SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's military scrambled naval vessels to the western waters near the disputed maritime border with rival North Korea late Friday after an explosion ripped a hole in the bottom of a military ship, officials and news reports said.

The ship, on a routine patrolling mission with 104 crew members on board, began sinking off the coast of South Korean-controlled Baengnyeong Island close to North Korea around 9:45 p.m. local time, an official at the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported an explosion in the rear of the 1,200-ton ship and said the military had not ruled out the possibility of an attack by North Korea. However, the military official said the exact cause was not immediately clear and said he could not confirm the Yonhap report.

A rescue mission was under way and the military moved to strengthen its vigilance near the maritime border, the site of three bloody naval clashes in the past between the warring Koreas. The divided peninsula remains in a state of war because the three-year Korean conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.

Earlier Friday, North Korea's military threatened "unpredictable strikes," including a nuclear attack, in anger over a report that South Korea and the U.S. were preparing for possible instability in the totalitarian country.

After the ship began sinking, President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency meeting of security-related ministers, Yonhap said, citing presidential spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye. She said it wasn't clear yet whether North Korea was involved in the ship's demise.

Six naval ships and two coast guard vessels were rushed to the waters to save the crew, Yonhap said. Rescue helicopters and ambulances also sped to the scene, the military official said. By 12:30 a.m. Saturday, with the ship nearly submerged, 58 of the soldiers had been rescued, the official said. There were no immediate confirmation of any casualties.

Yonhap reported earlier that a South Korean ship fired shots toward an unidentified target in the direction of North Korea. The military official confirmed that shots were fired but said the object detected by radar may have been a flock of birds.

Baeknyeong Island, four hours' by boat from the port of Incheon, is the westernmost point of South Korea and is a key military post for South Korea because of its proximity to the North.



http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/03/26/south-korean-navy-ship-sinking-near-border-n-korea/

Isn't that how the whole Viet Nam War started? One of our ships supposedly was fired on? The captain of the ship never reported he had been fired upon? Yet we got dragged into a war? We still are at war with N Korea technically! There is only a cease fire treaty between us. Like Operation Desert Shield left unfinished business so is N Korea. Looks like we will be seeing mushroom clouds soon folks! I hope like hell Obama has not disabled our Anti Missile systems yet! We need those Standard Missile 3s more than ever now! China needs to step up to the plate now and put N Korea in place but they haven't got the nuggets I bet. I really think they are using N Korea to keep us off balance and play the way they do, tight lipped! My question is that if N Korea does use a nuke on S Korea or us what will China do? Nothing me thinks. They will squawk like hell when we nuke N Korea back. Has China condemned their ally for their remarks? Hell no! So if we have to Nuke N Korea because of a preemptive strike should we also nuke China too for their complacency with N Korea's actions?

We just need to man up and finish this problem once and for all instead of letting it fester to nuclear holocaust! The regime of N Korea must end and Korea unified! PERIOD. We should have assassinated Kim Jong Ill A LONG TIME AGO! I bet his cabinet would have fought like wolves among themselves back then once he was out of the picture.

Reminds me of "Tomorrow never dies." I watched that yesterday :/

reminds me of history in school . a war that is not won well repeat it self time after time . so all you can say is if your not welling or able to WIN don
t start a war . ask israel ...ask greese look up persa . read a book . and don't vote in people who want to start wars for fun and games . and if you do fight to win til its won ..

We can and should finish it now.

So grab a rifle and go over there. The Army is always looking for new people.

same with the Spanish American War. The USS Maine had a boiler explosion in Havana harbor and the American papers and media reported it as a bomb and stirred up the people to demand war

If I could I wold have after 9/11 and again for Iraq.

I honestly don't see why we take his threats so lightly. The guy has broken the cease fire quite a bit. Then threatens attacks and nuclear attacks on the US and S. Korea(One being made a few days ago).

The way to shut Kim Il up is every time he makes a threat then respond. He keeps doing it because he knows he can get a way with it. IMO the next time he makes a threat of an attack, send a couple carrier attack groups off the coast of Korea (Still in the souths waters) and put the fear of god in him. The guy is insane but he doesn't have a death wish. Hell the majority of our Pacific fleet is in Japan with the rest in Hawaii, it wouldn't be hard to send them out there........