The fate of the Cheonan
May 20th, 2010 | Foreign navies North Korea Submarines The Pacific | Posted by Phil Ewing
South Korea says its patrol ship, the Cheonan, was sunk in a North Korean torpedo attack. What comes next? // Lee Jae-Won / AP
The signs were all there: Sudden, unexpected explosion; the ship breaking in half; the rapid sinking; the heavy loss of life. They’re all the hallmarks of a torpedo attack, but in peacetime — or what passes for peacetime between North and South Korea — who wanted to believe it?
But the evidence, South Korean investigators say, proves it. If a North Korean submarine or moored torpedo mine sank the South Korean patrol ship Cheonan, it would be only the third time a surface ship has been sunk by a torpedo since World War II. It puts the Korean peninsula in a highly delicate situation, and creates another novel historical circumstance: Unlike the battleship Maine, which was probably not blown up by Spanish saboteurs, or the Gulf of Tokin (non)-incident, proof that North Korea sank the Cheonan creates an actual casus belli for the south. So far, South Korean leaders haven’t acted on it.
Judging by their restraint so far, they probably won’t. But even if there is no new Korean conflict, there are still questions about how this sinking could have happened. Did a North Korean sub commander go rogue? Did the Cheonan trigger a mine that released a torpedo — if so, what was it doing there? Was this the ultimate proof of concept for the North’s rumored “human torpedo?”
What do you make of it all?
UPDATE: So what were the two earlier ships to have been sunk by torpedoes in the post-war era? First was the Indian frigate Khukri, which was torpedoed by the Pakistani submarine Hangor during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War. Second, more famously, was the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, torpedoed in 1982 during the Falklands War by the Royal Navy fast attack submarine Conqueror.
North Korea’s meritorious promotion program?
April 26th, 2010 | Foreign navies North Korea Officers The Pacific | Posted by Lance Bacon
Kim Myong-guk was promoted to general in 1994, but was demoted in January (picture at right). Now, he's a four-star again, and South Korea is suspicious ...
In January, former North Korean four-star Kim Myong Guk was seen wearing only three stars on his collar. Most analysts believed he had been held accountable for North Korea’s loss to South Korea in a naval skirmish off the west coast in November.
But North Korean television footage and photographs released over the weekend find the 70-year-old fielding that fourth star once more.
The JoongAng Daily, a daily paper printed in Seoul, reported Monday that the demotion-to-promotion turnaround was related to the March 26 sinking of a South Korean naval ship near the western sea border with the North.
“It is extremely rare for a general who wasn’t included in the major promotion to move up a rank in a separate move,” a South Korean government official was quoted as saying.
Kim was not among generals in major promotions of generals conducted twice earlier this month.
The South Korean government has not officially accused North Korea of sinking the 1,200-ton Cheonan, but a North Korean torpedo attack — possibly a three-person “human torpedo” — has been suspected as the cause.
New theory in sinking of South Korean ship
April 22nd, 2010 | Foreign navies North Korea SEALs Ships | Posted by Lance Bacon
A Kaiten Type I, located at the Tokyo Yasukuni War Memorial Museum.
It’s no secret that many in the South Korean military and government have cast a suspicious, if not accusatory eye at their neighbor to the north regarding last month’s sinking of a corvette that left 46 dead.
Moments ago, the South Korean newspaper Choson Ilbo reported that some military officials are now focusing their attention on “human torpedoes.’
These aren’t your typical suicide bombers. They trace their origins to the “kaiten” (lit. “the Heaven Shaker“), Japanese underwater suicide bombers put into action at the end of World War II. North Korea’s human torpedo units belong to the 17th Sniper Corps and are deployed in both the East and West seas at the brigade level, according to the report. The units are made up of elite, SEAL-type troops.
The unit is said to be trained to use semi-submersible vessels equipped with light torpedoes or other explosives, which are fired or placed on their intended targets at close range.
Park Sun-young, a lawmaker with the Liberty Forward Party, told the South Korean National Assembly a three-man team aboard a Seal Deliver Vehicle laden with explosives could have sunk the Cheonan.
When you care enough to send the very best
March 29th, 2010 | Ballistic missile defense Foreign navies Maritime operations Military Sealift Command North Korea The Pacific | Posted by Phil Ewing
The destroyer Curtis Wilbur -- one of four U.S. ships sent to assist the South Korean search and rescue operation -- is one of two of the ships equipped with ballistic missile defense capability. // MCSN Anthony Martinez / Navy
Maybe it means absolutely nothing. Maybe it’s an unsubtle message: Of the vessels U.S. commanders sent in answer to South Korea’s request for help after their patrol ship Cheonan sank last week, three are Aegis warships and of those, two are ballistic missile defense-capable.
Responding to the South Korean sinking are the BMD cruiser Shiloh; the destroyers Curtis Wilbur — which is BMD-equipped — and Lassen; and the Military Sealift Command salvage ship Salvor, which is carrying a team from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1. South Korean commanders want to try to salvage the Cheoan so they can be certain about what happened to it — did it have an accident? Did it strike a mine? Was it hit by a torpedo? What they find will probably determine a lot of important decisions in the Western Pacific.
As part of that, maybe the U.S. message was, ‘hey, South Korea, we just happened to have these ships participating nearby in a multi-national exercise, so you’re welcome to use them to help look for your missing guys.” Or maybe the message was, “hey, North Korea, we’re sending out three front-line battle force vessels, two of which can track and kill ballistic missiles, so let’s everybody just cool out, all right?”
One convenient thing about seapower is that American commanders could send both those messages at once, if they wanted, and without saying a word.