Tuesday, October 7, 2014

South Korea and North Korea clash in naval skirmish. Yahoo/AP

South Koreans on patrol near the DMZ. Yahoo/AP

South Korea and North Korea clashed today at sea when a North Korean warship crossed the maritime border. Yahoo/AP. The North Korean vessel was fired on by the South Korean ship as it crossed the disputed border. The North Korean ship fired back and then retreated but neither side scored any hits and nobody was hurt. The skirmish comes just days after unprecedented high level talks between the two governments. Both countries have a long history of naval skirmishes with each other and sometimes those skirmishes turn deadly.

My Comment:
Very odd timing for a naval skirmish. The North Koreans have been rather conciliatory these days and it is extremely odd to me that they would start a conflict with the South when they just sent some of there highest leaders there for talks.  My theory is that this was just a dumb mistake. The North Koreans probably got a little lost and pride forced them to fire back after the South Koreans fired upon them. I don't think this is an intentional act, but still, the fact that both sides were willing to fire on each other is not good. But this would be far from the first time that the two Koreas have fired on each other since the end of the Korean War. Well, technically they are still at war because there was no peace treaty, but you know what I mean. 

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