Reuters: Two Koreas exchange gunfire along fortified border

[Eugene]

Two Koreas exchange gunfire along fortified border

Reuters
Monday, July 31, 2006; 8:35 PM

SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korean troops along their heavily fortified
border exchanged gunfire for the first time in about a year, a military official
said on Tuesday, with the incident coming as ties between the two have soured.

North Korean troops fired two shots at a South Korean guard post near the
Demilitarised Zone on Monday night and South Korean troops returned six shots,
an official said by telephone.

"No one was injured in the incident," the Joint Chiefs of Staff official said.

-snip-

The last time there was an exchange of gun fire along the DMZ was in October
2005, the official said, when North Korea fired a bullet toward at a South Korean
guard post and the South returned fire.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073101021.html

[babylonsister]

1. ARGGHH! Make. It. Stop! nt

[twiterpatted]

2. CHING CHONG SHOW......THE DMZ IS THE HOOD!!

[OhioChick]

3. Things are getting messy everywhere.......

not good.

[AlamoDemoc]

4. darn N. Korean terrorists....they hate our freedoms

:sarcasm:

[Sretto]

5. AND

they apparently are poor shots. They could take a lesson from our marines?

[tocqueville]

12. they miss on purpose, it's intimidation

and may I remind you that the US was unable to beat North Korea. So it was a tie.

[blackhorse]

14. Tocqueville ...

The UN (or US if you prefer, but it is not wholly accurate in that sense) was either unable or unwilling to beat the People's Republic of China.

The "North Korean Army" (Inmun Gun) was very tactically and operationally proficient in 1950. Strategically, they were completely outmatched. And they were very much "beaten" by the close of 1950 ... US amphibious operations essentially cut them off in the southern part of the peninsula and rolled them up.

What happened in the conflict subsequently had nothing to do with the military prowess of the Inmun Gun. It had everything to do with the PRC.

BH

[tocqueville]

24. I just reacted to the "poor shooting" with a sarcasm

Historian and Korean War veteran Bevin Alexander had this to say about Chinese tactics in his book How Wars Are Won:

The Chinese had no air power and were armed only with rifles, machineguns, hand grenades, and mortars. Against the much more heavily armed Americans, they adapted a technique they had used against the Nationalists in the Chinese civil war of 1946–49. The Chinese generally attacked at night and tried to close in on a small troop position — generally a platoon — and then attacked it with local superiority in numbers. The usual method was to infiltrate small units, from a platoon of fifty men to a company of 200, split into separate detachments. While one team cut off the escape route of the Americans, the others struck both the front and the flanks in concerted assaults. The attacks continued on all sides until the defenders were destroyed or forced to withdraw. The Chinese then crept forward to the open flank of the next platoon position, and repeated the tactics.

Historian Bruce Cumings noted that when Chinese soldiers and officers saw how Americans fought the war, they were surprised by how freely the Americans would resort to what they considered to be excessive and unnecessary force. One Chinese soldier stated that if the Americans encountered a single sniper hiding in a village or house, they would invariably call in massive artillery and air attacks, destroying the entire village and killing everyone in it. He asked, "Why do they do this instead of simply sending in soldiers to kill the sniper?" American superiority in military hardware had profound consequences for the Korean people on the peninsula as well as the soldiers fighting the war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_war

I think that above is the main reason the US lost. And this pattern has gone on and on. And so far with very little success. Even when wars have been won "militarily" by use of excessive force, they have been lost politically very rapidly. Iraq is the best example so far, and the latest Lebanon war follows the same pattern.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

6. "...when North Korea fired a bullet toward at a South Korean

guard post and the South returned fire."

"A" bullet.

That's fucked up.

[Monkeyman]

7. guys this happen a lot not in a year but before it is them and us testing

[cliss]

8. What is the story here?

Why is there hostility between these 2 countries? I always thought these two countries were forcibly separated.....by that old Match Maker the U.S.

North and South Korea, like Romeo & Juliet, have secretly longed to be re-united all these years. Right?

[karlrschneider]

9. Marvelous. Just what the world needs now.

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH

[Purveyor]

10. All we need now is for China to start poking at Taiwan... n/t

[MallRat]

11. Look! ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY!

WOO-HOO!

:sarcasm:

[Mr_Spock]

13. Let's hope Bush doesn't get what he so desires

Armageddon.

[soup]

15. Soldiers From 2 Koreas Exchange Fire

Aug 1, 1:53 AM EDT

Soldiers From 2 Koreas Exchange Fire

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Soldiers from North Korea and South Korea exchanged fire along their border overnight, but no one was hurt, a South Korean military official said Tuesday.

The shooting happened shortly before sunset when North Korean soldiers fired two bullets toward a South Korean guard post in the eastern part of the Demilitarized Zone, said Maj. Kim Tae-hoon of the Joint Chiefs of Staff office.

South Korean soldiers immediately fired back six rounds, Kim said.

The motive for the initial shots from the North was unclear, and the communist country has made no comment about them, Kim said.

The U.N. Military Armistice Commission, which supervises the cease-fire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, will ask the North for an explanation of the incident, Kim said. The war did not end with a peace treaty, meaning the two Koreas are still technically in a state of conflict.<
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KOREAS_BORDER_CLASH?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[mtnester]

16. World Gone Mad - the only phrase that comes to mind this morning n/t

[SpiralHawk]

17. Nothing to worry about. George AWOL Bush is in charge of planetary

freedom and peace n' stuff. You can bet your soul that he will give this incident a good 3 nanoseconds of "weighty" consideration -- before rattling his own flaccid sabre -- as he stuffs his scarred face with pretzels while kicking back on an EXTENDED August vacation at the Imperial Pig Farm Upon Crawford.

So just sit down and shut up, and let commander AWOL take care of everything for you.

[soup]

19. Ah, SpiralHawk, I am so comforted by your response.

Makes me wonder why I even bothered to post.

Of course you're right.

All is well.
No worries.

[Ganja Ninja]

18. A nuclear winter should take care of that global warming nicely.

:nuke: :banghead:

[MGD]

20. A NK soldier probaly accidentally discharged his weapon.

It happens all the time.

[outofbounds]

21. Seems like all these

countries want to go to war. I guess there is nothing on cable.

[maxrandb]

22. OK! Where's Dick Cheney??

Haven't seen him in a while. Maybe he was quail hunting in the DMZ.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

23. Isn't this fairly common?

Fear-mongering perhaps?