Koreas exchange fire South Korea has exchanged machine gun fire with the communist North in the demilitarised zone (DMZ), the divided peninsula's heavily fortified frontier, the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff says. North Korea fired four shots at a South Korean army position in the DMZ in the centre of the peninsula around 6:00am (AEST), the South says in a statement. The South answered with a warning broadcast and returned fire with 17 salvos, the statement said. No-one was wounded on the South side, it added. There was no immediate report on the exchange in North Korea's official media and the United States military in Seoul declined to comment. The South Korean Defence Ministry said it would hold a news conference on the incident at midday (AEST). The rare shooting took place as Australia, the United States and China are searching for a way to persuade North Korea to enter talks on abandoning Pyongyang's pursuit of nuclear weapons. The nuclear crisis erupted last year when American officials said North Korea had said it was pursuing a secret nuclear arms program, which the United States fears could threaten its allies in the region and destabilise north-east Asia. The last shooting incident along the DMZ, a no-man's land that bisects the peninsula, took place in November 2001 at a point on the frontier north of Seoul. The navies of the two Koreas engaged in a deadly firefight along their disputed maritime border in June 2002. Six South Korean sailors and an estimated 13 Northern seamen were killed. North and South Korea are technically at war after their 1950-53 conflict pitting US-led United Nations forces and Chinese-backed North Korea ended in an armed truce. In other developments: China has told the United States that North Korea appears willing to accept multilateral talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs in what could be a key concession in the escalating stalemate. (Full Story) Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi says it is too early for his country to support a crackdown on North Korean exports. (Full Story) US Secretary of State Colin Powell says he expects developments in the diplomatic effort to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis "in the very near future". (Full Story)
I have a few friends from Korea and they have some kind of "aquired knowledge" that the US may plan some sort of invasion soon. Something to the effect of, 1) South Korea tells U.S. to pull out. "They can solve their own problems" 2) US pulls out but has strategic military positions around asia 3) As soon as US pulls out, North Korea invades, South Korea 4) This gives the US a "viable" reason to strike NK and eliminate the regime. Technically the US is automatically at war if North Korea attacks the south. So this works out pretty well for the anti- "evildoers" coalition...
don't want to turn this into a big political discussion but don't expect another war until after the 2004 elections, right now it would not make any sense
There will be no war until winter. Korea's invasion routes are not passable for tanks in the summer and spring (they are rice paddies filled with water), but in the winter, they freeze, forming hard, flat plains perfect for tanks to travel on. Even if the little NK numbnuts wanted to do anything, they couldn't. Can you believe those bastards have thousands of artillery pieces trained on Seoul, only a few miles from the DMZ? If there was a war.....bye, bye Hyundai, bye-bye Kia.....bye-bye Samsung. It would be a mess. Geez....I wish those commie bastards who starve their people just so they can build this huge military which is no match for us anyway would see the proverbial writing on the wall and depart peacefully to exile.
The DMZ that keeps the two Koreas apart is one of the most absurd remnants of cold war ideologies between the Soviets and the Americans. We deserve a major mulligan. In this month's National Geographic magazine, they have a nice article on the DMZ. Good read. http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0307/feature1/index.html
i have no clue who your friends are but that is not going to happen. south korea has already realized that it is stupid for them to kick us out. your scenario is very very conspiracy oriented. the US knows that if the north attacks then many many many many people will die in a short period of time. the north's attack plans aren't very secret. bomb the **** out of the south as fast as possible. it would be very ugly and the us won't let that happen by pulling out. besides that the US does not want war in that region and neither does any other major power in that region....read up on it.
No offense buddy but, I'm Korean and I know the situation. I've probably done more "reading up on it" then you've done in your lifetime. Yeah, read up on what CNN, ABC NEWS, Fox News, NBC, tell you instead of talking to people who actually live there and are around the situation. Good point there.
The Iraq war just finished. Troops are still dying over there. The U.S. has troops over in Afghanistan. The last thing that i think will happen, at least for now is a war with North Korea. I think GWB has more than enough on his plate. He's gotta deal with the economy and the rebuilding of 2 countries, which right now isn't looking that great.
