The US Navy rescued the crew of a North Korean cargo ship that was attacked and partially commandeered by pirates off the Somali coast. (HT to reader)
UPDATE: The Chosun Ilbo headline? “North Korean Crew Stronger than Pirates?” YTN TV’s? “North Korean Freighter Fights Off Somali Pirates.”
Yonhap’s headline, at least, notes a US Navy rescue.
Actually, it’s funny how this headline thing works. Concerning the attempted rescue of the Japanese freighter (captained by a Korean), YTN reported, “US Navy Sank Pirate Ship That Attacked Golden Mori: CNN,” while the decidedly left-wing Internet paper Pressian reported, “US Warship Fired at Pirated Ship Full of Benzine: CNN.”
Anyway, I’m not surprised at some of the choice of headlines. Or unimpressed with the North Korean crew — after all, we’ve seen this kind of bold seamanship from North Korean merchant mariners before, albeit it that time they were running from the Royal Australian Navy rather than Somali pirates.
{ 19 comments… read them below or add one }
It the situation ever comes up, please remind me never to get into a bar fight with North Korean merchant marines.
Somalians Vs. North Koreans!
Battle of the malnourished allstars!
Will it be the ricket sticken commies or the Kwashiorkor suffering savages?
Find out
SUNDAY!
SUNDAY!
SUNDAY!
Interesting. North Korean pirates captured the USS Pueblo in 1968. Oh how the times they are a changin!
Andy: Good piece in the WSJ yesterday. You’re being modest not bringing it up here.
I can just hear those Somali pirates:
“Why didn’t you surrender like the rest of the Koreans? What, there are two Koreas? Holy mother of pearl!”
And the VOA piece says the remaining pirates remained aboard the Nork vessel. How long until they walk the plank?
This is what I think happened…
When the Somali pirates (which, ironically, were the people that had been hired to protect the North Korean ship) saw the approaching US Navy helicopter, they started to panic and were overpowered by the N-Koreans who had also begun panicking when they realized that they would be facing grave consequences in North Korea if they were rescued by Americans…
Why are Somalis “savages” – because they’re Africans?
Work out your many racial issues on your own blog.
Wedge, I guess I should find the link.
Abiola, I think captbbq just couldn’t think of a good Somali counterpart to “commies” and used that term due to the dagree of violence and lawlessness in Somolia (just a guess).
“Khat munchers” just doesn’t sound cool enough.
#6: Damn, I guess “spearchucker” is out of the question, too.
Abiola — “Savages” is an inappropriate word, but to be fair, I would point out that I’ve never met an East African who thought any better of the Somalis… unless they were Somali.
I wonder if these guys will catch shit when they get back to NK?
I left a satirical flame bait where I made light of such debilitating afflictions such as rickets and Kwashiorkor and yet somebody only complains about my reference of Somali pirates as “savages”, just because they happen to be black.
WTF?!
Guess what! Two threads down theres a whole discussion about how asians have small genitalia.
GO FETCH!
#6, while it crossed my mind, they were no doubt using AKs and PRGs when they took the ship, and “RPG chuckers” just didn’t sound right..
come to think of it, I would pay money to see a bunch of people try to take a ship with spears though… heck give me a handgun and let me on the ship!
#6,—> #9Priceless… I took the reporter from the Chosun to task for conveniently leaving out any mention of the U.S. Navy’s involvement, and got a response!
[quote]Thank you for your e-mail.
The news that U.S navy had rescued North Koreans came out later.(after today’s newspaper done)
That’s why my article didn’t include how they had been rescued.
Thank you.
조선일보 이석호(Lee Seokho)[/quote]
Can this be verified– when the US involvement was announced? I did notice that the photos they used were “Courtesy: DOD”, which I pointed out to the reporter as well.
15, well the first articles in the Western press that I saw, and those first posted on Drudge (tabloid cesspool that it is) made no mention of the US Navy.
What gives with the Chosun? Donga, too, gave credit to the US navy with this story:
http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2007110157658
Does Oranckay still read this blog or has the dick talk turned him off? I’m curious to know if he thinks the deliberate omission of US naval participation in the firefight is an anti-US thing, a NK-sensitivity thing, or both. My guess is that it is more the latter, and since YTN and Donga trumpeted US heroics in their headlines, the Chosun’s coverage looks like self-censorship to appease the north.
#17 that’s what I wonderd last night, when I had seen the updated article from Chosun, which mentioned the US involvement, but kept the same headline.
will anyone be able to cipher through this roshomon-like news? everyone seems to be reporting from hearsay.
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