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Updated Tuesday, July 27, 2010 9:29 am TWN, By Eric Talmadge, AP



	U.S. F-22 stealth fighters, second and third from left, fly with other fighters over the USS George Washington during yesterday's drills. (AFP) More Photos (2)

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U.S. holds drills off Korea as Pyongyang talks war

The peninsula technically remains at state of war because an armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War was never replaced with a peace treaty. Tuesday marks the 57th anniversary of the signing of the cease-fire.

Cmdr. Ray Hesser, head of an anti-submarine helicopter squadron on the George Washington, said North Korean submarines are largely restricted to shallow, coastal waters.

"We're not expecting to see them out here," he said. "I would not think they would be willing or wanting to come all the way out here."

He said the attack on the Cheonan probably came when the ship was not prepared and said U.S. ships observe higher readiness.

The maneuvers underscore a diplomatic blitz by the United States aimed at further tightening the screws on North Korea.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced during a visit to Seoul last week that the U.S. would slap new sanctions on the North to stifle its nuclear ambitions and punish it for the Cheonan sinking.

The European Union is also considering new sanctions on North Korea.

The deployment of the supercarrier to the area off Korea was also raising eyebrows in China — which was believed to have been concerned about having the carrier operate too close to its own shores. In an apparent bow to China, there are no plans for the George Washington to enter the Yellow Sea for subsequent drills with South Korea though it is taking part in the East Sea training.

"I don't know how China will interpret the message. The message is not intended for China. Specifically, the message is intended for North Korea," Lt. Gen. Jeffrey A. Remington, a top U.S. Air Force officer, told reporters at Osan Air Base near Seoul.

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Comments

July 27, 2010 LetsTryReason@

To the "outside" world intellectuals who don't read Korean,
This is a remarkable story of people – the governed (although they are in theory supposed to be the actual governor in democracy), not their government – making difference in the world.

1. Compare and contrast.
"More enlightened" American people, Congress and media; Bush; WMD; War (and huge suffering),
(http://whitehouser.com/war/CIA-confirms-Bush-WMD-lie)
and,
"Supposedly less so enlightened" Korean people; Korean President Lee; Cheonan; prevention of War (so far).
(I am including among 'the Korean people' the Korean-Americans.)

2. Also remarkable is that the "inside" Korean people braved the government prosecution.
Caveat: Under the current South Korean regime, South Korean citizens can be sued for defamation by their own government officials, and defamation in South Korea is a crime (as well as a civil offense) prosecuted by the government's own centrally-controlled national prosecutors who selectively choose or choose not whom to prosecute.
Recently, aforementioned Shin Sang-chul got (criminally) sued for defamation by a government official for expressing disagreement over the current South Korean regime's version of the Cheonan Incident.

3. A list of early English publications on Questions on the Cheonan Incident and the Power of South KoreanNetizens can be found at http://korea.true.ws (by LetsTry Reason).
Also, look at: http://nature.com/news/2010/080710/full/news.2010.343.html;
http://japanfocus.org/-JOHN-MCGLYNN/3372;
http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/pcc-772-cheonan-south-korean-government-admits-the-deception-and-then-lies-about-it/

4. Compare and contrast.
911; Al-Qaida; We did it (was not wrong, not sorry about it and we will do it again).
Cheonan; North Korea; We didn't do it (therefore, presumably, was wrong, sorry about it and we will not do it).
Crime and punishment. If we are taking consequentialist moral philosophy, and if the utilitarian utility of punishment is to prevent future crime, then punishment serves little or no purpose (maybe to others but not) to North Korea who says 'We didn't do it,' because either (a) the North didn't do it, therefore the punishment will be outrageous injustice, or (b) the North did do it, but 'We didn't do it' basically implies 'We will not do it.' (And, it hardly gives the North any payoff.)

5. Representative democracy is not pure democracy. (Pure)Direct democracy is now (or becoming) possible, through recent developments in computer science and technology, making private Internet-voting, democratic on-line discussions and cheap instantaneous micro referendum possible.
The science (computer science) should finally make the people, the governed, the actual de facto governor in democracy.

6. I take this honor of hereby formally asking the folks in Sweden to consider awarding a "Nobel" Peace Prize to the "Supposedly less so enlightened" Korean people including myself.