KBS is reporting that a naval skirmish between North and South Korean patrol boats took place this morning in the West Sea.
The Defense Ministry is saying a North Korean patrol boat crossed the NLL near Daecheong-do at around 11:30am, prompting the South Korean navy to fire a warning shot. The North Korean boat ignored this, and the South Koreans attacked. Or so the ministry said.
Looks like KBS updated/corrected their piece — the Joint Chiefs is saying the North Korean patrol boat came across the line, the South Korean patrol boat warned them by radio several times and then fired a warning shot, to which the North Koreans then fired on the South Koreans. The North Koreans fired about 50 rounds, of which 15 hit the South Korean ship, causing no real damage. What followed was a two-minute fire-fight that ended with the North Korean patrol boat retreating back across the NLL in flames.
The South Koreans suffered no losses, as far as the ministry knows.
A government source, meanwhile, told KBS that the matter ended with the North Korean boat retreating. Oddly enough, he said it appears the North Korean boat crossed the NLL to chase away a Chinese pirate fishing boat illegally operating in Korean waters. The source also said it has yet to be confirmed who fired first and that the ROK Navy responded according to the rules of engagement.
This was the first inter-Korean naval incident in seven years.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
guess it shows that we’re all pretty jaded about this kind of thing since there are no comments.
It is a rather sad statement, isn’t it?
(Over-)Reacting to this kind of thing is CNN’s bag.
How’s that for being jaded?
Hey, it brought me back here to see what was being discussed. Actually my first port of call was KCNA but I can’t find it on there amongst all the bollocks about flower arranging ceremonies.
So predictions that 2MB was going to blast them badly when provoked don’t seem to have materialized. Do we think it’s a true provokation from the highest levels or just some “mishap”?
The news reports I saw before heading home today indicated that the North Korean ship started shooting at the ROK ship after the ROKs fired a warning shot, not that the ROK ship attacked the Norks. I checked the latest on Yonhap and it stopped reporting the sequence of events. In the end, this is a good thing in that it shows that the ROKs will defend their territory and won’t accept Nork incursions.
If you look at this graph, South Korea has simplified the rules of engagement with North Korean navy since 2002 battle that killed several South Korean navy personnel.
http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/11/10/2009111001373.html
They’ve cut down the rules to engagement, from 5 steps to 3 steps which has saved lives. I wouldn’t be surprised if South Korea’s shift to a conservative lead government ended up saving the lives of South Korean soldiers.
I take back the last paragraph. The rules of engagement was changed in 2004, well before the new LMB administration came to power, according to the graph.
Blah Blah Blah. This just goes to show you that South Korea would shit kick the north in any kind of “provocation”. Cutting edge fighting machines DO make a big difference against rusting pieces of shit from the Soviet era. The so called North Korean threat is just bluster to keep a bunch of South Korean brass employed. The Military Industrial Complex is a two way street.
Don’t all these fire-fights end with the North Korean patrol boats retreating back across the NLL?
Kudos to the ROK Navy, but it’s also another example of how South Korea, no longer some helpless third world country, is more than capable of taking care of its own defense.
DLB
#4, the KCNA rarely posts news such as this right away. They need to give the agitation and propaganda dept time enough to fluff up the story demonstrating how victorious the dprk naval force was.
#10, It’s statements like this
and
from the BBC article that got me thinking that the KCNA must have put out some news about it, somewhere, quite quickly. It’s there today on KCNA, but it wasn’t there yesterday when I checked. I’m obviously looking in the wrong place. It’s not an independent translation from Korean either, as the quote above is word perfect the same as the one on the KCNA English page.
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