Ah the sea. Briney air, ocean breeze. Nothing but bright blue in...*siren* OH S**T! OH S**T! TORPEDO! BRACE FOR IMPACT! *KABLAM*
Why is it that naval vessels and mysterious explosions have so much war starting potential? The Gulf of Tonqin Incident and the explosion of the USS Maine give us great examples of that. Now we have the explosion of the South Korean patrol boat, the ROKS Cheonan. Though I suppose here the explosion is not so mysterious (Investigators ruled out an internal explosion, no mine has been found in Korean waters since the 1980s, leaving a torpedo as the sole culprit). All this makes for some interesting international relationing. Anecdotally, it seems fairly obvious that North Korea is responsible for this attack (who else in the Yellow Sea is gonna take pot shots at a South Korean patrol boat with torpedoes?). In terms of North Korea's relationship with the rest of the international community, though, this really doesn't make sense. What reason would North Korea have for making an attack like this? It's not as if North Korea is going to benefit from the increased attention they're receiving as a result of the attack, the attack is simply going to make North Korea's position in the international community worse, decreasing the chances of North Korea ever resolving the sanctions that are currently suffocating its economy. My guess? Kim Jong Il had nothing to do with this attack. Someone either on the North Korean boat or in the command hierarchy immediately above the captain of the boat screwed up.
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