US condemns North Korean attack on South Korea (& Reactions from S. Korea, Russia, China & Japan)

[Turborama]

Source: AP

(AP) – 15 hours ago

The White House is strongly condemning North Korea's artillery attack against the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong.

In a statement released before dawn Tuesday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs calls on North Korea to "halt its belligerent action."

He says the United States is "firmly committed" to South Korea's defense, and to the "maintenance of regional peace and stability."
The White House spokesman says the U.S. is in "close and continuing contact" with the South Korean government.

North Korea fired barrages of artillery onto the South Korean island near their disputed western border Tuesday, setting buildings ablaze and killing at least one marine after warning the South to halt nearby military drills in the area, South Korean officials said.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jhJUScKXUGUAK-_gbV9pZZZ9ONnw?docId=5094798b520646c694cf03dfad08f05e

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LOL @ AP saying it was 15 hours ago. Can they see into the future? :shrug:



South Korea warns North Korea it will 'sternly retaliate' to any further provocation

Two South Korean marines were killed and 17 others injured, as well as three civilians, after North Korea fired dozens of artillery shells onto a Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow sea, 50 miles off the South's northwest coast in an area close to a disputed sea border.

The attack, which comes days after it emerged that North Korea was pressing ahead with its illegal nuclear programme, marks a serious further escalation of tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

A presidential statement said the shelling “constitutes a clear armed provocation.”

“Furthermore, its reckless shelling of civilian targets is unpardonable. North Korean authorities must take responsibility.”

=snip=

Russia called for both sides to avoid any escalation of violence, while China, the North’s closest international ally, said it was “concerned” over the situation.

Read more (includes video of the smoke billowing after the attacks in South Korea): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/southkorea/8153291/South-Korea-warns-North-Korea-it-will-sternly-retaliate-to-any-further-provocation.html

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Japan prepares for any eventuality over Korea tensions

Published: 11.23.10, 11:16 (AFP)

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said Tuesday he has ordered his ministers to prepare for any eventuality after North Korea fired artillery shells on to a South Korean island.

"I ordered (ministers) to make preparations so that we can react firmly, should any unexpected event occur," Kan told reporters after an emergency meeting of cabinet members and senior officials at his official residence. "I ordered them to do their utmost to gather information," he said.

From: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3988621,00.html

[mahina]

1. Speaking as part of a community that has a big red target on our ass

I really hope a solution arises. By solution, I mean take out the nuclear centrifuges or whatever the hell they are, and make sure that crazy government doesn't bomb Tokyo or Seoul.

There's no way those missiles could hit a target on the US continent, but I am sure they could hit Japan, South Korea, or us.

Like most of you, I marched against the wars over and over, and my grandpa served in the Korean war, but I'm sorry, this bullshit needs to be dealt with. I am pretty sure he would agree.

I'm going to bed so whatever you all say to tell me I'm a hypocrite, what evas. It's how I feel. No, not civilians, no, not population, but those military installations need to be taken down.

[BanTheGOP]

4. Agreed. The US repbublican Party is actually more at fault than North Korea

The problem that most people don't realize is that North Korea is trying to effect a Chinese solution to the Peninsula, but the entrenched republican capitalist interests has infested South Korea for decades to the point where they are in bed with their own demise. The utter despair and futile hope that North Koreans face each and every day is part and parcel of the republicanist worldwide agenda, and until it is banned, the republican Party must be held fully responsible for all deaths that occurred in this incident. Pure and simple.

[cowcommander]

8. ...are you serious?

Seriously, what the hell? The South Koreans are reasonable, but the North sure as hell isn't!

[rayofreason]

10. Most idiotic....

...post I have seen in a while.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ProgressiveMajority]

21. Possible. I don't agree that the Republican Party is by itself to blame

The general failure to engage North Korea, across both parties, is to blame. Of course, Bush's hot headed style really inflamed the situation, but it wasn't his doing alone.

[rayofreason]

27. I think you are correct.

I have seen some of the other nonsense that poster has written. Perfect fodder to portray DUers as idiots or worse.

[mahina]

36. Yes!

And that is saying something.

[mahina]

28. I've been reading your posts

and I know the rules so all I'll say is that you make no sense.

[rayofreason]

31. I've noticed something else...

...An inordinate number of replies to the idiocy spouted by this poster get removed.

Stalinist is as Stalinist does.

[mahina]

34. Holy crap

now there's two of them. Zombies!

[timo]

5. wag the dog

wonder whats REALLY going on???

[BanTheGOP]

6. No biggie... American republicanists are getting their comeuppance

The only real solution is for the US Military to sheepishly withdraw their troops from the peninsula and let the progressive interests in both North and South Korea to make a cohesive, bonding agreement that will allow for real peace, and real progress to be implemented. The American military exists for one, and ONLY ONE, reason, and that is to advance the cause of the republicanist agenda that diverts resources from the vast majority of humanity to the republicanist, capitalist elite. This needs to stop, and if it takes a decades-long provocation that ends up in a very understandable response from North Korea with relatively feeble firepower against republican Party-backed South Korean troops, so be it.

[ProgressiveMajority]

7. Well said. For starters maybe South Korea and the US should stop these Military Drills

That's what this shelling is in response to. So it really looks like US and SK actions provoked it.

We should pull all our troops out and let North and South Korea unite under whatever style system they choose. Two systems, one country, whatever. Also for all the people acting like we are so much better than North Korea I'd point out that we have a greater percentage of our population in Prison and we don't even have a constitutional guarantee of housing and food, unlike North Korea.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ProgressiveMajority]

13. Carter considered them partners for peace in 1994, and throughout the 90s!

Was Carter stupid when he trusted North Korea as partners in peace in 1994? Was Bill Clinton? Not much has changed since than. You honestly sound like Bush with your distrust of North Korea. The fact that sanctions against North Korea prevented enough economic development to feed their own people doesn't mean they can't be reasoned with. And whatever their ability to provide housing and food to all citizens, at least its a stated goal in North Korea, unlike in the US.

[rayofreason]

14. His mistake.

The only answer is for the Kim dynasty to go. And you can believe fairy tales if you like, but the main goal of the DPRK leadership is to continue to rule in high style, and to hell with the people.

You know another group made these claims about "welfare of the people" - the Khmer Rouge. And they committed a democide that slaughter 1/3 of the country.

[Throd]

20. Yes, that was stupid.

My stated goal is to have a rainbow shine out my ass every Tuesday morning. Doesn't mean it is ever gonna happen.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

22. Maybe we just need to build the right kind of reactor

:shrug:

[rayofreason]

26. Crapium enrichment!!

Another DPRK specialty!

[PavePusher]

30. I hope you two have prescriptions for whatever you're taking.... n/t

:wow: :wtf:

Uncle Joe couldn't have said it any better.

[mahina]

37. Are you out of your mind?

A constitutional guarantee of food and housing?

How in the world can you say that South Korea should be abandoned? Do you even understand what you are saying?

OK, no need to answer that first question...

[Tejas]

9. "NK feeble" firepower - obviously clueless is obvious (heavy on the clueless)

Please, continue, tell us all you know about NK armament and its proximity to Seoul being irrelevant etc. Thank goodness for keyboard kommandos........:rofl:

[rayofreason]

11. More idiocy.

Progressive interests in North Korea? The current ruling family and their sycophantic supporters have made that place into the worst hell-hole in the world.

"a very understandable response from North Korea with relatively feeble firepower against republican Party-backed South Korean troops" - Sounds like the kind of crap that appears on the official DPRK news site. Makes for funny reading, those delusional rants an ludicrous accounts of the Kims giving "field guidance.".

What kind of Kool-Aid are you drinking? And who is paying you to drink it?

[ProgressiveMajority]

15. Worst hell hole in the world?? According to whom, the US congress in 2004?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_Human_Rights_Act_of_2004

The Republicans getting together and passing a law hypocritically denouncing North Korean human rights violations doesn't make North Korea the worst hell hole in the world.

And if you're relying on the accounts of defectors, I'd point out they were highly unreliable in the case of Iraq and many other countries. Remember the baby incubator incident in Kuwait (the one that in fact never happened?). Maybe North Korea is pretty bad off, but its a very closed society so we really have no way of knowing for sure. The testimony of defectors from any society whether they come from North Korea or someone like Nonie Darwash is always unreliable because the incentive for a defector (from Islam or North Korea) is to talk up how bad it was.

[rayofreason]

16. Close your eyes...

..to reality. Were you around in 1974? Heard the same thing about the Kampuchean killing fields - "unreliable...defectors with an axe to grind...etc"

Anyone who defends the DPRK and claims to be a real progressive is utterly clueless. The evidence is overwhelming. The DPRK is the worst hellhole on the planet, though Zimbabwe may give it competition.

Hey, you wouldn't happen to be a Mugabe supporter too, would you?

[ProgressiveMajority]

17. Well Mugabe was all OK with the west, until he started redistributing white farms

So the real concern on the part of the west when it comes to Mugabe is pretty clear.

There were a number of prominent Democrats in the black congressional caucus that were willing to stand up for Mugabe! They saw what the real issue was. TODAY, He's clearly senile. Anyway there are a number of equally bad leaders who simply didn't make the mistake of going against white people.

[rayofreason]

24. Mugabe was all bad...

...all the time.

And he is not senile. If he were, one of his henchmen would have offed him and taken over. He is just one nasty SOB who is holding on to power at all costs. Just like the Kim dynasty. The world will be a much better place with the DPRK on the dung heap of history. But it will take generations to repair the damage done to the people of the north.

[totodeinhere]

23. Look at a satellite photo of the Korean Peninsula at night.

The south is all lit up but the north is totally black. You wouldn't even know that there is a country there.

[rayofreason]

25. Just goes..

..to show their commitment to a "green" economy! </sarcasm>

[mahina]

38. +100

I may just have my first deleted post ever in my entire DU experience.

Designed to put DU and Democrats in a bad light, or just DPRK propaganda? Hard to tell. Jeez I need a shower.

Ray, nice to meet you. A hui hou.

[rayofreason]

39. Nice to meet you too. n/t

[MilesColtrane]

19. If there are any "progressive interests" in the DPRK...

they are deeply underground and have no power within the government.

Pulling U.S. troops out of South Korea will not suddenly make the North dismantle the thousands of artillery pieces it has trained on Seoul.

[mahina]

35. Honestly,

you are right, but what the heck is this guy smoking?

[Old Troop]

32. What if the South Korean people like their standard of living and

current political system? Should they be destroyed or just re-educated?

[mahina]

33. Yeah

that's a bunch of bullshit, right there.

Forgetting what you said about our men and women in uniform, which would get you a broken nose in my home.

[Tejas]

40. "No biggie" - Just let them kill each other????

Can't wait to read your views on Detroit et al.

[mahina]

29. for real.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. AP got their time zones mixed up, perhaps?

South Korea is 14 hours ahead of Washington.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Other than that

its reiteration of the joke about the fire at the Jewish tailors - shh : tomorrow.