Demonizing North Korea: Lies Concerning the Cheonan Incident …
Rush to Judgment: Inconsistencies in South Korea’s Cheonan Report
On the night of March 26, 2010, the 1,200 ton Republic of Korea (ROK) Navy corvette Cheonan was severed in the middle and sank off Baengnyeong Island in the West Sea (or Yellow Sea). Forty-six crew members died in the incident.
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After a careful analysis of the JIG’s report and evidence and our own physical testing, however, we find that the JIG has failed (1) to substantiate its claim that there was an outside explosion; (2) to establish the causal linkage between the Cheonan’s sinking and the torpedo; and (3) to demonstrate that the torpedo was manufactured by the DPRK. The JIG presented its three “findings” without credible evidence, and its findings are self-contradictory and inconsistent with facts. All three are riddled with such serious flaws as to render the JIG’s conclusion unsustainable. Furthermore, there is a very high chance that its EDS or x-ray data may have been fabricated. Our results show that the “critical evidence” presented by the JIG does not support its conclusion that the Cheonan’s sinking was caused by the alleged DPRK’s torpedo. On the contrary, its contradictory data raises the suspicion that it fabricated the data.…
Not only did the JIG’s press conference simulation fail to show that the bubble effect could have cut the Cheonan, that simulation is not consistent with the pattern of the ship’s damage. If the bottom of the ship was hit by a bubble, it should show a spherical concave deformation resembling the shape of a bubble, as the JIG’s own simulation suggests (see the right side of Figure 1), but it does not. The bottom of the front part of the ship is pushed up in an angular shape, as the yellow line shows in the left side of Figure 1, more consistent with a collision with a hard object.
James Bond theories arise in Korean ship sinking | LA Times |
Reporting from Seoul — The image is chilling: A submersible suicide bomber set loose by North Korea destroys a South Korean warship and kills at least 40 crew members.
Each day, the mystery over the fate of the 1,200-ton patrol boat Cheonan deepens — with the speculation taking on what some analysts say is a fantastic, James Bond quality. The Cheonan split in two and sank March 26 on a mission at the disputed sea border between North and South.
The Korean peninsula is always tense, but the specter of war has increased in recent weeks as investigators point to possible North Korean involvement in the sinking, suggesting the Cheonan was struck by either a floating mine or enemy torpedo.
North Korea has denied responsibility, but South Korean President Lee Myung-bak is under pressure to respond with force if Pyongyang is found to be the culprit.
United States-South Korean Cheonan initiative has apparently fizzled
Continued below the fold …
United States-South Korean Cheonan initiative has apparently fizzled | Asia Times | June 2010 |
Beijing apparently benefited from the shaky character of the Cheonan dossier that the Republic of Korea (ROK) forwarded to the UN Security Council. Judging from a technical dissection of the evidence reported by two academics in Japan Focus, the South Korean military may have botched the investigation as thoroughly as it botched the initial response to the incident.
Twenty-five officers will be disciplined for shortcomings ranging from drunkenness to falsification of records relating to the sinking. The military will get a do-over on the report itself when full investigation results are released in the next few weeks.
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Russia dispatched its own experts to review the Cheonan evidence in June. As US President Barack Obama angrily berated China for “willful blindness” in ignoring the “compelling” Cheonan brief, Moscow’s silence was conspicuous.China’s Korean anxieties have been compounded by the high-profile pursuit of an enhanced US alliance by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his Grand National Party, one that seemed designed to sideline China from decisions concerning the future of the peninsula.
Lee’s most recent gift to the United States was the reorganization of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee and the issuance of a report excusing numerous instances of massacres of refugees by American forces during the chaos of the retreat to Pusan – and the charge to the Yalu – as “military necessity”.
- ○ The Sinking of the Cheonan | CSIS |
○ Demonizing North Korea: Lies Concerning the Cheonan Incident
○ Outgoing president Lee pardons corrupt friends, associates; draws heavy criticism
○ Washington’s decision to fly B-52 and stealth bomber missions over Korea in a warning to Pyongyang – 2013