By The ROK Navy ship the Cheonan has been raised from the bottom of the Yellow Sea, which has allowed investigators to find more of the bodies of the missing crew members:
Nearly three weeks after the unexplained sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan, the bodies of 31 of the 44 missing sailors were recovered from the salvaged stern of the ship as of 8:50 p.m., the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday.
A massive operation to lift the stern from the sea floor began at 9 a.m. yesterday when a crane raised the rear section of the ship at a speed of 1.6 meters (5.2 feet) per minute. In the afternoon, the stern was hoisted onto a barge, allowing investigators to enter it to search for bodies.
According to the military, the first four bodies were found near the ship’s dining room and a fifth body was found in a bedroom compartment. A sixth body was recovered in an ammunitions storage room. Twelve more bodies were subsequently discovered in bedroom compartments and six in a shower/toilet. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
Read the rest at the link, but the families of the deceased are obviously devestated by the news. Of further interest is that the raising of the Cheonan has allowed a chief investigator to declare an external explosion was likely responsible for the explosion:
An “external explosion” is likely to have caused a South Korean naval ship to sink near the sea border with North Korea, a chief investigator said Friday.
“The possibility of an external explosion is higher than that of an internal explosion,” said Yoon Duk-yong, co-head of the state investigation team looking into the March 26 sinking of the 1,200-ton patrol ship Cheonan.
Yoon made the announcement after investigators examined the ship’s wreckage retrieved Thursday. [Yonhap]
The Chosun Ilbo is also reporting that military investigators are blaming an external explosion for the sinking and offer this picture as evidence:
It is looking like it is going to be harder and harder for the Lee Myung-bak government to down play this as the evidence begins to amount it was an external explosion. As I have posted before the Lee Myung-bak government surely realizes this and that is why the Korean government has dragged the US and other members of the international community to participate in the investigation. This will give more creditability to the investigation if it is announced that the North Koreans are likely responsible for the sinking.
After that the question on everyone’s mind will will then be what now?
9:09 pm on April 15th, 2010 1
I don't think that a big fookin' rock is the same thing as an external explosion. They're only doing what they can before full culpability on the part of the ship's commander is substantiated.
9:10 pm on April 15th, 2010 2
I guess it's time to move on the finding conclusive evidence to prove who did it. But, I imagine it is probably of extreme interest to the U.S. Navy to find out, as soon as possible, exactly how it was done.
Did the backwards North Koreans develop some new technology or technique to successfully attack a modern naval ship while completely undetected? Is this the new IED of naval warfare? Is this something the North Koreans can export to our adversaries?
3:20 am on April 16th, 2010 3
Last known pictures of the PCC-772, refueling at sea 3 days before the sinking.
http://bemil.chosun.com/nbrd/gallery/view.html?b_…
And yes, NK did sell half-submersibles (which I think were used in this sinking) to Iran. It WILL benefit US to help in the investigation, whether US is dragged into it or not.
About Iran denying responsibility of them somehow sinking a ship/tanker, that probably won't happen that easily. Turns out ROK's civilian earthquake monitors detected and pretty accurately determined the size of explosive that caused the sinking.
Surviving Sailors heard one explosion (smaller) and seconds later a much bigger explosion. And this was captured in the earthquake monitors…
7:05 am on April 16th, 2010 4
JoeC, you’re absolutely right and those are important questions we MUST find the answers to. Can you image Iran using something similar in the Straight of Hormuz against our ships or oil tankers? It would give them plausible deniability if we couldn’t find any “evidence”.
9:03 am on April 16th, 2010 5
A torpedo explodes just beneath the ship, causing a powerful jet stream of bubbles that breaks the ship in half. The only non friendly country that uses this kind of weapon is known to be China.
Either:
A) North Korea got the weapon and the submarine stealth technology from China to use for revenge
or
B) It was Chinese navy trying out their weapons on South Korean ship, knowing very well South Korea will blame North Korea and that South Korea can't do too much about it.
9:09 am on April 16th, 2010 6
According to this Japanese report,
70% chance it was the Chinese Navy attack, 30% chance that it was North Korea using Chinese weapon.
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/world/korea/100416/kor10…
The Chinese navy is known to be all over the Pacific waters, and have often been spotted invading territories of Korea and Japan.
China is nothing but a country that brings pestilence.
11:42 am on April 16th, 2010 7
It might have been Chinese technology, but I think the North Koreans were the ones who did it. If the Chinese were permitted by North Korea to launch an attack from their own waters, an operation of this size would require enormous efforts of secrecy.
China would know that there are ways the ROK and US could possibly determine their direct involvement, which would have enormous economic repercussions. From the Chinese point of view, it would be best to get the Norks to do the dirty work.
12:58 pm on April 16th, 2010 8
RIP to the sailors recovered. Hope they bring up the second half as well and recover the remainder of bodies.
1:05 pm on April 16th, 2010 9
Ancient Chinese secret, huh?
3:08 pm on April 17th, 2010 10
Is there a chance that this whole incident was simply caused by some form of negligence by the Korean navy engineers (or others responisble for the ship)?
If that's true, conspiracy theories about a stealth NK / Chinese hit would actually spare the Korean government a lot of embarassment and shame.
5:11 pm on April 17th, 2010 11
This whole thing is rapidly becoming a farce.