Thread: South Korean navy ship sinks near disputed border

Military officials say a South Korean navy ship has sunk off an island not far from North Korea.

An official with the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said early Saturday that the ship sank some four hours after it began taking on water. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with department policy.

The official said at least 58 of the 104 crew members have been rescued. There was no immediate confirmation of casualties. A rescue operation was still under way.

The cause of the sinking was not immediately clear.

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

The ship, on a routine patrolling mission, began sinking off the coast of South Korean-controlled Baengnyeong Island close to North Korea around 9:45 a.m. ET, 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.

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South Korean navy ship sinks near disputed border - The Globe and Mail

Wow, lets hope this was just an accident, and not a provocation by the North.

Military divers plunged into the waters near South Korea's tense maritime border with North Korea on Saturday, searching in vain for 46 missing marines from a naval ship that exploded and sank, officials said.

Families voiced their anger as hopes faded for the missing crew after the ship sank in one of South Korea's worst naval disasters. Divers tried twice to get to the wreckage, Rear Adm. Lee Ki-sik of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told lawmakers.

The explosion at the rear of the Cheonan shut down its engine, wiped out power and caused the ship to sink a little over three hours later, the Joint Chiefs said. The exact cause was unclear, but North Korea did not appear to be to blame, officials said.

A survivor, Staff Sgt. Shin Eun-chong, 24, told relatives he was on night duty when he heard a huge boom behind him that split the ship apart. The vessel started tilting, and his glasses fell off his face as he hit the deck, relatives at a naval base in Pyeongtaek told The Associated Press.

Military planes and boats were searching the waters near South Korea's Baengnyeong Island where the 1,200-ton Cheonan had been on a routine patrol mission. Rescue efforts Saturday were hampered by fierce waves and high winds.

“Yells and screams filled the air,” witness Kim Jin-ho, a seaman who was on a passenger ship bound for Baengnyeong, told cable news channel YTN. “Marines on deck were desperately shouting: ‘Save me!“’

Despite early fears of an attack, there was no immediate indication that North Korea — which lies within sight about 10 miles (17 kilometres) from Baengnyeong — was to blame, the Joint Chiefs said. Still, troops were maintaining “solid military readiness,” Vice Defence Minister Jang Soo-man said.

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Hope fading for 46 missing marines after South Korean ship sinks - The Globe and Mail

It does appear to have been an accident. That's pretty tragic.