At this point it is to early to tell if this situation will escalate to full scale war. What we do know is that North Korea has threatened continued attacks on South Korea who they claim provoked them into shooting in the first place.
Update: Debkafile is now reporting that Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan called Obama and demanded that the United States, Japan, and South Korea attack North Korea!
Prime Minister Naoto Kan called President Barak Obama urgently in the wake of the North Korean artillery attack on South Korea’s Yeonpyeong island near the Yellow Sea border early Tuesday, Nov. 23 and demanded a US-South Korean-Japanese military reprisal. Two South Korean marines were killed and 17 injured in the attack.
He also demanded that the UN Security Council be convened immediately on the crisis. He put the same demands to South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in another call. Naoto Kan then ordered his ministers to prepare for “unexpected events.”
Washington said it is watching the situation but is not militarily involved after strongly condemning the attack and calling for an end to belligerence.
debkafile’s military sources report that the Korean clash has prompted a special alert in the US Seventh Fleet headquarters at Yokosuka in Japan, together with the naval forces stationed there including the USS George Washington aircraft carrier
Tensions are mounting after a North Korean artillery attack left at least 14 South Koreans injured and 2 dead. The South was apparently conducting a routine drill near the near the area that was attacked.
Talk of nuclear redeployment and swift retaliation has lead some to believe that war is imminent. On Monday, before the artillery attack, South Korea officials denied that they were considering redeploying U.S. tactical nuclear weapon in respond to the Norths nuclear aggression.
South Korea on Tuesday denied it was considering redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons on its territory, watering down a sensitive remark by its defense chief who raised the possibility a day ago.
In response to North Korea’s revelation of a new uranium enrichment facility, Defense Minister Kim Tae-yong had raised the possibility on Monday, telling a lawmaker who asked if South Korea would consider such redeployment that the government “will review what you said.”
South Korea has scrambled fighter jets to the region in anticipation of another attack. Al Jazeera is reporting that officials are evacuating fisherman from the island that was initially attacked.
President Obama has condemned the attacks while Europe has been relatively quiet.
Will this attack have an adverse effect on an already decimated economy? So far the answer is yes. Shares are down throughout Europe amid the attack and massive bailouts in Ireland.
The European debt crisis and North Korea’s military attack on South Korea combined to send shares falling across Europe this morning.
Traders said the artillery shelling off the island of Yeonpyeong earlier today, in which one soldier was killed, had heightened tensions.
The London stock market saw a burst of early selling, with the FTSE 100 index dropping 62 points, or more than 1%, to 5617. Mining stocks led the fallers, along with Lloyds Banking Group – one of the UK banks most exposed to Ireland‘s financial sector – which dropped nearly 3% to 62p.
Could this be a staged event used to further destroy the economy and create worldwide fear/tension?
**Note: North Korea has now claimed that the South actually fired first. This could be a move by the North to force China to “investigate” the incident instead of outright condemning the North.
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