North Korea Attacks South Korean Island with Artillery Barrage

[The Lawspeaker]

Could this be the start of the Third Korean War (or the actual Korean War flaring up again and leading to an all out confrontation) ?

[Smaland]

Image: Yonhap News Agency

The Northern Limit Line is the maritime border between North and South Korea.

[Liffrea]

Originally Posted by Eóin
Liff', I bet you £10 it's a proxy war between the USA and the USSR which we will soon discover has only gone under ground.

But the USSR is gone……Russia seem embarrassed by North Korea (so do the Chinese, why discomfort the Americans militarily when the Chinese will own America economically in the next couple of decades anyway?).

Personally I think the Chinese might do them long before America and the South move, they are as much a problem for Beijing as Washington or Seoul, plus the Chinese don’t want the US military stuck in the region indefinitely, the Far East (including Japan) is probably ear marked as a Chinese Co-prosperity sphere.

North Korea taken into Chinese “protection”.

[Smaland]

[YOUTUBE]jslyK1TGuVc[/YOUTUBE]

The above video is actually a narrated slide show that provides images of the South Korean island after the attack.

Embedding has been disabled by request, so click on the link "Watch on Youtube" to view the video.

[Loki]

How believable are the BBC, CNN etc that NK actually shot first? They are denying this. Are we jumping on the bandwagon just because SK is a US ally? The language coming from SK sounds very aggressive. I don't trust the US role in this, nor their devious schemes.

[The Lawspeaker]

Whoever fired first: we should stay the heck out. No Europeans should die or get injured for a bunch of crazies.

[Smaland]

How believable are the BBC, CNN etc that NK actually shot first? They are denying this. Are we jumping on the bandwagon just because SK is a US ally? The language coming from SK sounds very aggressive. I don't trust the US role in this, nor their devious schemes.

I don't see what BBC and CNN stand to gain by not telling the truth about this particular incident. Whatever their agendas may be, there is nothing to gain, and a lot to be lost if they were found out. Besides, BBC and CNN are hardly pro-American, so they weren't tempted to stretch the truth out of sentiment.

It's only proper to use aggressive language when your territory has just been attacked by a hostile power.

If there's any government that is devious and has trouble telling the truth, it's North Korea.

[Harcos]

''Socialism and nationalism have a common concern and aspiration, namely the love for the homeland and nation.'' -- Kim Jong-il.

I long for the day Juche, and North Korean flags wave victoriously in Seoul.

Kick the imperialist capitalists back to Washington!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5T9Ms9_iho

Death to the enemies of the People's Paradise.

Heil the true Korea!

[Vasconcelos]

rofl ok

[Loki]

I don't see what BBC and CNN stand to gain by not telling the truth about this particular incident. Whatever their agendas may be, there is nothing to gain, and a lot to be lost if they were found out. Besides, BBC and CNN are hardly pro-American, so they weren't tempted to stretch the truth out of sentiment.

My friend, the media is one of the most powerful political weapons ever devised by mankind. Correctly wielded, it is a most strategic and 'invisible' weapon for asymmetric warfare, even more effective than a hydrogen bomb.

I do not know about agendas or who's pulling the strings, but this I do know: news articles - especially of a geopolitical importance - should be scrutinized and not just taken at face value. I reckon more than 99% of the readers would do the latter. Mostly because they know too little, but also because they are too lazy to think for themselves.

So let's analyse this particular news article, published all over the world in the major papers.

Question 1: How does the BBC/CNN (I use them as example) know who shot first? Do they have a dedicated reporting team stationed at Yeonpyeong island, and who kept a log of all happenings on the day? Common sense would tell you "no". Therefore I reckon the newsmedia either got their info from South Korean or American military sources (there are 28,500 of them stationed in South Korea).

Question 2: I read, deep into one site's article, that North Korea denied firing first. So here's my question: Why is it reported as fact that NK fired first? Obviously someone is lying, but the CNN/BBC have already made up their mind as to the fact - without any investigation of events at all. They have two versions of a story, but have jumped to pick the version of the story that would be more popular. Surprised? Accurate reporting would have remained more neutral on the matter.

Now, I am not saying that NK is the innocent party here, I am saying that we should not take everything reported without scrutinizing it. It may well be that the South is innocent, but the very honest fact is that we just don't know at this point - and probably never will.