North Korea fired over 200 shells onto the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, killing two South Korean marines, wounding a score of others, damaging over 60 buildings, and prompting a retaliatory strike of about 80 shells from South Korean artillery.
Reports say the 1,000 civilian residents of Yeonpyeong were led to bunkers during the North Korean strike.
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The U.S. has condemned the attack and the major regional powers — the U.S., China, Russia — are calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
North Korea claims that South Korea fired first. South Korea, in turn, said it was engaged in military exercises off its west coast, and fired test shots as part of those drills. But the shots, they say, were aimed west, not north.
Thank you Jimmy Carter... We had a chance to solve this problem in 1994, but we didn't. I wonder if this how Churchill felt in 1939, looking back at the re-occupation of the Rhineland.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIs this war? More to the point, how is this not war for South Korea? (Anyone.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI KNEW Truman shouldn't have fired MacArthur!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs the late great Dennis Hopper once said, "Bad things man..."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYes, this is Jimmy Carter's fault. What a simple world you must live in.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWeakness invites aggressiveness.
Whereas the United States is moving to "condemn" the act, North Korea has confirmation #2 that if it invaded South Korea proper the United States will do little to stop it, even if we have troops stationed over there (the first confirmation was the sinking of a South Korean corvette that killed 11 sailors).
Like hell China and Russia wants this stopped. They've received confirmation of the lack of seriousness on the part of the U.S. as well.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Nork navy should already be at the bottom of the ocean.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNot just weakness, but moral relativism invites aggression.
Israel, South Korea and Poland all walk on tiptoe through eggshells while Iran, North Korea and Russia rattle their sabres and advance with each opportunity our open-handedness grants them.
We are dangerously incompetently led. Our state department needs new leadership. It is behaving like a commerce department, pursuing economic opportunity at the cost of not just national, but global security.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm willing to give the administration some more time to work diplomatically. The last thing we want to do is get into a shooting war with a nuclear power in the middle of a dictatorial regime change, one that could mangle the global economy by sending the price of electronic components through the roof.
While I agree the Nork navy might be better off as a coral reef project, they have enough conventional missiles to level Seoul, and any response we could offer would be cold comfort indeed.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo much for that healthy Thanksgiving dinner Michelle was having someone else cook up ...
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"I'm willing to give the administration some more time to work diplomatically."
We've been trying diplomacy for 50-odd years. It got us to a point where the Norks called off the truce and attacked the South Koreans twice. By the way, the South was never attacked in any prior administration after the end of hostilities of the original Korean War. Nope, not even during the Carter and Clinton administrations. Act belligerent and defiant to the South, yes, but not outright attacked it. They instead do it when America has a President who has a giant "Kick Me" sign on his back and is more focused on punishing his fellow Americans and the Jewish State and treats true allies with the back of his hand.
Diplomacy may indeed be the only option we have as of now, but even that in the hands of Obama is proving to be a massive folly.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMore evidence that China is feeling adventurous. When a dog bites you, scowl at the owner, not the animal.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf we weren't in Iraq, our commitment to South Korea would seem a lot more credible.
Another reason not to invade countries just because you don't like them.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJason, while my feelings on Iraq are more complicated, I agree that over-engagement elsewhere hurts our deterrent in Korea. Two things, though:
1) The Eighth Army is nothing to sneeze at. Neither are the ROK forces.
2) The real issue is the involvement of China. This isn't 1950 any more. A second Korean War would be a mega-proxy war for the world's two biggest powers.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEven before I became an adult, I had pegged the Korean Peninsula as perhaps the single most dangerous place on earth (with Taiwan being a close second.) I do not trust the Chinese government to stay out of a resumption of the state of war between North and South Korea. And since we have a significant military presence on the Peninsula, the possibility of renewed fighting there raises the unsavoury possibility of a war that could rapidly escalate to a wider and considerably more destructive war between the US and China and our respective allies.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMyKu:
Don't think I could stand
to lose Colonel Henry Blake
again. Radar cries.
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Nukes are a game changer. Why do they have nukes? We know why they have nukes...and an autographed basketball.
As much as I'd like us to find the nearest ten foot pole with which to not touch this mess, we're committed. Salacious Crumb would not be getting froggy if Jabba wasn't yanking his chain. If this is indeed a case of China testing us, I'm not convinced the current administration has what it takes to put us on top. No one wants LeBron's autograph, anyway.
I would not be surprised to see this escalate. Cool part is, we'll get blamed, regardless.
Since this is a war the U.N. never finished, I'm sure we can count on them to pick up where they left off, right? (How does one further sanction a population that is eating tree bark?)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf the North Koreans actually do launch an attack, do our ground forces get to fight or will I wake up to the Pusan Perimeter again in a couple of days?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's time to end this absurd situation. First we should announce complete solidarity with the South, then perform tactical strikes against the North from the 38th parallel north for 10 miles or so to prevent them from obliterating Seoul with artillery, then simultaneously nuke Pyongyang and all known North Korean military and nuclear facilities. Reduce the North to a pile of embers.
Not only would this end the Korean conflict in an hour--something that Clinton, Bush and now Obama have had too little guts to do--but no one in Tehran or Caracas or Beijing or Moscow or Damascus would ever mess with our interests again. Thus a host of threats to Western Civilization would be neutralized by one show of fortitude. The loss of innocent life would be orders of magnitude less than that which is inevitable in the directon we are now heading.
While I'm at it, I should hope that Mr Obama would sprout wings and fly...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNot to worry, your president should be able to sort all this out with one of his fine unicorn chasing speeches.
Seriously, just how many of your allies have to be sacrificed before you remove that well-meaning but completely incapable twit from the White House? Western civilisation will not survive another 6 years of the man so do us all a favour eh?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDaniel, I agree that we have the military might to defend South Korea, heck, we've got thousands of nuclear weapons!
But I don't think we have the stomach for fighting three wars at once, especially when not one of them represents a territorial threat to the U.S.A., and I think our enemies know this.
Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Korea at the same time? What if someone were to actually attack the United States during this period? Are we the country that can defend American interests everywhere but America?
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