 North-South agreement on reconciliation, nonaggression and cooperation. The two Koreas technically remain in a state of war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.
"As such, the armed attack by North Korea constitutes a threat to the peace and security on the Korean peninsula and beyond," he said.
"My government requests that the Security Council duly consider this matter and respond in a manner appropriate to the gravity of North Korea's military provocation in order to deter recurrence of any further provocation by North Korea," Park said.
Looks like the saber-rattling has given results. At least they are pretendidly washing their hands, leaving the call for sanctions to the US.
"It does not suffice to reject the error; we must overcome it, explain it and outgrow it." - Antonio Labriola Forum Rules
The BBC's Barbara Plett, at the UN headquarters in New York, says the South Koreans presented evidence, including a Powerpoint presentation, which they said showed their warship was sunk by a North Korean torpedo.
Not sure how the DPRK will respond to RoK's Powerpoint presentation.
Soviet cogitations: 4779 Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 12 May 2010, 07:43 Ideology: Other Leftist Politburo
15 Jun 2010, 02:57
Oh, noes! Not the Powerpoint! Whatever shall we do against the might of teh powerpoint?! If I were the DPRK, I would just laugh at them. I mean, how easy is it to make up some bullshit on a Powerpoint presentation and say it's FACT? I know I've done it plenty of times myself in school...
It is a pretty interesting article with responses from South Koreans on how they feel about the matter. There are actually quite a few people (or at the very least, more people than I expected) who are or saying that it's the ruling party exploiting this situation for the upcoming elections, with some even expressing skepticism over the official line. If the BBC News report is accurate, it would seem that the South Korean people at least are certainly approaching this in a better way than Americans would react to something like this happening to the US.
“Conservatism is the blind and fear-filled worship of dead radicals” - Mark Twain
Soviet cogitations: 4340 Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 20 Jul 2007, 06:59 Ideology: Marxism-Leninism Forum Commissar
28 Jun 2010, 19:14
U.S.: Cheonan sinking was not international terrorism WASHINGTON Mon Jun 28, 2010 1:52pm EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The sinking of a South Korea warship widely blamed on North Korea does not by itself justify putting Pyongyang back on a U.S. terrorism blacklist, the U.S. State Department said on Monday.
The United States has yet to take tangible action to punish North Korea for its alleged March 26 sinking of the Cheonan corvette in which 46 South Korean sailors died. Pyongyang has denied responsibility for the incident.
"It is our judgment that the sinking of the Cheonan is not an act of international terrorism and by itself would not trigger placing North Korea on the U.S. state (sponsors) of terrorism list," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters.
"It does not suffice to reject the error; we must overcome it, explain it and outgrow it." - Antonio Labriola Forum Rules
Soviet cogitations: 3116 Defected to the U.S.S.R.: 12 Jun 2006, 02:14 Ideology: Marxism-Leninism Party Bureaucrat
28 Jun 2010, 19:53
But... isn't that obvious? I mean, even if North Korea was to blame for the attack on the Cheonan, it would be an act of war. Not terrorism. Until both Koreas sign a peace treaty, they're still at war. And the kind of tension there is proof of that.
"Where Argentina goes, Latin America will go".
Leonid Brezhnev
27 May 2010, 15:33
