Update: The “10 rounds for 10 rounds” thing got stuck in my head overnight. I can just imagine a conversation like this taking place:
- Lee: Hey Min, did you hear them shoot 9 rounds or 10?
- Min: Ten, I think. Does it matter? Let’s just squeeze a few off back at them!
- Lee: No. If they fired 9 rounds and we reply with 10 that would not be a proportional response.
- Min: So?
- Lee: A non-proportional response to their shooting at us would violate the spirit of the June 15 Declaration and might damage intra-Corean relations.
- Min: Oh. Good point.
Original Post: We have just had our annual border shoot out (Yonhap):
Border guards of South and North Korea briefly exchanged fire Monday but there were no South Korean casualties, the office of Joint Chiefs of Staff said.
The firefight took place at about 1:30 p.m. near Inje, 165 kilometers northeast of Seoul, on the eastern portion of the 248-kilometer Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas, a spokesman for the JCS said.
You want a proportionate response? I’ll give you a proportionate response:
North Korean soldiers fired tens of gunshots, and South Korean soldiers immediately fired back 10 rounds, according to the spokesman.
There is no word yet on why the exchange of fire took place. Perhaps someone north of the border was pissed that Kim Jeong-il and his cronies North Korea workers at the Gaeseong Industrial Complex only got a 5% raise.
BTW, for anyone new to Korea, this is nothing to worry about. It happens all the time.
11 Comments
“North Korean workers are to earn approximately $60.38 a month”
…minus the taxes and the payments they have to make on the money they borrowed to bribe an official to get a job there, they’d be lucky if they have 5% of that left for themselves.
“BTW, for anyone new to Korea, this is nothing to worry about.”
hahaha… it’s in fact an improvement over the usual submarine commandoes killing south korean civillians… who can forget their crack commando unit sent to assassinate PJH? Or of course Americans won’t forget, death by an axe.
As the War Nerd aptly put it, these guys swing for the fences every time.
Every time I hear news like this, I wonder why the North Korean soldier did what he did. Was he pissed off at South Korea? Or maybe he WANTED to start a war and be freed. Or maybe he just thought it would be fun to fire off a couple rounds? Or maybe he was told to by KJI to send a political message to South Korea? ahh… who the hell knows…
The midget dictator has been making a lot of visits with the troops recently, maybe he was the one who unloaded the clip.
I suspect that soju was somehow involved. It is in most things Korean.
10 for 10 is their version of the events, the North Korean is probably different, and the truth is anyone’s guess.
doesn’t it just seem like typical north korean modus operandi to make some peaceful gesture at the negotiating table, and have their underlings put a couple rounds in the nearest ship/people/dmz a few weeks later just to keep everyone on the edge?
Talk about getting redrafted into the Korean military.
#6,
There are more than one forces at play in North Korea, despite all appearances. The exchange is a way for the North Korean army to remind Kim Il Song that he’d better make sure that he remembers them when it comes time to distribute whatever ‘aid’ his negotiators are able to win.
Someguy, Kim Il-seong has been dead for 12 years (we are told).
“I suspect that soju was somehow involved. It is in most things Korean.”
that seems the most likely answer. I hear that South Korean soldiers are held accountable for every bullet in their cartridge. (I assume this is normal in armies, but I don’t know) I wonder what is happening to the North Korean soldier who fired. Maybe he will be given a medal if he answered correctly, i.e. “I heard the running dogs scream out profanities against our General!” Or “I saw a traitor trying to cross to the southern side!”
But if soju was involved… what happy news it would be…
They’re keeping The Holy Goiter alive in a jar until cloning is perfected.
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[...] nothing new and apears to be making more headlines in America than in Korea. I have to say that Robert probably sums this incident up the [...]