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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MJ who wrote (81622)	3/26/2010 1:28:05 PM
From: lorne	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224729

MJ...is it true that president hussein obama is making an emergency trip to north korea to bow too and apologise to kim eel for Americas bad behavior? He would have to really stoop very low to plant a smoocher on kim's saggy butt. :-) South Korean ship sinks near disputed border Seoul investigating if navy vessel was hit by torpedo; Cabinet convenes msnbc.com news services Fri., March. 26, 2010 msnbc.msn.com SEOUL - South Korea scrambled naval vessels to western waters near the disputed maritime border with North Korea late Friday after an explosion ripped a hole in the bottom of a military ship, officials and news reports said. South Korea's YTN TV network said the government, which met in emergency session in an underground bunker after the incident, was investigating whether the sinking was due to a torpedo attack by the North. The 1,200-ton ship -- reported to have 104 crew on board -- began sinking off the coast of South Korean-controlled Baengnyeong Island close to North Korea around 10:45 p.m. (1345 GMT, 9:45 a.m. EDT), an official at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy. The Joint Chiefs said that the explosion may have been caused by an attack from North Korea or could have been caused by the boat's own explosives, according to The Korea Herald. The South Korean news agency, Yonhap, reported that the ship, called Cheonan, had sunk by around 12:30 p.m. ET and South Korean broadcaster SBS said many sailors were feared dead. Shortly after the first reports of the sinking, Yonhap said that another South Korean ship fired shots toward an unidentified target in the direction of North Korea. Local residents reported having heard gunfire for about 10 minutes from 11 p.m., the news service said. The Joint Chiefs told the Herald newspaper that the ship had fired warning shots toward the North after its radar detected a suspicious object, but this was later found to be a flock of birds. Attack by North 'not certain' Aides said the South's President, Lee Myung-bak, had ordered the military to focus efforts on rescuing the remaining sailors, according to Yonhap. Lee convened an emergency meeting of security-related ministers at the underground bunker of the presidential office immediately after reports of the sinking, Yonhap said. "For now, it is not certain whether North Korea is related" to the incident, presidential spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye told Yonhap. "President Lee ordered the military to do its best to rescue the soldiers." "Finding the truth (behind the incident) is important, but saving our soldiers is more important," the president was quoted as saying. The incident comes amid heightened tension between the two Koreas, which remain in a state of war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953. There have been previous clashes on the sea border between the North and South. In November, a South Korean vessel opened fire when a ship from the North crossed a disputed sea border. The North Korean ship fired back and the North denied the vessel had fired back. In recent weeks, North Korea has said it was bolstering its defenses in response to joint South Korean-U.S. military drills that were held this month. Earlier Friday, North Korea's military warned South Korea and the United States of "unprecedented nuclear strikes" over a report the two countries plan to prepare for possible instability in the totalitarian country. However the North routinely issues such warnings and officials in Seoul and Washington react calmly. Diplomats in South Korea and the U.S. have repeatedly called on Pyongyang to return to international negotiations aimed at ending its nuclear programs.