Thoughts on the Cheonan Incident

Not everyone is convinced that the sinking of the Cheonan naval ship some weeks back is the result of North Korea. Some people believe that the ship got grounded during a low tide and that another ship rammed into it; that the sinking was not due to a torpedo attack. Apparently parts of a torpedo were found at the site with North Korean fonts stamped onto it. That area of the sea is full of old debris, which are remnants of the Korean War in the 50s, so it could just have been a random part that lay, like many other debris scattered all over the sea bottom. Some even suggest that it was an American ship that rammed into the Cheonan during a joint military exercise between the US and ROK navies that went wrong and that the powers that be are now scapegoating North Korea in order to avoid a local lashings out against American soldiers in Korea.

Brian in Jeollanam-Do provides some information from Yonhap about Korean Twitter users and bloggers that disbelieve the report on the Cheonan incident. It seems that it is especially the youth that mistrust their current government.

Let’s say that there is some foul play by the current conservative government, what could be the possible effect? For one, it is voting time at present. Even though it is not for governmental seats, but only for local municipality seats, getting in conservative members will be valuable in the long run. During times when an outside enemy is a possibility, people tend to vote for the conservative parties. This is how George W Bush got re-elected. Well that’s one theory of what’s happening at present. Another theory is that it is somehow related to the American forces in Korea. There was suppose to be a complete handover of power from the US to ROK militaries in 2012. In other words, the US military is supposed to pull out of Korea next year. Well, during her visit in South Korea recently, Hillary Clinton was all fire and brimstone, and hyping up what is a relatively regular occurrence between North and South Korea and making it into something just short of WWIII. I call this a relatively regular occurrence because such naval skirmishes happen with a fair amount of regularity. There was the exchange of fire between two ships a couple of months back and we should not forget that South Korea sunk a North Korean ship some time back, which received hardly any international attention. But now, America is making this latest incident a “personal” incident – something which doesn’t affect them that much at all. Why? Because America does not want to pull out of Korea. They want their bases on the peninsula and will use any excuse to stay here. The peninsula gives them a tactical advantage if ever a war should break out in the Far East.

As far as I know, the full 100+ page report regarding the Cheonan incident has still not been made available – only selected parts of it have been revealed. I don’t know what the truth is and while I don’t trust North Korea one bit, neither would I ignore the possibility of untruths by any other government.

For an interesting view on the incident by Democracy Now watch the clip below, which include an interview with prof Bruce Cumings, a historian on the two Koreas:



But all of this will soon be forgotten. This week all the media is focused on the local elections. The following weeks everybody will be focused on the Soccer World Cup. And after that Cheonan will be long forgotten and replaced with some story about a K-Pop pretty-boy that doesn't want to be called "pretty."