North and South Korea exchange fire

[demoleft]

Source: al jazeera

North and South Korea have reportedly exchanged artillery fire near a disputed sea border off the west coast of the peninsula.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted presidential officials as saying the two sides fired into the air on Wednesday and there were no casualties.

South Korean security officials scrambled for an emergency meeting over the exchange, which has ratcheted up tensions on the divided peninsula.

The incident came a day after the North declared a naval exclusion zone around the flashpoint border in the Yellow Sea waters, which was the scene of deadly naval clashes in 1999 and 2002.



Read more: http://english.aljazeera.net//news/asia-pacific/2010/01/201012734628387283.html

[MinneapolisMatt]

1. Yikes.

:thumbsdown:

[SteveM]

2. Shooting artillery "into the air" is hardly reassuring (nt)

[thunder rising]

3. Where else do you fire artillary? Maybe they used those "special" shells that never come down.

[SteveM]

4. Well, star shells would have been preferred.

The statement suggested that the "duel" was in reality firing off guns in the air, not wise with small arms & rather stupid with exploding shells.

[Caoimhe]

5. And Sarah Palin's response:

"Ya know, I thought they both already had fire! Who knew? It's so nice to see the two sides bein' so nice to eachother and sharin' resources, I'm just so proud of them!"

[Gregorian]

6. "Oh, it must be civil war!"

I shouldn't laugh. Except that I'm not sure who has less brains. Kim Il or Palin.

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Oh lord...are we going in and "help" yet another country???

I hope this is not going to be an excuse for the M.I. C. to start something.

[Socal31]

8. We are already there.....

An all out war on the Korean peninsula will make all of our other problems seem like childs play.

We could lose more troops in 12 hours than we have in 6 years in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.