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defrogI’m back from my tour of Seoul and the DMZ. I have pictures. You will see them one day.
In the meantime, I should state that Team Def categorically denies any involvement, participation or undisclosed knowledge of the following:
Obviously this was all over the local news in SK. Our tour bus driver was following it on his dashboard digital TV and giving updates to our tour guide to relate back to us – and at least one person in that info chain seemed convinced North Korea did it because it would be just like them, the bastards, wouldn’t it?
But then South Korea is understandably nervous about this kind of thing, what with North Korea being the crazy unpredictable neighbor with a score to settle and all. And of course it wouldn’t be the first time the NK and SK navies mixed it up a little, though actually torpedoing a ship and sinking it – or supposedly putting a sea mine in its path on purpose – raises the stakes considerably.
Assuming that’s what happened. We’ll find out soon, I suppose, one way or the other – although the usual suspects have unsurprisingly drawn their own conclusions.
And of course it’s all Obama’s fault, because Kim Jong-Il would NEVER have tried a stunt like this when Bush was in office (except for, you know, that one time – otherwise, sure, he stuck to minor-league stuff like missile launches and nuclear bomb tests).
Anyway, not to sound blase about it, but even though the news broke the day we were visiting the DMZ – which provided detailed historical context of the North/South dilemma – we didn’t feel as though we were in any imminent danger of being caught up in an impending war, if only because we were getting our info via second-hand translation or via the local Korean TV channels which we couldn’t understand, not speaking Korean (plus CNN was broken in the hotel).
But even then, as I said, NK and SK have had scraps before, and the truth is neither SK nor any of its allies (or even China) really wants to restart the Korean Police Action if they can avoid it, so I figured the chances of a full-scale attack during our vacation were pretty slim.
So stand by for the usual photos of food, landmarks, amusing storefronts and M*A*S*H references, is what I’m saying.
Don’t rock the boat,
This is dF
In the meantime, I should state that Team Def categorically denies any involvement, participation or undisclosed knowledge of the following:
Obviously this was all over the local news in SK. Our tour bus driver was following it on his dashboard digital TV and giving updates to our tour guide to relate back to us – and at least one person in that info chain seemed convinced North Korea did it because it would be just like them, the bastards, wouldn’t it?
But then South Korea is understandably nervous about this kind of thing, what with North Korea being the crazy unpredictable neighbor with a score to settle and all. And of course it wouldn’t be the first time the NK and SK navies mixed it up a little, though actually torpedoing a ship and sinking it – or supposedly putting a sea mine in its path on purpose – raises the stakes considerably.
Assuming that’s what happened. We’ll find out soon, I suppose, one way or the other – although the usual suspects have unsurprisingly drawn their own conclusions.
And of course it’s all Obama’s fault, because Kim Jong-Il would NEVER have tried a stunt like this when Bush was in office (except for, you know, that one time – otherwise, sure, he stuck to minor-league stuff like missile launches and nuclear bomb tests).
Anyway, not to sound blase about it, but even though the news broke the day we were visiting the DMZ – which provided detailed historical context of the North/South dilemma – we didn’t feel as though we were in any imminent danger of being caught up in an impending war, if only because we were getting our info via second-hand translation or via the local Korean TV channels which we couldn’t understand, not speaking Korean (plus CNN was broken in the hotel).
But even then, as I said, NK and SK have had scraps before, and the truth is neither SK nor any of its allies (or even China) really wants to restart the Korean Police Action if they can avoid it, so I figured the chances of a full-scale attack during our vacation were pretty slim.
So stand by for the usual photos of food, landmarks, amusing storefronts and M*A*S*H references, is what I’m saying.
Don’t rock the boat,
This is dF
